April 2020

The first seasonal event in Switch's just-released Animal Crossing: New Horizons, Bunny Day, is now live. The game's take on Easter involves acquiring eggs hidden all around your island, acquiring new recipes, and crafting new furniture and decorations. Bunny Day is available as part of a free update released just prior to launch; simply make sure your game is up-to-date and you'll be able to dive in when you open the game.

Zipper T. Bunny has appeared on the island and will be sticking around through April 12, which marks Bunny Day itself. Speaking with him will reward you with a DIY recipe and get you the basic details of what's going on during the event. You can acquire eggs in a variety of ways, including:

• Leaf egg -- trees
• Stone eggs -- rocks
• Water eggs -- fishing
• Sky eggs -- popping Bunny Day-colored balloons
• Earth eggs -- digging up fossil-style cracks
• Wood eggs -- hitting trees with an axe

Recipes you obtain--which include the Bunny Day fence, stool, bed, and glowy garland--are crafted using eggs you catch. Zipper teases that if you're able to acquire every recipe and craft its corresponding item, he'll have a special gift for you. More recipes will be hidden during the event, so it sounds as if you won't be able to necessarily complete your collection on the first day.

In the last update for Season 2 of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, developer Infinity Ward is bringing back an intense spin on Gunfight, introducing a new variant to Cyber Attack, and having a little fun with April Fools' Day.

Gunfight will see the return of a Snipers-Only 3v3 playlist, which is pretty self-explanatory. The regular 2v2 mode will add another play to each team and cycle through snipers only, making the cramped and quick matches a real test of precision.

Cyber Attack is also getting a new spin with a Pro variant, which removes the need to revive teammates and automatically respawns them back into the game. This should give the mode a much more chaotic feel, as players can return to the action a lot faster than before.

With the COVID-19 pandemic forcing much of the world into self-isolation, being able to find affordable respite has rarely been a more pressing concern. Today we take a look at three recent indie games that deliver us relief, letting us escape to a better place and refocus on finding a connection with others.

This is our second indie roundup for 2020. If you’re still on the lookout for more Neat Indie Games, go back and check out our takes on Frog Detective 2: The Case of the Invisible Wizard, Kine and Superliminal.

Family-friendly games filled with lots of laughs are ideal right about now as we practice social distancing. A new multiplayer physics game published by the prolific TinyBuild Games looks to provide just that. Totally Reliable Delivery Service released today on PS4, Xbox One Switch, PC, and mobile, and you can pick it up free of charge until April 8 at the Epic Games Store.

Developed by We're Five Games, Totally Reliable Delivery Service drops you and three friends--either locally or online--on a sandbox island. Your job is to deliver packages across the open world by any means necessary. Cartoonish visuals and a ragdoll physics engine ensure that Totally Reliable Delivery Service doesn't take itself too seriously--or seriously at all, really. Essentially, you're terrible at your job by design.

With E3 2020 canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, some publishers are still planning to give digital presentations around the time that E3 would have taken place in June. Those plans now include one less publisher, as Bethesda has bowed out of its annual presentation.

A statement from marketing VP Pete Hines, who often headlines Bethesda's E3 presentations, said the company is facing "many challenges" due to the pandemic, and as a result won't be hosting its digital showcase in June. It does note that the company will still be sharing its plans in the coming months--though it's unclear if this means a single large digital presentation will still be happening, or if the announcements will be split into individual ones.

Bethesda's E3 presentations usually pack at least a few surprises, along with details about ongoing content for games like Elder Scrolls Online. We're not sure what the company planned to show at this year's event, though it has teased long-term projects like Starfield and Elder Scrolls 6.

To celebrate the arrival of spring, the PlayStation Store is hosting a massive new sale, offering discounts on more than 600 PS4 games. The Spring Sale is live now and runs through April 28, with a refreshed lineup of games coming at the midway point on April 15. With everyone spending more time at home right now, the wide-ranging sale couldn't have come at a better time. So now's your chance to stock up on games you may have missed out on and reload your backlog. Since the sale just started, you may need to add games to your cart to see the discounts.

Round one of the Spring Sale is filled with a boatload of AAA games, many of which released just last year. One of 2019's best games, A Plague Tale: Innocence, is down to $20, which is the cheapest price we've seen on PS4. Other recent hits receiving big discounts include Death Stranding for $30, Devil May Cry 5 for $19.59, Borderlands 3 for $30, and Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order for $36.

Ducking in under the wire, April’s PlayStation Plus games are here. As always, these games are only “free” if you have an active PlayStation Plus membership.

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A Razer Fight Stick, JACHS NY short-sleeve knits, Nebula Capsule Max exclusive, and a Timbuk2 bag sale lead off Wednesday’s best deals from around the web.

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Save on PCs and accessories, no joke

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Houseparty accused of hacking users’ passwords to other site; Epic says that’s a lie

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Stonks!

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Enjoy A Thief’s End as part of PS Plus this month

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The company will have more to share soon, however

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April Fools is not a day to scare or mislead people with mean tricks. April Fools is for lighthearted pranks, and silly jokes. April Fools is a day to stick googly eyes on all of your video game characters. If you load up Overwatch today, you might notice that Blizzard have done exactly that – it’s not just the heroes that have received the googly eye treatment either, even Hanzo’s dragons and the test dummies are joining in on the fun.

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Whether or not famously difficult games should have an optional easy mode has long been a point of contention. But many already do, albeit unofficially, thanks to modders taking things into their own hands.

Take the fella who goes by “n00bplatformer”, for example. He recently created an “Assist Mode” for run ‘n’ gun action game Cuphead. It makes simple tweaks to some of the game’s systems, like granting players six hitpoints instead of the usual three, and boosting weapon damage an extra 50% so that boss battles don’t drag on so long.

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Mojang’s Minecraft Dungeons has seen some setbacks due to the Covid-19 pandemic, pushing back its release. It’s not a huge delay: the launch is now on May 26th, when previously they’d said Minecraft action-RPG spin-off would be out by the end of April. And now you have a firm date.

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It was a week after I'd established my swap shop in Animal Crossing: New Horizons, and things had been going surprisingly well. After testing it with friends I'd opened my island up to the wider community via dodo code, and most people were behaving. Guests were swapping out unwanted items and finding new trinkets to take home, with many showing stunning generosity and sending kind messages. There were a couple who stretched the rules by leaving flowers or a single iron nugget, but I was willing to forgive them (particularly given someone had donated 300k bells to cover costs). Demand had grown so great, in fact, that I'd even set up a swap shop Twitter account just to manage all the requests to visit.

And then, as always, someone tried to ruin it all.

I was minding my own business managing the shop when, glancing down from my Nook phone, I noticed a mysterious absence of fruit in one section of the shop. Maybe someone was swapping out a lot of fruit at once? Odd. Putting my phone away, I saw that half the items in the swap shop had vanished - and the culprit was mid-way through hoovering up the remaining goods. They clearly had no intention of swapping anything, and were well on their way to simply clearing out the stock.

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Humble's has launched the Conquer Covid-19 Bundle featuring over $1000 of games and ebooks with all proceeds going to support the efforts of various organisations tackling the global pandemic.

It's a substantial haul, that includes loads of indie hits, classic favourites, insightful learning books and terrific graphic novels. Listing everything here would likely risk breaking your scroll wheel, so I've picked out a few standouts below to give you an idea of what's included. You can check out everything for yourself on the Humble Conquer Covid-19 Bundle page.

In terms of games, highlights easily include ingenious strategy gem Into the Breach, unconventional RPG Undertale, enthralling adventure game Hollow Knight and pensive puzzler The Witness. There's good representation from Darksiders, Jackbox and many classics from Double Fine, too.

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Following the announcement of the upcoming western release of The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel IV, NIS America released a stylish trailer.

The trailer finally marks a reveal that many fans of the series have been waiting for a long time and features familiar heroes whose adventures will finally come to a (temporary) conclusion in Eglish.

You can watch it below.

We already know that the game will come to PS4 in the fall of 2020, while fans on PC and Nintendo Switch will have to wait for 2021. 

If you’re unfamiliar with the game, here’s how NIS America describes it officially.

The Erebonian Empire is on the brink of all-out war! 

Taking place shortly after the ending of Trails of Cold Steel III, the heroes of Class VII find themselves against the full force of the Empire in an attempt to stop its path of total domination. Further, the hero of the Erebonian Civil War and Class VII’s instructor, Rean Schwarzer, has gone missing. Now, the students of Class VII, old and new, must unite with heroes from all over the continent to create the only chance the world has to be spared from total destruction.

A few days ago, a leak revealed the lineup of games be provided to PlayStation Plus subscribers at no additional cost in April. Today Sony Interactive Entertainment provided official confirmation. 

The two games included in the lineup are the critically acclaimed and massively popular Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End by Naughty Dog and Codemasters’ Dirt Rally 2.0. 

We also get a trailer showing them off.

If you’re unfamiliar with the games, here’s how Sony itself describes them:

Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End

Naughty Dog’s critically acclaimed adventure epic arrives on PS Plus! Several years after his last adventure, retired fortune hunter, Nathan Drake, is forced back into the world of thieves. With the stakes much more personal, Drake embarks on a visually stunning globe-trotting journey in pursuit of a historical conspiracy behind a fabled pirate treasure.

Thank you for the overwhelming feedback on our #DuckTales Quackshot screens. We worked hard on a legit pitch to Disney but unfortunately never got the license. It would've been a shame to bury the material so it became this years #AprilFools. Maybe someday Disney will reconsider? pic.twitter.com/oLzikKds4u

Remember Tales of the Rays? Now it's the stage for a Bandai Namco April Fools' gag involving a Tales fighting game.

The post Tales of the Rays Returns to Life With an April Fools’ Gag appeared first on Siliconera.

Tired of social distancing and want to make new bonds? Fate/Grand Order is ready to make you Master over an array of Servants.

The post How to Get Started in Fate/Grand Order appeared first on Siliconera.

Think you could defeat Vyrn in all his glory? The Granblue Fantasy April Fools' gag asked exactly that.

The post People Were Able to Challenge Dark Vyrn in the Granblue Fantasy April Fools’ Raid appeared first on Siliconera.

Deals spring anew with Sony's PlayStation Spring Sale. Especially if you're looking for games like Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot or Yakuza 6.

The post PlayStation Store Spring Sale Discounts Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot and Death Stranding appeared first on Siliconera.

Respawn may be teasing the next town takeover for Apex Legends. If you head to Sniper's Ridge--an apt name for the location given it provides a nice perch over Skyhook and usually hides sniper weapons, attachments, and ammo--on World's Edge, you'll find new map changes that seem to hint that Bloodhound is getting a town takeover next.

About partway up the ridge, you'll see a corpse covered in a murder of crows--the same type that Bloodhound sees with their passive ability, Tracker, as a warning sign that enemies are close. Approach the crows and they'll fly away, revealing the corpse to be what looks like a prowler. No, not a Prowler, like Apex Legends' heavy ammo submachine gun, but a prowler, like the ferocious creature first mentioned in Titanfall and first seen in Titanfall 2.

Being an Easter-inspired event, it's no surprise that eggs feature prominently into Bunny Day, Animal Crossing: New Horizons' first-ever seasonal event. It's live from now through April 12, and while the basics are all outlined for you, there are some details you might need to discover on your own. Below, we've detailed all six types of eggs and how to obtain each one and explained what you'll do with them.

The majority of the eggs require some type of tool, so you'll want to have some materials on hand. In particular, from my experience, there are a ton of balloons out, so you'll want to craft at least one slingshot on hand at all times so you don't miss out on any. (If you've unlocked Nook's Cranny, you can buy one from the cabinet in the back-left corner for 900 bells.)

Speaking with Zipper T. Bunny reveals there are six types of eggs, but he only mentions five ways of obtaining them. Here's the full list of all six and how to get them:

Many songs from video games enter our minds and stay with us forever. Whenever someone mentions the Lost Woods in The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, I don't think about the puzzling labyrinth inside; I think about the melodic jingle that loops over and over again as I explore the forest. Video game soundtracks can be as powerful and sometimes even more memorable than the gameplay experience itself. There's a seemingly endless supply of wonderful video game soundtracks, and many of them are available to stream on services like Spotify, Amazon Music Unlimited, and Apple Music. If you're looking for some fun tunes to help pass the time inside, we've rounded up more than 35 of the best video game soundtracks you can stream right now.

We chose to only include original music, so no licensed soundtracks appear on this list--sorry Tony Hawk's Pro Skater, but we still love the old you. Also, only one game from a single franchise was chosen, so The Legend of Zelda doesn't appear a handful of times. Lastly, our picks are in no particular order.

Popular music-streaming services

Patch 2.08 is now available to download for Dreams on PlayStation 4. The latest update for Media Molecule's creating and sharing platform adds some new characters and a couple of edit mode changes.

The full patch notes detail the Welcome Garden Character Pack, which introduces two new playable characters, an NPC, and a few enemies. You can use each of these characters in your creations, and their aesthetic goes well with the previously released Welcome Garden Art Pack.

The rest of the newly implemented changes are centred around Dreams' edit mode. There's a new Blank Puppet designed for platforming gameplay, and you can now navigate the Dreamiverse using the directional buttons on your controller, as well as a few other improvements.

With April Fools' Day finally here, many companies are participating in pranking their fanbases. Developer Ubisoft Montreal is doing the same with For Honor on PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One--and the results are tiny but come with some pretty big laughs.

All player-controlled characters on For Honor's battlefield have been shrunk to near-microscopic levels. The appearance change recalls Joe Johnston's 1989 comedy science fiction film Honey, I Shrunk The Kids, in which a dad reduces two families to a quarter of an inch in height and must get back to the lab to undo the experiment while fending off hazards, insects, and more. Check out For Honor: Mini Edition below, which is only available for April Fools' Day.

In other For Honor news, Ubisoft introduced a crossover event with The Prince from the studio's long-dormant action-adventure series Prince of Persia. The limited-time event, The Blades of Persia, is available on all platforms until April 2.

It's April 1, and as foretold on the ancient tablets that can mean only one thing: The internet is even more full of lies than usual, except today we call them "pranks." The video game industry isn't quite as active in the holiday merriment this year due to, you know, everything, but some studios are still getting in on the goofs.

Check out some of the best pranks this year, and leave a comment if you spot any that we haven't.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare Makes Shipment Even More Cramped

The notoriously tiny map Shipment is now playable in 10v10 teams, making for a wildly frantic match.

WWE 2K20 and some of the brand's most iconic wrestlers are coming together to entertain you during your coronavirus (COVID-19) quarantine. The WWE Dream Match Mania event will simulate matches between some of the biggest wrestlers in history, and it will have commentary from real WWE superstars to back it up.

Airing April 2 at 10 AM PT / 1 PM ET on WWE's platforms as well as YouTube, Twitter, Twitch, and Facebook, WWE Dream Match Mania will consist of six simulated matches.

• Roman Reigns vs. The Rock with commentary from Jimmy and Jey Uso
• Sasha Banks vs. Trish Stratus with commentary from Sasha Banks and Bayley
• John Cena vs. Hulk Hogan with commentary from R-Truth and Drake Maverick
• Seth Rollins vs. Rick Flair with commentary from Johnny Gargano and Adam Cole
• Charlotte Flair vs. Beth Phoenix with commentary from both wrestlers
• Goldberg vs. Big E with commentary from Big E and Kofi Kingston

Alongside WWE Network and its own platforms, you'll be able to watch the event on UpUpDownDown's social media platforms. UpUpDownDown is the gaming channel run by Xavier Woods, otherwise known as WWE superstar Xavier Woods.

The video game Borderlands 3 was a big sales success when it launched last fall, according to its publisher, 2K, which described it as “a billion-dollar global brand.” That’s why it was shocking to employees at Gearbox, the developer of the game, when the studio’s CEO, Randy Pitchford, told them yesterday that they…

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Vava 8-in-1 USB-C Port | $20 | Amazon | Promo code KinjaVa330 + clip coupon

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Cinema didn’t prepare us for this — but a few books did

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