April 2020

I really wanted to write a Have You Played about The Movies, and then realised Graham had done one already, way back in 2015. (I’m really annoyed I didn’t get there first, but I was still in school in 2015.)

And, of course, Graham has also written one of these about the first Black & White, so I’m hoping this counts as Fresh New #Content. Black & White 2 was my introduction to the series, anyway. I was definitely too young to buy it myself, so I asked my mum to buy me a copy of it from WHSmith and pretend it was for her, not the 12 year old child standing next to her. A fool proof plan.
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Overwatch pro player Jay “Sinatraa” Won is ending his Blizzard career on a high, having won both the Overwatch League Cup and Overwatch World Cup (along with the MVP award). The 20-year-old is moving from the competitive Overwatch scene and jumping straight into Riot’s new first person shooter Valorant.

Sinatraa will be joining the Sentinels esports organisation as part of the five-person squad being built for when the game eventually releases. The team consists of two CS:GO players, Shahzeb “ShahZaM” Khan and Hunter “SicK” Mims, with careers dating back to 2014 in the esports scene. Also on the roster is Jared “Zombs” Gitlin, a professional Apex Legends player who has multiple top finishes at tournaments under his belt. A fifth team member is still being selected.

The long-awaited April 28 update for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare/Warzone has arrived, and it introduces some notable changes across the standard multiplayer and the battle royale game.

The update is a big one, as it clocks in at 13 GB on Xbox One and 10 GB on PS4. The file size of the PC edition depends on other factors. You can start download it right now.

While you wait, you can check out the full patch notes posted below.

Dead by Daylight has received a big update, with all-new features, content, bug fixes, quality of life adjustments, and balance changes included. Update 3.7.0 is set to get the game ready ahead of the scheduled release of Tome III: Escalation on April 29.

Maps such as Coolwind Farms and MacMillian Estate are being altered with the new tools the developers have implemented. Various maps will have changes to the size, layout, spacing, and spawning mechanics, with aspects of the maps being balanced to remove some unfair exploits players have been utilizing.

One of the main mechanics in the game for the survivors is repairing generators in order to escape. The devs have made two major changes to this mechanic in the update: reduced efficiency when repairing with other survivors and skill check bonuses. The speed reduction for repairing a generator with other survivors has been raised to 15%, with the reduction increasing by a further 15% per additional survivor.

After previewing the patch notes for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare and Warzone's April 28 update, developer Infinity Ward has now posted the complete list of changes and tweaks.

This update brings Modern Warfare/Warzone up to version 1.20. According to CharlieIntel, it's 10 GB on PS4 and 13 GB on Xbox One. On PC, those who only have the free-to-play Warzone will see a 9 GB update, while people who bought Modern Warfare must download a 32 GB update.

On PS4 and Xbox One, the update includes another download called Data Pack 1. After you've installed the patch and select a mode, you'll be prompted to install this Data Pack 1. After the download completes, you need to close the game and launch it again to continue playing.

In these times of quarantine and social-distancing, people are looking for more content to consume at home, and Star Wars writer Gary Whitta is here to help with something very special.

Whitta, who wrote Star Wars: Rogue One as well as the Denzel Washington movie Book of Eli, has started a talk show that takes place inside Animal Crossing: New Horizons. It's called Animal Talking, and it promises to deliver the kind of wholesome programming that we're all looking for these days.

Whitta created a set in his Animal Crossing basement featuring a desk and a couch for the interview subjects. There are even decorative plants, lights, and a drumset for the house band. It looks great.

Attribution is one of the most interesting subjects in art, if you ask me. A lot of paintings are old and sketchily documented. Their provenance is up for debate. Many great artists didn't sign their work or have handy magazine profiles written about them. So much has been forgotten and so much that has survived has been restored over time and lost much of its context. So you have a painting with few clues. What do you do?

There's another muddying factor, of course, and that's forgery. With the arrival of an art museum in Animal Crossing this week - and a sudden outpouring of lavish canvases with little documentation - I've been thinking of one of the strangest stories of art forgery I've ever heard. It's a story about a French painter called Etienne Terrus and a gallery devoted to his work. Or so everyone thought until 2018.

The Etienne Terrus Museum is situated in Elne, a small French community in Southern France. According to a Guardian piece from the 30th April, 2018, an acquisition of new works brought with it an art historian to take a look at the collection, and lead to the discovery that "nearly 60% of the entire collection was fake."

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Fortnite Chapter 2 Season 2 may have been extended from its initial 10-week duration through until June 4, but that hasn’t stopped Epic Games from already teasing what’s to come with in-game posters.

First spotted by dataminer FortTory, the posters added as part of the v12.50 update give slight clues as to what’s to come in Fortnite Chapter 2 Season 3.

So what can we glean from these poster teasers? Well, the ‘No Sweat Insurance’ logo can be spotted in the bottom left-hand corner of each one, suggesting some sort of natural disaster may be on the way.

Will it be a tsunami? Mass flooding? Or something a little more magical and fantasy-based given Fortnite’s crazy world? Currently, it remains to be seen exactly what’s going to happen, but it does seem to suggest the map’s going to get a whole lot wetter in the coming season.

“So how are you doing, Matt?” asks Brendy (RPS in peace). We’re foraging together, well out of earshot from the other survivors. “I mean outside the game”, he says. “How’s your shoulder? Is your collarbone healing OK?”. It’s been a while since we chatted, and I genuinely appreciate his concern. It’s a nice moment. I tell him I’m doing just fine, while simultaneously raising my sickle.

“Feels a bit weird to do this now, though” I said, as I brought it down on him.

Project Winter is a survival game about escaping a frozen wilderness, except really it’s about luring your friends into the wilderness so you can murder them. We played it nonstop for most of last weekend, and I have rarely laughed so hard at a videogame.

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Tetsuya Nomura had something to say about Final Fantasy VII Remake's ending. Beware, there are spoilers inside.

The post Here’s What Tetsuya Nomura Has To Say About the Mysterious Ending of Final Fantasy VII Remake appeared first on Siliconera.

Phoenix occupies a special place in the Valorant characters roster. Armed with his Curveball flashes and damage-over-time abilities, he’s a spectacular agent for flushing enemies out of hiding and countering players who hold angles in wait for your attack. But as with all Valorant agents, there’s even more to him than just the surface detail – and our Valorant Phoenix guide will ensure you’re up to the challenge of using all four of his abilities as effectively as possible.

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If you want to claim the next three weeks of freebies on the Epic Games Store, you’ll first need to enable two-factor authentication on your account to strengthen its security. Two-factor authentication is easy to set up and use so it’s not a bother, though it is curious that they’re only requiring this until May 21st, not permanently. “We are making this change in an effort to encourage our players to take steps to strengthen their Epic account security,” Epic explain, not really explaining.

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Manticore Games unveil Core, a new F2P online game platform that aims to bring fresh blood into game dev and foster the birth of the next 'it' genre with a drag-and-drop toolset for game design. ...

Today’s selection of articles from Kotaku’s reader-run community: My Understanding Of Final Fantasy VII Remake’s Story and Ending • Stinolez’s Seasonal Roundup [Winter 2020] • TAY Retro: Nintendo Entertainment System - The Kids These Days Tetris [TV Commercial, NA]

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UPDATE 10pm: Just as Fortnite's latest leaks suggested, Epic's battle royale behemoth is getting a zero-combat mode - and, sorry if you were hoping to catch your breath, it's now live.

Epic is calling its social-focussed new addition Party Royale mode, and has described it in an email sent to content creators (thanks PC Gamer) as an "experimental and evolving space" where players can "leave [their] weapons and mats behind".

It also says it plans to run some in-game tests this Friday, 1st May, at 2pm UK time, which might given a tantalising glimpse at the developer's future intentions for its surprise new mode.

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If the worrying reports of Nintendo account breaches weren't already enough to encourage you to enable two-factor authentication on all your gaming accounts, then maybe Epic's new policy will, as the company will periodically require users to enable two-factor authentication before claiming free games on the Epic Games Store. For the next few weeks, at least.

In a blog post, Epic explained the change was an "effort to encourage our players to take steps to strengthen their Epic account security", and will take place from now until 21st May. If two-factor authentication is not already enabled on a player's Epic account, the player will receive a message encouraging them to set up the security feature when trying to claim a free game.

"We understand that this is a minor inconvenience for some, but we want to provide the best possible solutions to protect your Epic account," Epic added.

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Hi-Rez Studios' action-packed third-person MOBA Smite is now available on the Epic Games Store. Check out our review for the game here - a lot has changed over the years since that review was relevant, but it's still a fast-paced team-based foray, now with all kinds of other characters and modes to explore.

Availability on the Epic Games Store gives players just one more place to load into the big god-based battle. Cross play and cross progression are part of the deal, so if you're used to playing somewhere else, no problem. Check out the new trailer below!

Enplex Games' Population Zero heads to Steam Early Access on May 5. Part MMO, part survival, you have the option of how to play on a harsh planet each week, with the game sessions divided into 7 day cycle. PVE encounters against the harsh planet and its denizens are challenging enough, but if you opt into a PVP cycle you are going to up against the most dangerous game as well - other players.

While survival-style games are quite commonplace these days, quirks like the game length cycle and meta account progression may be enough for Population Zero to stand out. Check out the early access launch trailer below!

Ubisoft was very active in supporting the release of Assassin’s Creed Odyssey, but it appears that the publisher is finally ready to show off where we’ll be headed next, now that the adventures in ancient Greece have concluded. A live stream is underway that will pull back the curtain on the next setting for the series. 

Artist Kode Abdo, more popularly known as BossLogic, is creating an art piece that promises to have the answer. BossLogic is best known for his digital artistry creating posters for Marvel and DC, including for properties like Avengers: Endgame and Black Adam. Check out his Instagram for a glimpse at his work. 

If you’d like to follow along with the art creation as it unfolds, you can watch on Twitch, where Ubisoft has shared players may have a chance to earn a Twitch Drop for a future Assassin’s Creed skin. 

Alternately, you can watch on Mixer, YouTube, Twitter, or Facebook. 

The Nintendo Switch Online free trials have been reset, so people can again play online for free or sample NES and SNES games for a week.

The post Nintendo Switch Online Free Trials Reset for Users appeared first on Siliconera.

The pandemic delayed Street Fighter V server maintenance, so people will have to deal with hitbox issues and other issues for a bit longer.

The post Street Fighter V Server Maintenance Being Delayed by COVID-19 appeared first on Siliconera.

The upgraded version of NieR Replicant will feature new music and extended songs.

The post NieR Replicant Will Feature New Music and Extended Songs appeared first on Siliconera.

It’s been a whole eight years since Terrace House Boys and Girls Next Door made its television debut, and it’s since become an international phenomenon and has made a name for itself as the most beautifully mundane reality TV show around.

The premise for each season is the same: three boys and three girls live together in a house, and we get to see what happens. What makes this different from other reality shows, however, is that all cast members continue to live their normal daily lives and there are no substantial restrictions on them.

As one of the most popular shows on Netflix, Terrace House has garnered a lot of fans and viewers, which means it’s time to test your knowledge of the show. We’ve put together a short list of questions down below spanning all seasons of the show, right up to the latest episode of Tokyo 2019-2020 as of April 2020.

Let’s see how well you’ve been paying attention. Take our quiz below to find out how you fare with your Terrace House knowledge!

(All images via Netflix & Fuji Television)

Dozens of game companies have banded together to offer a free video game to NHS staff, with over 85,000 keys up for grabs in all. That’s sweet, that. I’ve received a wee peek at the giveaway and seen its lineup includes big-name desirables like Doom Eternal, Dreams, and Fifa 20, and games for platforms including PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Switch, Vita, Android, iOS, and Oculus cybergogggles.

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Good news, Oculus Rift S hunters. Stock levels for Oculus’s best VR headset have shot back up over at Overclockers UK today, marking the first time anyone’s been able to get hold of the headset in absolutely ages.

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As you may know by now, Riot’s new tactical FPS, Valorant, has an anti-cheat system that’s come under fire over the last few weeks for allegedly being a bit invasive. The reason for this is that the software, named Vanguard, runs a kernel-level driver at start-up, giving it full administrator privileges. For obvious reasons, this has raised concerns that Riot are giving themselves access to, well, everything you have tucked away in that PC of yours. They’re trying to alleviate concerns now, though, by making Vanguard appear in your system tray, and allowing you to shut it down from there if you don’t want it constantly running.

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Jett is one of the most mobile agents in Valorant, and her ultimate ability is notorious for wiping out entire squads at the best of times. But with such a high skill ceiling, you’re going to need all the help you can get to truly master Jett. Hence, this Valorant Jett guide.

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Today’s the day for Ubisoft to announce a new Assassin’s Creed game, or at least to reveal where they’re taking the globetrotting murder simulator next. This is happening through the unconventional medium of an artist drawing a picture on a livestream, which when finished will show the game’s landscape and the murderer who’ll roam it. Some earlier unconfirmed rumours claimed the game would be Assassin’s Creed Ragnarok, a Viking-o-rama, though other guesses I’m seeing in stream chat range from Scotland to Rome so… who knows. Come watch the stream and join in the guessing game.

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Train Station Renovation

is coming out on Steam Early Access later this week. If it sounds like the sort of game published by PlayWay, you are correct, because it is. I was initially intrigued by it because train simulation games and renovation simulation games are both quietly but enduringly popular. The idea of a crossover between the two felt both odd and necessary at the same time.

It is a game where you go to derelict train stations and un-derelict them, picking up rubbish and replacing furniture and what have you. It sounds quite boring, and honestly it sort of is, except it also sort of isn’t. Having played the first couple of levels, I can confirm that Train Station Renovation, far from being mundane, feels frankly bizarre. It has left me with nothing but questions. And lots of screenshots of sweet, sweet graffiti.
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War never changes, but sometimes old wars wind down so we can have a bash at new ones. Dice are waving goodbye to Battlefront 2 with today’s final update, letting people duke it out on Scarif – better known as ‘that planet from the end of Rogue One’. There are other new bits and pieces, but the big picture news is that Dice are shifting their efforts to the next Battlefield. The end of Battlefield V is nigh too, you see, with one last big update due in June.

What lies over yonder war horizon? We don’t exactly know, but we do know something with Battlefield in the name is planned for next year.

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Watch the World Premiere of Assassin's Creed Valhalla April 30th at 8am PDT / 5pm CEST. #AssassinsCreed