March 2020

To all those players who’ve lost one-on-one gunfights against Gibraltar in Season 4, this one’s for you. The jokes on Reddit have finally reached the dev team, so the upcoming Apex Legends patch will include a Gibraltar nerf, Heirloom crafting, and inventory changes.

Respawn just put out a dev stream detailing upcoming Season 4 adjustments since the System Override Collection Event is on its way. The Apex Legends Season 4 official patch notes will be released tomorrow, so for now, we’ll have to make do.

First things first, a few buffs and nerfs were discussed in the stream. The health on Gibraltar’s gun shield will go from 75 down to 50 in order to make 1v1 situations more fair, and Bloodhound will now be able to scan three times farther than before.

To balance the scan buff, Bloodhound now takes twice as long to activate it, so it’ll be harder to use in the middle of gunfights. Speaking of scanning, Crypto’s adjustment will cause his primaries to be auto-reloaded whenever he sends out his drone.

The other gameplay changes made have to do with player inventory. The inventory will now start off with 10 spaces, but stacks of ammo, shield items, grenades, and healing items will be reduced.

Shield cells and syringes will drop from six to four in a stack, while med kits and shield batteries go to two, and grenades to one. This was done to reduce grenade spam at the end of matches while providing more room to carry other items.

Back at E3 2019 I had the opportunity to get my first crack at Final Fantasy VII Remake. I have to be honest, I was extremely skeptical. I’m not a massive fan of action-RPGs. I enjoyed Final Fantasy XV as a whole, but I felt the combat was the game’s weakest asset, and I was a bit scared that FFVII Remake would play like FFXV with a FFVII skin.

Not only does it not play like Final Fantasy XV – it’s much less clunky – but we also learned later on that there would be a Classic Mode that will allow players to just focus on inputting commands while Cloud, Barrett, Tifa, and company focus on moving around and building up the ATB.

Classic Mode is a big deal to many fans, but let’s first talk about what I did get to play in the three or so hours with Final Fantasy VII Remake last week that isn’t in the demo that was released today.

Wolcen: Lords of Mayhem gives me a lot of reasons to want to love it on one hand, and several reasons why I can’t on the other. The action RPG gameplay is respectable and even ahead of the class in some areas. The dark fantasy story isn’t especially groundbreaking, though it is told with plenty of endearing flair and enthusiasm. But all of that doesn’t count for too much when you’re as likely to lose a boss fight because of bugs as you are to being smashed by a hellbeast as intended.

Let it Die, the tower-climbing hack-and-slash from Grasshopper Manufacture and GungHo Online Entertainment, has officially surpassed 6 million downloads across all platforms. ...

"There's a reason [Final Fantasy VII] struck a chord and it goes beyond the fact that it brought cinematic melodrama to video games on a grand scale for the first time." ...

A new Legendary Pokemon has arrived in Pokemon Go. Thundurus, one of the three Legendary Forces of Nature from the Unova region in Pokemon Black and White, is now appearing in five-star Raid Battles, making this your first chance to capture one in Niantic's mobile game.

Thundurus will only be available in Raid Battles for a limited time, so you'll need to act quickly if you're hoping to add one to your collection. If you need help capturing the Bolt Strike Pokemon before it leaves the game, we've rounded up some tips on how to battle and capture Thundurus below.

Have you ever wanted to compete in an elimination-style game without having to put any actual physical work in? Did you enjoy the very free and very delightful Doritos Crash Course game that came out 10 years ago on Xbox 360? Have you ever wanted to climb the Aggro Crag from GUTS?

If you are like me and the answer to all of these questions is a resounding “yes”, then Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout might tickle your fancy.

It's a pleasant surprise to hear that Hardspace: Shipbreaker is coming to PlayStation 4 and Xbox One after its Steam Early Access run starts this summer. In the sci-fi sim game, you play as a salvager who's working to pay off a debt by strategically slicing off valuable parts from spaceships with a laser cutter.

It's such a cool concept for a game. I haven't seen anything quite like it before on this scale.

Blackbird Interactive (Homeworld: Deserts of Kharak) has big plans for Hardspace: Shipbreaker, but in the beginning, for Early Access, the simulation game will have two types of ships to crack open, a sandbox mode, and the first act of the story campaign, which should take around 15 hours to beat. The finished campaign will have more mission variety and could end up being 40 hours long. It'll be a beefy game.

"We have a rough plan for a year of development beginning in May 2020," the studio said of the Early Access PC version. "However, game development is a long, difficult, and massively fun process that can easily extend beyond plans once you involve the excellent ideas of a big community. We'll decide down the line exactly how much game we consider to be the 1.0 version, but we'd rather stay in Early Access for as long as needed than come out early to hit an imaginary window we've set for ourselves."

I'm curious how this game might run on consoles considering all of the crazy physics-driven mayhem.

The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, one of the most beloved games of all time, has always had a devoted community of speedrunners—people who try to complete the game as quickly as humanly possible. Ocarina of Time, released in 1998 for the Nintendo 64, usually takes around 20-30 hours to finish. Using bugs and…

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Ahead of Half-Life: Alyx's long-long-awaited launch later this month, Valve has released around ten minutes of new gameplay footage - split across three separate videos - highlighting the kind of unique VR interactions, including three different forms of locomotion, that players can expect from the first-person shooter come 23rd March.

Video number one is mainly focussed on exploration, starting and ending within the cramped confines of a subway train. There are headcrabs and headcrab zombies galore, with plenty of moody ambience as Alyx prowls the shadowy underground station to pick off opponents one by one. It's also a bit of a showcase for the game's physics-based interactions - we see the player prising away planks with their hands and even, hilariously, plopping a hardhat onto their heads at one point - and it's all demoed using stomach-friendly teleportation movement.

Valve's second video is for those made of slightly stronger VR stuff, showing off continuous locomotion - a particularly nail-biting proposition given the impressive sense of verticality during the sequence. The bulk of this video takes place within the squalid interior of a crumbling building - although the sun-dappled snatches of City 17 outside look absolutely gorgeous - and it features its own selection of nifty interactions too.

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Seems that Nvidia have gone and put their foot in it again with their cloud streaming service GeForce Now. This time, they’ve failed to ask Hinterland Studio to include their game The Long Dark in the library. In return, Hinterland have asked for it to be removed from the service. This follows several other games being removed from GeForce Now, with some publishers pulling their entire catalog.

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With Cyberpunk 2077’s hotly-anticipated launch fast-approaching, developer CD Projekt Red’s open-world RPG is firmly on the mind of most sci-fi role-playing enthusiasts. But there’s plenty going on in the world of Cyberpunk Red, too, the latest edition of the Cyberpunk 2020 tabletop RPG series on which the upcoming video game is based. Namely, some extremely cool miniatures designed by Monster Fight Club.

The new line includes five miniatures of various classes, some of which you’ll recognize even if you’re not familiar with the tabletop series that has been running since the mid-1990s.

In particular, the Netrunner class is definitely in-tune with CD Projekt Red’s own character designs for augmented mercenaries that main protagonist V spends his/her time with.

You can check out the full gallery of all five below, which includes Netrunner, Nomad, Rockerboy, and Blade Runner-esque Lawman. If you look closely you’ll see various augmentations on the Netrunner, Nomad, and Rockerboy.

If you're interested in working with veteran mobile, console, and PC developers in creating new AAA experiences that will reach billions of mobile players around the world we would like to hear from you! ...

Invictus Games, the Hungarian mobile game developer behind the likes of Give It Up! and Froggy Jump, has been acquired by publisher and developer Zordix. ...

As Bungie gears up for Season 10 of Destiny 2, which kicks off on March 10 with the return of the Trials of Osiris, the studio is aiming to make the looter-shooter's rewards more transparent. When Season 10 goes live next Tuesday, you will no longer be able to buy Bright Engrams from the in-game Eververse Store.

Director Luke Smith shared a lengthy Director's Cut blog post discussing the state of Destiny 2, detailing the lessons learned and the hope held for the future of the looter-shooter. In both looking forward and backward, Smith said Destiny 2's randomized loot boxes (Bright Engrams) no longer reflect Bungie's values and vision.

"For Season 10, we're doing away with Bright Engrams as purchasable items. We want players to know what something costs before they buy it," Smith wrote. "Bright Engrams don't live up to that principle so we will no longer be selling them on the Eververse Store, though they will still appear on the Free Track of the Season Pass."

Switch owners looking for an old-school dose of platforming action might want to take a look at Mad Gear Games' Kemono Heroes, which has just launched on the Nintendo eShop courtesy of publisher NIS.

This retro-styled tale of furry folklore allows players to take up the mantle of one of four cute-but-deadly ninja animals, who must conquer hordes of demons on Mt. Fuji on a quest to take on the mighty Moon God, who has petrified our heroes' woodland brethren. Each character is equipped with unique and upgradeable skills and abilities, and up to four players can join in on the action via local co-op. You can check out the animal antics in the trailer below.

Another Monday, another all-new episode of Podtoid. On this week's show, the gang's all here to talk Project G.G., Deadly Premonition, anus potatoes, mosquito trucks, Batman Returns, Bloodstained, and our go-to dishes at Chinese buffets. All that, plus Yakuza 3 and listener questions, on Podtoid Episode 435.

Last week, the roguelite card game Iris and the Giant came out on PC and Mac. In it, you control Iris as she climbs through various floors of an underworld inspired by Greek mythology. Soon enough, it becomes clear that this underworld is a creation of Iris’ imagination, and is in fact a metaphor for some deep-seated…

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Google Pixel users will find a new “Rules” feature added to their devices starting today. Rules are analogous to iOS shortcuts, allowing you to create toggles for automatic settings changes when you’re in certain locations—though Android Rules are much more limited to Shortcuts, by comparison. For now, you can only…

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You think you’ve played one turn-based tactics game you’re played them all. Then along comes Broken Lines to remind us all that, hey, there are more ways to put a group of units into combat that simply lining up to take turns.

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Leigh Whannell’s reimagining of the classic Universal Studios horror film The Invisible Man starts where many movies of its genre end: A tense escape. When we meet her, we know virtually nothing about Elisabeth Moss’s character, Cecilia, other than that she needs to get out of where she is. The location is a gorgeous…

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Pokemon GO's March Community Day and other events, have been delayed in Italy, Japan, and Korea to prevent large gatherings of people.

The post Pokemon GO March Community Day Delayed for Italy, Japan, and South Korea appeared first on Siliconera.

Bloodborne 2

Respawn is trying to get people to play with Apex Legends character Bloodhound as the technological tracker is designed. Update 4.1, which launches alongside the System Override Collection event, contains several character patches--including several aimed at making Bloodhound more of a recon character.

The role of the recon character in Apex Legends has always been a little nebulous--why, for example, was Pathfinder a support character at launch when his passive ability is literally a form of reconnaissance? Respawn is seemingly attempting to better define the role going forward. Pathfinder is now a recon character, for instance, and the terrifyingly aggressive Bloodhound is being adjusted to be less of an attacker and more of a hunter.

In Update 4.1, the range of Bloodhound's tactical ability, Eye of the Allfather, will be increased by three times. Whereas before, Eye of the Allfather was good for seeing an enemy hiding in one building, now it's range can encompass several structures. The scan lasts a whole second longer too, making it easier to catch enemy squads with the ability.

Alongside the addition of Octane's heirloom and the start of System Override (which sees the return of Kings Canyon), Respawn is implementing a new update into Apex Legends. The full patch notes for the update reveals several in-game changes, including one that aims to make Wattson less of a must-have for a squad's success.

Currently, a full stack of two grenades takes up a single slot in a player's inventory--allowing them to, for example, hold six grenades at the cost of only three slots. Once you have a big enough backpack, this makes it very easy to stockpile grenades, which your squad can then use to bombard an opponent from afar.

This tactic is devastating in the final circles of a match (especially if you throw in Bangalore's Rolling Thunder, Cautic's Nox Gas Grenade, or Gibraltar's Defensive Bombardment), where it's more difficult for an enemy squad to find space to retreat and reposition themselves. So, of course, more and more people have started using it.

Respawn has already given players a chance to play on Apex Legends' original map, Kings Canyon, a few times in Season 4: Assimilation. Both times, however, the map has returned as one of the older versions of Kings Canyon. Going forward, you'll play on the Kings Canyon you remember from the final days of Season 2: Battle Charge.

Kings Canyon will first return in the System Override Collection event, during the second week of the limited-time Deja Loot mode. "This will be the Season 2 version of Kings Canyon," Respawn design director Jason McCord said on Apex Devstream #4. "[The version] with the leviathans in it and all the town takeovers--the last version of the map that [players] played live."

Halfway through Season 4: Assimilation, the ranked playlist will transition from World's Edge to Kings Canyon. However, the legends won't be playing on a new Kings Canyon. During the devstream, Respawn community manager Jay Frechette said that, like in System Override, the Kings Canyon that returns at the ranked playlist split is still the version of the map from Season 2: Battle Charge. So don't expect a brand-new version of Apex Legends' original map.

E3 2020 is scheduled to happen from June 9 through June 11, but as numerous worldwide events are cancelled or postponed due to the COVID-19 (aka coronavirus) outbreak, it would be reasonable to question whether organizers were wavering. In the wake of GDC being postponed, E3's organizers have stated that they still plan on having the event in June.

The news comes from Vice's Patrick Klepek, who received a statement from the ESA and shared it via Twitter. The statement confirms that the company is "watching the situation very closely", and makes it clear that things could change, but for now, it is "moving ahead full speed with E3 2020 planning."

Exhibits and ticket sales have continued unabated, and it's not possible to know whether the outbreak will be contained--or what state things will be in--by June.

Need for Speed Heat has received a major upgrade with its March update, which not only adds a new "Black Market" feature but also offers hundreds of tweaks and bug fixes across all versions of the game. The update lands at March 3 between 9AM-11AM UTC, and will weigh in at between 7.7GB and 8.38GB, depending on your system.

The Black Market update will deliver two new cars to players, although only one of them will be free. The Aston Martin DB11 Volante '19 will be awarded to you just for heading down to Port Murphy to start the new Black Market mission, while you'll need to pay for the McLaren F1 '93. New vanity items are also available to trick your car out with.

The game will also receive numerous general quality-of-life improvements, including an adjustable camera shake, a notification in online races to remind you that the game is not paused, and a change in how you are notified of new item unlocks. Additionally, more vanity items have been added, including one that syncs to your music. New visual elements have been added to races, too, including new intros, victory poses, and visible "ghost" cars before your race.

The rest of the patch list is extremely long, offering an enormous list of bug fixes. It can be viewed on Reddit, but the general takeaway is that many, many issues have been fixed.

I enjoyed my time with Maneater far more than I had any right to.

For what is essentially a shark simulator (or a "shaRkPG," as Tripwire calls it), there was a surprising amount of balance between the calm and the ridiculous. At some points it felt like Odell Down Under, where my only goal was to eat and to avoid being eaten, and at other points, Chris Parnell from SNL was narrating as I set boats on fire and unrelentingly tail-whipped beach-goers into bloodied pieces.

It’s tough being a baby bull shark, especially when a bunch of people and creatures want to take you down. Thankfully in Maneater, you can grow strong by eating other fish and finding hidden treasures, evolving into the ultimate killing machine you were destined to be.

As a surprisingly versatile shark, some of your tactics include grabbing fish, objects, or people and using your tail like a baseball bat to launch them. Or you can take it easy and explore the bayou and everything it has to offer -- including secret caves and treasure chests which contain evolution upgrades to level up. You can also, for some reason, briefly flop around on land while you terrorize the masses.

There are, however, various characters around the bayou that want to see you dead. Occasionally a baddie with shark-related beef will chase you around, making you fight for your life. You may even come across a creature or two whose lagoon you're disrupting, ending up in a tussle for territory.

Uncle Death just climbed past yet another milestone, as Suda51 and Grasshopper Manufacture's Let it Die hit six million downloads. What sort of gift will Uncle Death receive? A gold-plated skateboard? A scythe decorated with six diamonds?

"To be determined" is the most succinct answer. Grasshopper Manufacture seems a bit caught by surprise, and without any kind of blowout bash ready to go. The developer says "To celebrate the momentous occasion, there will be an in-game event to be announced at a later date." An announcement of an announcement is hardly an inspiring celebration.

Let it Die launched in 2016 as a free-to-play PS4 game. It managed approximately four million downloads before being ported to PC in late 2018. With the two versions at a combined six million downloads, there's still a small-yet-dedicated group of people ascending the tower. They'll get something at some point in the future.

Let it Die Surpasses 6 Million Downloads on PlayStation 4 and PC [TriplePoint PR]

Video game curators Horror You Haven’t Played recently tasked the independent development community on itch.io to create horror games with fishing as the unifying theme. This call to action produced seven games of varying lengths and styles, all of which do an excellent job of adding a sinister edge to life below the…

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Starting life as a joke before becoming a very serious, actual thing, nanobuds’ addition of Baby Yoda to the Battlefront II roster is a wonderful new way to spice up your Star Wars shootouts.

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Developer Ice-Pick Lodge's masterful plague survival horror Pathologic 2 will, following its launch on Xbox One and PC last year, finally be making its way to PS4 this Friday, 6th March.

Pathologic 2 is a haunting, unforgettable experience for all sorts of reasons (and certainly not for everyone), but the first important thing to note is that you needn't worry about the "2" in the title. No knowledge of its predecessor is required, and it's more of a much-enhanced remake, expanding on the original's themes, than a sequel in any traditional sense.

Like its predecessor, Pathologic 2 charts the sudden decline of a small town on the edge of the Russian Steppe. As the game begins, you, as surgeon Artemy Burakh, return to this strange corner of the world, having received an urgent missive from your father - and things rapidly start to go wrong, as a mysterious plague rains death and chaos on your childhood home.

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What happened to Poe, and whose DHF is that? (Also, what is DHF?)

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Nintendo’s mobile kart racer spin-off Mario Kart Tour launched back in September of last year missing one major feature: multiplayer. Now, after the conclusion of several beta test periods, the mode is finally ready for a full launch. Nintendo has today revealed that multiplayer will be available worldwide from March 8 at 11 PM EST.

The news comes by way of Nintendo’s official social media channel, which included two images alongside the announcement breaking down the various modes on offer to players.

Race against players worldwide to raise your grade under rules that change daily in Standard Races and Gold Races. When racing friends or others nearby, Rooms let you pick speed, item slot number, and more. Play your way when #MarioKartTour multiplayer launches Mar. 8, 8 PM PT! pic.twitter.com/ckkekAsbHS

— Mario Kart Tour (@mariokarttourEN) March 3, 2020

As you can see from the images in the Tweet, Mario Kart Tour’s multiplayer will be split across three different tiers. Gold Class, the most prestigious, is only available to those with MKT Gold Pass subscriptions.

A second image highlights the breakdown of each mode’s ruleset, with the casual mode offering the ability to tweak rulesets with a level of customization similar to that of the mainline console series.

The Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night Roguelike stretch goal has been scrapped in favor of a Randomizer Mode, due to code issues.

The post Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night Replaces Roguelike Stretch Goal with Randomizer Mode appeared first on Siliconera.

The Nintendo Switch released three years ago on March 3, 2017, and has proven extremely popular since. The system's birthday isn't being treated with too much fanfare, though--there's a new system update available, but it doesn't add a whole lot.

Update 9.2.0 is available now and will download next time you try to use the Nintendo Eshop or other online services. It can also be downloaded manually from the System Update option in the System Settings menu. Here's what has changed, according to the update notes: "General system stability improvements to enhance the user's experience."

It's possible there is some hidden aspect to this update that isn't being advertised, but there's no indication that's the case at this point. Nintendo tends to release several such updates for the Nintendo Switch each year--don't expect any major new features when you turn on your Switch next and see that the system's ready for an update.

Months after its initial release, Nintendo's free-to-play Mario Kart Tour for mobile finally has a release date for its multiplayer. Currently you can add friends but not race them, and the multiplayer option in the menu is greyed out.

This will all change on March 8, when multiplayer arrives to the game.

Mario Kart Tour will be introducing multiple levels of competitiveness, with different ways to race against other people and up to eight players per race.

The Xbox One store discounts games every week, but this time around, it's focusing more on DLC for games like Monster Hunter World, XCOM 2, and many more. However, there are a couple of excellent games discounted as well, including Red Dead Redemption 2, Borderlands 3, and The Outer Worlds for $30 each down from $60. Many of these deals are exclusive to Xbox Live Gold and Game Pass Ultimate subscribers, so please double-check that you're eligible for the discounts before purchasing anything.