April 2020

During these uncertain times, many have clung to the new Animal Crossing for comfort. It offers players a world with enough structure to help make sense of existence, but not so much that you ever feel trapped or otherwise punished. It's less an attempt to recreate real life in a video game world, and more an effort to recreate it as something easier, safer, and kinder.

It also starts to feel like a hamster wheel after a while. Mind you, it's a pleasant one. The music is sweet, and everything is cute and/or beautiful, but to the point where it sometimes feels like an effort to pacify you. If they had hooked Neo and the rest of the gang from The Matrix up to this game, they probably never would have wanted to wake up.

Sometimes Always Monsters, the sequel to Always Sometimes Monsters, can be similarly relaxing. It's far more attractive than the original, with silky-smooth animations and more realistic – but still attractive – characters. It also lets you do whatever you want, and be whomever you like.

The main difference is, it doesn't go out of its way to give you carrots to chase. Like real adult life, you can't just sit around and wait for it to shower you with meaning and happiness. There are no signposts to tell you what you should and shouldn't do. You have to make it up as you go along, and sooner or later, the mistakes you made are bound to catch up to you, if they don't make you rich and famous first. 

Today, Stardew Valley publisher Chucklefish lifted the lid on an art style overhaul for Witchbrook, its internally-developed magical school simulation game. Before, the studio's art direction looked super similar to Stardew (which many fans were fine with). Now? It's taking a much different approach.

As a quick refresher, the game is about a hopeful witch-in-training who's juggling their time between perfecting spells at magic school and keeping busy with farming/town sim "extracurricular activities" like "fishing, growing magical crops, and foraging strange mushrooms." There's a pooch, too.

For comparison, here's an article featuring the old art style (and the original "Spellbound" name).

What do you think? Do you prefer the original look? I think Witchbrook's new style is undeniably an upgrade, but at the same time, it'll take me a while to adjust to it – especially the camera angle.

We don't have a release date for Witchbrook yet – or even platforms – but I'm so in.

The annual student game exhibition is switching over to an all-digital event for 2020 as more and more events pivot to offer social distancing-friendly shows during the coronavirus pandemic. ...

Week 7 of Fortnite Chapter 2, Season 2 is here, and that means a new batch of challenges is now live in the hit battle royale shooter. This week brings the first set of Skye's Adventure challenges, and in keeping with the season's spy theme, one of them asks you to hide in Creepin' Cardboard at the Box Factory. If you're not sure where that's located, this map and guide will point you in the right direction.

Where Is The Box Factory Location?

The trickiest part of this challenge is tracking down the Box Factory. Since it isn't a named point of interest, the factory isn't displayed prominently on the in-game map, so you may not even know where to begin looking. As it happens, the Box Factory is located in grid square G7, southwest of Retail Row. You can see exactly where on the map below.

Spring is in full bloom, and with the changing of seasons comes a new wave of digital games sales. The Nintendo Switch Eshop and PlayStation Store have already kicked off their respective sales, and now the Epic Games Store is jumping into the action with over 100 discounts on PC games. The sale will be live all month long, ending May 1. If you still have a $10 coupon from the Epic holiday sale, you can (and should) use that on any games $15 or more this month--the coupons expire May 1.

Epic's Spring Sale includes Red Dead Redemption II, which released on PC last year. The acclaimed open-world adventure is on sale for $48; you can also find discounts on its Special and Ultimate editions. You can also get one of the best games of 2019, Control, for $39. With the new Foundation DLC out now, there's no better time to dive into this mind-bending story. Alan Wake, another excellent Remedy game, is on sale for just $4.49.

The PlayStation 4 virtual reality exclusive Marvel's Iron Man VR has been pushed back "until further notice" amid the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak, publisher Sony Interactive Entertainment announced.

Alongside the Iron Man VR delay, Sony also pushed back the launch of its flagship exclusive The Last of Us Part II, which was originally slated to arrive this May. Neither game now has a release date.

Iron Man VR previously held a February 2020 released date before developer Camouflaj and Sony pushed the game back to May 2020. Both Iron Man VR and TLOU2 were scheduled to launch within two weeks of each other, with the former arriving on May 15 and the latter coming out on May 29. The two PS4 games now share two delays in common.

Apex Legends is getting a new limited-time event all about Bloodhound, but it's coinciding with a permanent change that should make fans happy. When the Old Ways Lore Event begins on April 7, players will be able to select from the game's two maps: Kings Canyon or World's Edge.

As detailed on the EA Blog, the update will add permanent map rotation to the game, letting you choose which map to play in Trios or the newly-returning Duos. This is a marked change from the previous status quo, as Kings Canyon would only be available through limited-time events after it was replaced by World's Edge.

The Old Ways Lore Event will run from April 7-21, offering a Town Takeover in World's Edge and a new exclusive prize track with exclusive cosmetics.

Despite The Last Of Us 2 delay, developer Naughty Dog has dropped a bunch of new The Last of Us Part 2 screenshots to tide eager fans over while we wait for the game's now-unclear release date.

The screens are all captured on a PS4 Pro, showing off The Last of Us 2's incredible detail in everything from its lighting to its skin textures and more. We also get a better look at Old Man Joel, both blinded by the sun and strumming around on an acoustic guitar. The TLOU2 screens also show Joel's younger brother Tommy sitting across from Ellie in a room, Ellie exploring some overgrown forest, and more.

You can check them out below.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare's battle royale spin-off, Warzone, has been immensely popular, but if you've wanted to try the core game's regular multiplayer modes, then you have your chance right now. Modern Warfare's multiplayer will be free until April 6 at 10 AM PT / 1 PM ET. That's only three days, but even if you don't end up buying the full game, it's a good opportunity to level up your weapons and create some loadouts for Warzone--all of your Warzone purchases and levels also carry over to multiplayer.

Anyone who has already downloaded Warzone can simply select the "Multiplayer" option from the main menu to access the free multiplayer weekend. If you don't currently have Warzone, then be sure to download it soon, so you can play as much as possible. Unfortunately, if you want to keep playing Modern Warfare's multiplayer past the free weekend, it looks like you'll need to pay full price--no discounts have been revealed as of yet.

One of this weekend's available playlists includes "Stocked Up, Locked Down," which rotates between 10v10 Atlas Superstore and 6v6 Shoothouse maps through modes like Team Deathmatch, Domination, and more--unfortunately, the April Fool's Day playlists have been removed. Other game modes you can expect include the 64v64 Ground War game type and Gunfight, the latter of which is a 2v2, last-man-standing battle. It's incredibly tense and is perfect to take on with a friend.

More than six years after its release, the Nintendo Switch is still dutifully chugging along, and still without the long-rumored Switch Pro. Compared to its supercomputer competitors, Microsoft’s Xbox Series X and Sony’s PlayStation 5, it’s by no means the most powerful place to play games today. But it’s still the…

Read more...

It brings me no pleasure to announce that I have solved the mystery of Andrew Cuomo’s nipples.

Read more...

2-Pack Nylon-Braided 90 Degree Lightning Cables | $10 | Amazon | Clip the coupon on the page and use the promo code 96A8NPZH

Read more...

Popular musician Marc Rebillet’s March 17 Twitch stream—the first in his “Quarantine Livestream Tour”—began just like his other shows: Wearing a silken robe, he improvised a series of songs based on topic suggestions from his audience. People asked for songs about the apocalypse and toilet paper. About an hour and a…

Read more...

One of the lesser-known features added in last year’s iOS 13, iPadOS 13, macOS Catalina, and tvOS 13 updates was the ability to connect Xbox One and PlayStation 4 controllers to your Apple devices. In the video above, I show you how to pair these controllers with an iPad to play games like Fortnite and Minecraft.

Read more...

Crusader Kings 3

Dead Cells

Worst. Streaming service. Ever!

Continue reading…

Stream un-released films to your home — for free!

Continue reading…

The circus has come to Darkest Dungeon! Grab ye olde candy floss, ride ye olde wooden rollercoaster. Let’s not bother with the clowns, there’s bloodsport to be had. Upcoming DLC The Butcher’s Circus is bringing grand old player-versus-player battles to Darkest Dungeon. After all, in a game about testing your luck against horrors in the dark, what could be more terrifying than taking on your fellow human being?

(more…)

Bandai Namco is preparing to launch the closed beta of its upcoming anime-style MMORPG Blue Protocol, and they released new screenshots.

The images were shared on the game’s official Twitter account (sources: 1, 2) and they show two characters, a human girl and a neko-eared dude.

You can check them out in the gallery below, providing another look at the lovely anime-style graphics of the game.

If you registered for the upcoming beta, you should check your mail (if you haven’t already) because invites have already been sent.

Even if you just started playing Apex Legends in Season 4, you know that the community has been more than a little bit vocal when it comes to adding Duos and Solos modes. Those cries have not fallen on deaf ears, because Respawn is adding Duos permanently, starting on Apr. 7.

The new Apex Legends Duos mode will be there for players to choose, alongside a permanent map rotation between World’s Edge and King’s Canyon.

Apr. 7 is also the date that the new Old Ways event will go live. It’ll last until Apr. 21. According to the game’s site, it will feature the following:

• New Town Takeover – Bloodhound’s Trials
• Exclusive Event Prize Track
• Direct Purchase Shop
  • New Event Limited Cosmetics
  • Return of Legendary Hunt Skins

Bloodhound’s Trials will give teams the chance to obtain high-tier loot as they become hunters by going up against hoards of prowlers as well as other squads.

There’ll also be exclusive Old Ways cosmetics to obtain by completing daily challenges. The progression system is similar to the System Override event from last month.

More than a year and a half after Fallout 76 first launched, it's coming to Steam. Alongside the Wastelanders update on April 14 (we're finally getting NPCs), Bethesda is expanding beyond its proprietary launcher and setting up shop on Steam too.

Bethesda announced today that anyone who already bought the game through Bethesda.net will be able to get Fallout 76 free on Steam. No additional purchase is necessary. You just need to link your Bethesda.net account and your Steam account here. Once that's done, you should receive your game entitlement automatically when Fallout 76 hits Steam on April 14.

However, it's not an offer that lasts forever. You can't dillydally and dawdle, putting it off for weeks while thinking "I'll get around to that eventually." You have to link accounts before 11:59pm eastern on April 12. Once the clock strikes midnight, the offer turns into a pumpkin.

There are caveats and limitations. Most important, while progress will carry over between the two platforms, microtransaction currency is restricted to where it was purchased. So, Atoms balance won't transfer, although items that were bought with Atoms will transfer. Further, anyone who paid $100 per year for private server access as part of Fallout 1st (the ill-received membership service Bethesda rolled out last fall) won't be able to bring that with them to Steam.

Our Spidey Sense didn't betray us yesterday. Despite it being April Fool's, Cellar Door Games teasing a new Rogue Legacy felt legitimate. As it turns out, this was no joke or goof, no prankin' or foolin'.

Cellar Door confirmed that it's working on Rogue Legacy 2 with this quick tweet accompanied by a three-second video:

If you cast your minds back to heady days of 2017, you might remember we reported on an impending lawsuit, in which AM General LLC was taking Activision to court over the unauthorised depiction of "Humvees" in the Call of Duty series. Some three years later, a New York federal judge has found in favour of Activision, dismissing the vehicle manufacturer's case.

As recorded in The Hollywood Reporter, U.S. District Court Judge George B. Daniels writes that the depiction of the beefy, all-terrain transporter falls under the First Amendment, allowing Activision to use the likeness of Humvees to help maintain "realism" in its ongoing series of military shooters. (No-one show him Black Ops III, yeah?)

"If realism is an artistic goal, then the presence in modern warfare games of vehicles employed by actual militaries undoubtedly furthers that goal," wrote Judge Daniels. "Assuming arguendo that realism is the only artistic interest that Call of Duty games possess - an assumption potentially belied by the presence of narrative campaign modes in all of the challenged games - it is also true that realism can have artistic merit in itself."

AM General LLC had argued that the depiction of the vehicle was leading to customer confusion, claiming that some people went as far as to believe Activision owns, (or at the very least licenses), the Humvee trademark. Judge Daniels found merit in AM General's arguments, but ultimately favoured Activision, seeing little similarity in the companies' respective use of the Humvee product and the intent of said use.

Squatty Potty | $18 | Walmart

Read more...

Instead of providing stores with adequate sanitation supplies (or simply closing them outright) in response to the covid-19 pandemic, Game X Change corporate felt it best to send employees what amounted to a chain email full of bogus prevention tactics. Their advice includes gargling vinegar, drinking lots of water…

Read more...

DOOM Eternal is a big game that ends up offering more lore than people might expect (or maybe even need).

The post DOOM Eternal Is Knee Deep Into DOOM Lore appeared first on Siliconera.

Fortnite's not-so-secret Deadpool skin is scheduled to unlock tomorrow, April 3, and it appears Epic has a Deadpool-themed event planned to coincide with the skin's release.

The official Deadpool Twitter account teased that the irreverent Marvel character will be "crashing" Fortnite starting April 3. "There'll be music, tacos, and a whole lotta Deadpool," the tweet reads. The accompanying image shows the Yacht defaced with Deadpool's drawings, suggesting the area will be taken over as part of the event.

As for the aforementioned Deadpool skin, you'll be able to unlock it if you've been keeping up with this season's Deadpool challenges. There have been a new pair of these challenges every week thus far, but they're considerably easier than Fortnite's regular weekly challenges; most can be completed just by clicking around Deadpool's hideout in the main HQ.

A sequel to the 2013 action-platformer Rogue Legacy is now in development, the game's creator Cellar Door Games announced. The studio didn't have much else to share beyond confirming that Rogue Legacy 2 is on the way. However, "a lot more info" about the sequel will be dropping "in the coming days." For now, Cellar Door shared some in-progress screenshots showing Rogue Legacy 2's more bubble-like art style.

Multiple digital storefronts--Switch Eshop, Epic, Xbox Store, and PlayStation Store--have massive Spring Sales going on right now. While there's no hint that Steam will join in on the Spring Sale fun this year, the PC games storefront has a pretty great sale right now anyway. Xbox Game Studios titles are up to 75% off on Steam, which means you can get titles from Microsoft's most well-known franchises for cheap. The Xbox Game Studios publisher sale only runs until April 6, so you'll have to make your selections fairly quickly.

Inkle Studios, the developer behind the wonderful 80 Days and Heaven's Vault, has, after some early teasing back in February, finally unveiled its next project. It's called Pendragon, and is described as a "strategic narrative" adventure inspired by Arthurian legend.

Pendragon unfolds in the year AD 673, with Camelot on the verge of destruction. The fellowship of the Round Table is in disarray, thanks to Sir Modred's deceit, and it's up to you to assemble a ragtag band of knights, heroes, and peasants, traverse the treacherous Britain of the Dark Ages and, hopefully, lend your assistance to King Arthur on the other side.

"Will Sir Lancelot be reunited with Queen Guinevere? Will she spurn him, or embrace him?," teases Inkle, "Will Sir Kay ever forgive Sir Gawaine for siding with Sir Mordred? Can Morgana le Fay be trusted? Where is Merlyn? Who lies buried in Mordred's graveyard? Who is the archer in the woods? What has become of Excalibur?".

Read more

How to Beat Marauders in Doom Eternal

The Super Shotgun vs.

How to Find Zipper the Bunny in ACNH

Water bug island is not quite as lucrative

Continue reading…

Three free this week

Continue reading…