March 2020

I have been rude about Myst for longer than many readers will have been alive. Seriously, I’m talking for 21 years professionally, and six years before that as a hobbyist hater of terrible games. But, today I confront myself with an uncomfortable reality: I’ve not played it in a very long time. I’ve been wrong about other games. What if I’m wrong about Myst? What if my deep-set loathing of this screensaver with levers is based on the opinions of a less advanced earlier iteration of myself?

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Hinterland Studio has pulled its survival title The Long Dark from Nvidia's cloud streaming service GeForce Now. ...

Some tantalising insights from The Division's lead AI programmer on evolving enemy AI design. ...

The fanciest way to play original Nintendo Entertainment System and Famicom cartridges. With Super Nintendo and Sega Genesis retro consoles under its belt and a Game Boy on the way, retro console masters Analogue are bringing back their original $500 metal NES masterpiece for one more run with the NT Mini Noir edition…

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Revealed during the “Marvel Mystery Panel” at PAX East Sunday afternoon, Marvel Future Revolution is an open-world role-playing game featuring iconic characters in all sorts of funky outfits. Easy, Marvel and Netmarble, some of us still haven’t gotten over the death of Marvel Heroes.

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Halo: The Master Chief Collection PC players currently only have access to the prequel Halo: Reach, but it appears that will be changing soon. Developer 343 Industries has shared a teaser video for Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary, the second piece of the collection to hit PC.

The teaser video opens at the very beginning of the original game, with the Master Chief in a cryo-chamber after humanity's escape from Reach. The Covenant have managed to track the Pillar of Autumn ship through a slipspace jump, but the alien invaders don't know what's in store for them.

343 Industries has not confirmed when Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary will come to PC yet, but the teaser and a new Microsoft Store listing suggest it will be very soon. Xbox Game Pass for PC players are given an option to install the game, as well, though they're receiving an error message at the moment. When it arrives, it will have the option for classic Halo multiplayer sounds along with the updated version.

Red XIII isn't playable in Final Fantasy 7 Remake, Square Enix has confirmed.

Speaking to VG247, Final Fantasy 7 Remake co-director Naoki Hamaguchi said the iconic red wolf / lion turns up in the game at one point as a guest character, but he's controlled by the AI. You can't control him yourself.

Explaining the move, Hamaguchi said because Red XIII joins the party later in the story, there's not enough time to flesh him out.

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No official announcement of a Community Day has happened yet, but a bunch of other stuff has gotten announced

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Instead of questioning causes or solutions, they fetishize black trauma

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Final Fantasy VII Remake is due to hit PS4 on April 10. Fan hype is palpable, and Square Enix knows this. That’s why, to really raise the roof with hype levels, the developer and publisher dropped a Final Fantasy VII Remake Demo taking players through the first chapter in the Mako Reactor.

To get you suitably hyped for the game’s full release, we played through the Final Fantasy VII Remake Demo and made notes of some of the most impressive details we spotted as we played through.

Please note, we’ve done our best to get images that show the details we’re talking about, but it’s not always possible to see the details as clearly in the images than when playing the game in real-time on a crisp 4K OLED display.

Square Enix has released a free PS4 demo for Final Fantasy VII Remake in advance of the April 10 release of the long-awaited game's first installment.

The demo – available now – covers the game's beginning, through the Mako Reactor 1 bombing mission.

If you're unsure if you want to purchase the game when it comes out on April 10, the demo will be available after the remake's launch, although you must download it before May 11 if you want to get an exclusive PS4 theme when the title comes out.

Square Enix is putting out the game in installments, although it has not announced how many will constitute the full title nor the timing of the releases other than this first one.

For more from Final Fantasy VII Remake, check out the opening movie, as well as our hands-on from Tokyo Game Show 2019 in this episode of New Gameplay Today.

Two professional FIFA 20 players had to decide who would be the winner of a qualifying match for a tournament with a game of Rock, Paper, Scissors over the weekend.

Red Bull's Shaun Galea and free agent Hasan Eker were competing against each other to qualify in the FIFA Ultimate Team (FUT) Champions Cup Stage V on February 29, 2020. Unfortunately, EA's online services experienced many problems over the weekend (now apparently resolved), which meant that both players failed to connect to the servers and each other twice.

Statement on FUT Champions Cup Stage V Qualifier match between Brandsha56 and Hasoo. #FGS20 pic.twitter.com/g0Rt62iSQV

— EA SPORTS FIFA Competitive Gaming (@EAFIFAesports) March 2, 2020

As EA's statement on the matter says, "a double-failure to connect and compete in a qualifying tournament match results in a loss for both participants. This is to prevent connection issues from being exploited as a competitive advantage." However, rather than both automatically lose, the two pros took matters into their own hands and played Rock, Paper, Scissors to decide the winner.

Recently, Japan's national broadcasting company, NHK, held a "best Final Fantasy game and character poll," and naturally, the results might shock you.

It feels like I've been championing Final Fantasy X for nearly my whole life and suddenly feel validated, as it took the top spot in the poll as the best Final Fantasy of all time. The cliched generational pick of VII was second, followed by VI (the one a lot of people consider the best in terms of quality), IX, XIV, V, VIII, IV and XI.

Spinoffs were allowed in the poll, as Tactics took spot 11, with Crisis Core at 13, Type-0 at 16, Crystal Chronicles at 17, Mobius at 20, Tactics Advance at 22, Dissidia (the original) at 23, Ring of Fates taking 25, Dissidia 012 at 26, Adventure at 27, Echoes of Time at 29 and Record Keeper at 30. A few sequels like X-2 and Lightning Returns also made the list. This poll is legit, as it had an astounding 468,654 votes.

The other poll dealt with best character, which saw Cloud win it, followed by Yuna, Aerith (Aeris), Vivi, Zidane, Emet-Selch (XIV), Tidus, Lightning, Tifa and Zack. I find it kind of funny that Lightning isn't in the top five given how much the creatives push her so hard, and VII clearly dominates overall with Cloud, Aerith, Tifa and Zack all part of the top 10: only X and IX have multiple reps.

Final Fantasy [NHK via Nintendo Life]

Foregone is a 2D action-platformer brimming with loot: from daggers to shotguns, bows to falchions, you'll quickly find an arsenal of weapons to suit your play style. That's in addition to the game's branching skill tree and armor offerings, which provide an even deeper level of customization. Playing as a powerful Arbiter, you'll unravel a compelling story of regret and conspiracy as you slice your way through hordes of enemies to save the city of Calagan.

Foregone was inspired by a variety of gaming classics: from the rewarding loot drops of Diablo and challenging combat of Dark Souls to the imaginative worlds of Halo: Combat Evolved and breath-taking environments of Ori and the Blind Forest. Below, the dev team shares some of their most memorable gaming moments and how they impacted the creation of Foregone. This is a sponsored post.

Tom Clancy's The Division 2 features a ton of content, both story-related and endgame, and it was a good value at its full $60 launch price. Until tomorrow, however, you can get the game for a ridiculous $3.

The deal is available across the PlayStation Store and Xbox Live, as well as on PC through both Uplay and the Epic Games Store. It will remain live until March 3 at 8 AM PT / 11 AM ET, at which point the game will jump back up to its standard price. Physical copies can also be found at retailers at huge discounts, though not as low as $3.

The Division 2's low price is even more impressive because the game's post-launch DLC has been free for all players. The game has been continuously updated with more story content and missions, and ditched the season pass model used by the original game.

Riot, the creator of League of Legends, will be releasing a new 5v5 tactical shooter game titled Valorant. Gunplay is a big part of it, and your technical abilities to shoot precisely will matter a lot. The twist though, is that each character, called "Agents," will also have special powers and abilities, so winning will depend on a combination of precise shooting, a creative usage of powers, and of course, teamwork.

Riot's aiming for a summer release according to the tweet above. It'll also only be available on PC and will be free-to-play.

Like many people have commented, the game's vibes are a combination of Overwatch and Counter-Strike. It remains to be seen if the full gameplay turns out that way. You can check out the game's developers playing an internal version below.

Baldur's Gate 3 had its first gameplay reveal at PAX East, and Larian Studio has marked the announcement with a huge batch of screenshots showing the Dungeons & Dragons adventure.

Larian Studios has talked about taking on the Baldur's Gate legacy, including some of its own changes. It's using a turn-based combat system instead of real-time, which it says simply made sense for this game. It will also allow you to romance any companion, but other characters will also be pursuing their own romantic interests.

Baldur's Gate 3 will use the Divinity 4.0 engine, built on the work Larian did for Divinity Original Sin and Divinity Original Sin 2. Those games were highly-regarded in their own right and helped cement the studio as the one to take on the Baldur's Gate franchise. Divinity Original Sin 2 is one of only a handful of games to have been awarded a 10/10 review from GameSpot.

Final Fantasy VII Remake director Tetsuya Nomura talked about the development focus of making something that can satisfy both old and new fans.

The post Final Fantasy VII Remake Goes Gold; Tetsuya Nomura Talks Development Focus for Old and New Fans appeared first on Siliconera.

An Apple HomePod sale, Anker headphones, and an Instant Pot Aura lead off Monday’s best deals from around the web.

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Castlevania is on its way back to Netflix, with more bloody monsters to slay and more villainous scheming than you can shake a Belmont-approved whip at. But it faced a bit of a problem for writer Warren Ellis: he’d already killed off his villain, thinking there wouldn’t be a new season. So where does Castlevania go…

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Did you hear that all of the existing Animal Crossing amiibo will be compatible with Animal Crossing: New Horizons? It's great news if you've already built up a collection of quaint figures ready to become new residents in your village. (Actually, as Jonamok points out, the figures will unlock in-game posters and the ability to use them in photo mode. It's the amiibo cards that will bring them to your island). But what if you're missing a few? Well, here are all the best Animal Crossing amiibo deals we can find right now.

As comprehensive and complete as I'd like this list to be, unfortunately, many of the Animal Crossing amiibo are very limited - or completely out of stock in some cases. Amiibo restocks do happen from time-to-time, though. And with the increased popularity they'll be seeing with New Horizons out later this month you'd be surprised if Nintendo doesn't plan to capitalise on that.

If you can't see what you want here at this very moment, do check out our frequently updated page featuring all the Animal Crossing amiibo available to buy at Jelly Deals. Give it a bookmark and check in regularly as we find more on sale.

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He’s the worst

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Help Professor Willow take down Team Rocket

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Developer of The Long Dark says the studio wasn’t asked permission to include the game

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Coming to Steam and Epic Games Store

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Kojima Productions will bring Death Stranding to PC on June 2nd, PC publishers 505 Games announced today. The falling-over simulator debuted on PlayStation 4 in November 2019. The PC version is getting some nice little extra features, as well as a few weird Half-Life bits. I think Norman Reedus can wear Gordon Freeman’s glasses, a little red Valve valve on the back of his noggin, and a headcrab as a hat? See for yourself in the trailer below.

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The Division 2 is heading back to the flaming bin-lined streets of the Big Apple this week with the launch of its brand-new expansion, Warlords of New York. Swapping the sunny sights of Washington DC for the now equally sweltering-looking streets of lower Manhattan, The Division 2: Warlords of New York is a great excuse to jump back into Ubisoft’s giant open world looter shooter – and what better way to make sure you’re fighting fit for tomorrow’s big release than by having a gander at my freshly updated The Division 2 PC performance guide?

Below, you’ll find everything you need in order to get the best performance from The Division 2, including what you need to hit that all-important 60fps at 1080p, 1440p and 4K on all of todays best graphics cards, and the areas where you can cut a few corners if you find your GPU’s starting to struggle. I’ve added loads of new graphics cards to my Division 2 PC performance guide since I first put it together last year, bringing it bang up to date for 2020. So whether you’re jumping into the game for the first time or picking up where you left off last year, here’s how to get The Division 2 and Warlords of New York running like a well-oiled machine on PC.

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505 Games and Kojima Productions have announced via a new trailer that Death Stranding, the third-person adventure game, will be coming to PC via Steam and The Epic Games Store on June 2, 2020.

The PC edition will be coming with some extra features that were not available in the PS4 version of the game such as a photo mode, high frame rate mode, ultra-wide monitor support, and even some content from Valve’s Half-Life franchise, which you can spot towards the end of the trailer.

If you purchase Death Stranding on launch day, you will get the following:

• Selections from ‘The Art of Death Stranding’ digital art book (by Titan Books)
• Death Stranding Original Score Expanded Edition by Ludvig Forsell (including 10 unreleased tracks)
• Ludens mask sunglasses (chiral gold and omnireflector)
• Gold and silver power skeleton
• Gold and silver all-terrain skeleton
• Gold and silver armour plate (LV2)

And if you pre-purchase the PC version right now, you will be gifted with:

• Death Stranding HD wallpapers
• Chiral gold and omnireflector sunglasses
• Chiral gold and omnireflector cap
• Gold and silver speed skeleton
• Gold and silver armour plate

You can also download some mobile wallpapers and ringtones for free from the official website.

You can watch the release date trailer down below:

Riot Games has been busy as of late. The company started production on a slew of new games —as well as animated shows— that take place in their legendary (pardon the pun) League of Legends universe. Riot is also hard at work on a “precise tactical shooter” that until recently was simply called Project A. The company is finally ready to pull back the curtain on this upcoming game, now known as Valorant.

Over the weekend, Riot Games released an internal development playtest video of Valorant, which reveals tons of juicy details about the game. Judging by the gameplay video, Valorant mixes mechanics from Overwatch and Counter-Strike: Global Offensive/Rainbow Six Siege, turning them into a sort of non-battle royale version of Apex Legends.

Just like in Overwatch and Apex Legends, different characters have unique abilities that impact their roles. While one character might deny enemy movement by laying down poisonous smokescreens, another could provide important recon information by revealing the locations of opponents.

However, Valorant switches up the classic hero shooter formula with a wide selection of purchasable weapons. Players can use in-game currency to buy shotguns, SMGs, assault rifles, heavy weapons, sniper rifles, sidearms, and shields.

Software developer and game programmer Benjamin Overgaard looks into the development process behind the visual effects in Lightmatter. ...

As soon as that old blocky look of Final Fantasy VII was in the rear view mirror, Square Enix had a perpetual "break glass in case we need to print money" box with a potential remake. As much as I prefer Final Fantasy games before and after it, VII defined a generation, and helped usher a brand new era into the medium of JRPGs.

The Final Fantasy VII Remake is similarly going to nudge along yet another generation.

The time has come to really get the in-depth info we wanted on Death Stranding PC.

After weeks of teasing, the curtain has been pulled back and we finally have a June 2 release date for Steam and the Epic Games Store. Kojima Productions confirms that the game will arrive in a "new photo mode," as well as a high framerate and ultra-wide monitor support.

Kojima being Kojima, he also couldn't resist bringing in some sort of crossover event into the game, and the Stream release gave him the excuse he needed for a Half-Life promotion. Although the details aren't fully confirmed, there is a "sneak peek" at the promo by way of the end of the below video, which shows off a cosmetic Head Crab helmet for protagonist Sam.

We didn't have to wait too long for the PC release, big picture: the game just came out last November on PS4.

While the durability system was one of the most polarizing elements of Zelda: Breath of the Wild at launch, I think a lot of people eventually got used to it.

It was effective at making players feel helpless at the start, but by the time you really picked up on it and kept a steady stream of weapons on you at all times, it was never a big problem: for me, anyway. Breath of the Wild is really great at making you feel like an utter killing machine when you really pick up on some of its fundamentals, as this video from xbully1994x shows perfectly.

Sneaking up on a Lizalfos Den, they start with a few tricks we've come to expect: take out the lookouts on the towers, glide up to the tip of the den, blow up the lantern, all standard stuff. But once they're inside the den itself, they really show off how powerful Link can get with slow-motion and the latent magic abilities. The very last kill is the best, as it incorporates nearly every tool in Link's arsenal.

If you liked this, give the Mad Max motorcycle clip a watch!

March has officially begun, and it's shaping up to be another busy month for Pokemon Go. Developer Niantic has outlined some of the events it has in store for the hit Pokemon mobile game this month, and they include the debut of a new Gen 5 Legendary, the return of the Psychic Spectacular, a Team Rocket takeover, and much more.

Shadow Entei

A new Team Rocket Special Research questline called The Shadowy Threat Grows is now live if you've completed the most recent set. As usual, the questline culminates in a battle with Team Rocket leader Giovanni, and if you can defeat him, you'll earn a chance to rescue another Shadow Legendary Pokemon: Entei. The Shadowy Threat Grows will be available until the end of the month.

March Field Research

In addition to a new Team Rocket Special Research quest, Niantic has rolled out a new batch of Field Research tasks, along with a new Research Breakthrough reward. Each time you achieve a Research Breakthrough this month, you'll encounter the rare Gen 5 Pokemon Ferroseed. You'll also get bonus Stardust as an additional reward.

Microsoft keeps expanding the already large collection of Xbox One controllers available to purchase, and today it announced additions to two of its most popular lines: the Phantom and Camo special-edition controllers. The new Xbox One controller colors include Phantom Magenta and Arctic Camo, and they'll be up for pre-order starting today. These controllers will also be compatible with Xbox Series X when it launches this holiday season thanks to backward-compatibility.

Joining the two controllers are their respective Controller Gear Xbox Pro Charging Stands, which match the new designs perfectly while being a convenient way to both charge and display your new controllers. Both will retail for $50 each.

The Phantom Magenta Special Edition is the third in the Phantom line, which features a gradient starting with a solid color and slowly tapering off into translucent plastic. The Magenta version is arguably the most striking in the Phantom line yet, joining the previous white and black variants. It will be available for purchase on March 17 for $70, and you can pre-order today on the Microsoft Store and most other retailers. The matching charging stand releases the same day.

Death Stranding, the first game from Hideo Kojima's Kojima Productions, now has a release date for PC. It will launch on Steam, Epic Games Store, and retail on June 2.

Previously announced for PC after launching exclusively on PlayStation 4 last November, Death Stranding will now include higher frame rates afforded by more powerful PC hardware, as well as Photo Mode and support for ultra-wide monitor resolutions. You can get brief glimpses of each in the announcement trailer below.

Additionally, Death Stranding will feature some crossover content with Half-Life. The full details of this haven't yet been released, but you can see Sam Bridges wearing a Headcrab near the end of the trailer. Don't expect anyone to open their doors to you looking like that though.