June 2020

Bungie has been very quiet about the newest season of Destiny 2, scheduled to begin next week. Previous seasons have had clear names discussed weeks or months in advance, but this summer’s season has consistently been titled Season of the [Redacted]. In addition, the developers have been gradually teasing a number of separate story threads for some time, including the impending arrival of the pyramid ships hinted at in earlier installments of the game, the Drifter’s complicated allegiances, and the current threat of a giant Cabal ship hurtling toward humanity’s last city.

While we don’t know yet if all those (and other) threads are finally coming to a head, we do now know that Bungie plans to hold back announcements until the very day of the new season. Season of the [REDACTED] is scheduled to launch on June 9, and a new teaser, first surfacing on the game’s official Twitter, suggests that the future of Destiny 2 will be revealed on the morning of June 9, at 9am Pacific.

Check out the brief trailer on Destiny's official Twitter feed, which seems to show the Drifter piloting toward a particularly icy moon.

Developer CD Projekt has shared first details of Master Mirror, the fifth expansion for its card-battling Witcher spin-off Gwent, which comes to PC, iOS, and Android on 30th June.

Master Mirror adds over 70 new cards to Gwent's current roster, each themed around The Witcher 3's greatest villain, Gaunter O'Dimm - also known as the Master Mirror or the Man of Glass. There are faction-specific cards - including new "evolving" Legendary cards that grow stronger with each passing round - as well as 11 neutral cards usable across all factions.

Additionally, Master Mirror introduces new statuses and abilities, designed to expand the strategic possibilities available during combat. These include Veil, which can shield units from detrimental status effects or prevent them from gaining beneficial ones, and Rupture, which will damage an effected unit by a value equivalent to its power at the end of a turn.

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Today PC Gamer and Gamesradar announced that the two shows the sisters sites are planning for their E3-non-E3 celebration have been delayed.

Both shows, the PC Gaming Show and the Future Games Show, were supposed to be broadcasted this Saturday, June 6, and both will instead take place one week later on Saturday 13.

Both websites mentioned today that the shows have been moved aside to make room to the more important conversations sparked by the tragic events happening in the United States. 

Below you can find the full message delivered by PC Gamer via social media. 

If you’re unfamiliar with the shows, the PC Gaming Show promises a look at upcoming games for PC, while the Future Games Show has a multiplatform approach, featuring titles from a variety of developers and publishers. 

Besides the juggernaut release that is Naughty Dog’s The Last of Us Part II, June 2020 for new PS4 games is a bit on the dry side with no other AAA titles being released unless you count a new SpongeBob game as AAA that is.

We have a full list of every new game coming to the PS4 in June 2020 down below but if you want some more info on some of the more notable releases that we recommend picking up, just keep scrolling down:

New PS4 Releases for June 2020

• Little Town Hero – June 2
• Awesome Pea 2 – June 3
• Pro Cycling Manager 2020 – June 4
• Tour De France 2020 – June 4
• The Elder Scrolls Online: Greymoor – June 9
• Ys: Memories of Celceta – June 9
• Jump King – June 9
• 1971 Project Helios – June 9
• Beyond Blue – June 11
• Warborn – June 12
• Desperados 3 – June 16
• Disintegration – June 16
• The Last of Us Part II – June 19
• SpongeBob SquarePants: Battle For Bikini Bottom – Rehydrated – June 23
• Fairy Tale – June 26
• Hunting Simulator 2 – June 30
• No Straight Roads – June 30

The post New PS4 Games Releasing in June 2020 appeared first on Twinfinite.

Currently, we†™re looking for a programmer. This opportunity is for a (temporarily remote) full-time position in Cambridge, MA. ...

It's not every day that you see Konami publish an indie game from a Western developer, but that happened yesterday with Skelattack, a skeletal action-platformer, and it's the first step in a wider plan.

The company has a newfound "drive" toward "publishing more titles from Western studios," according to Richard Jones, the senior European brand and business development manager at Konami.

"Obviously everyone knows Konami, we have studios and teams in Japan, we have many well-known, well-loved IPs," Jones said in an interview with GamesIndustry.biz. "They're all being managed and looked after by our studios in Japan, and what we're looking for is complementary titles, to build the portfolio with things that perhaps [are] new to Konami – Western titles for Western audiences."

This first public-facing game happens to be smaller-scale, but that's not necessarily what all of these externally developed projects will look like. It's more about finding games with "fresh ideas, and teams that are pushing existing genres in new ways, or coming up with something genuinely unique."

"We're only now just going public with this, with the release of Skelattack, [but] I'm sure you can imagine that this has been planned for months," Jones continued. "So, right now, we're looking at short- and mid-term titles that need funding and publishing support to realize their potential. I think long-term, from my perspective, it's about forming creative partnerships with studios."

Revov Tray Box | $70 | Kickstarter

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In recognition of everything that’s going on right now, LEGO’s actions for #BlackOutTuesday involved not just a $4 million donation to organisations devoted to racial equality, but a request for sellers to not advertise any sets involving police or the White House.

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The gaming historians over at Past to Present Online recently produced new footage from an early build of The Avengers, a canceled THQ game that was meant to coincide with the release of the first Avengers movie in 2012.

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Call of Duty: Modern Warfare developer Infinity Ward will take more steps to find and ban players using racial slurs in their in-game display names, as well as other measures to keep racist language out of its game, it said today.

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More systems will be put in place

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Sega has released Earth UFO Catcher, a browser game that commemorates its 60th anniversary by having you fish up classic objects.

The post Sega’s Earth UFO Catcher Browser Game Lets You Catch Classic Characters appeared first on Siliconera.

Kofi Ofosu is a freelance artist from Ghana.

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Throughout 2020 the source code for a bunch of Pokémon games has been leaking online. As people are coming through the data, they’re making weird little discoveries, like the fact Gen 4 Pokémon games would seemingly adjust their encounter rates on certain days, like birthdays or the anniversaries of tragic events.

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Sega President and CEO Haruki Satomi was asked about the possibilities of a new console, what to expect moving forward, and more.

The post Sega CEO Talks About the Possibilities of a New Sega Console and Content Creation Moving Forward appeared first on Siliconera.

11 bit studios, the developers of the post-apocalyptic strategy game Frostpunk, have given us a suitably bleak glimpse of the upcoming and final expansion for the game.

Originally teased as Project TVADGYCGJR, we now know that this expansion will be called On The Edge, and that it will continue the story told during Frostpunk’s main campaign. Whereas 11 bit’s last offering, The Last Autumn, was a prequel DLC, On The Edge will continue the tale of the rugged survivors past the climactic events at the end of the base game.

The teaser itself doesn’t give us much, mostly acting as a tone piece, but the expansion’s Steam page sheds some light on what players can expect:

• Brand new story scenario, set after the Great Storm
• An array of challenges to overcome on a new, desolate map
• Unique mechanics to utilize on the Frostland view

Frostpunk released in 2018, and is a surprising and innovative mix of genres. You spend most of your time tending to the frostbitten needs of the inhabitants of the fledgling colony of New London, as they do everything they can to survive a new Ice Age brought on by climate change. Part city-builder, part survival-sim, you must make some hard (and incredibly bleak) decisions if your people are to have any chance of survival.

The choices in Frostpunk are presented as dilemmas, using the games arresting art style to chilling effect. Will you use child labor to keep the generators running for a few hours longer each day, if it means a few more of your people might make it through the long and frigid nights?

We loved it, and you can read our full review right here.

Epic Games announced in a blog post on Wednesday that they will be delaying the launch of Fortnite Season 3 and the upcoming live event, The Device, amid ongoing protests of George Floyd’s death.

Season 3 was previously announced to launch early this month, but now the launch of the new season, as well as the live event that comes before it, have been delayed to mid-June.

Epic Games released the following statement explaining their decision to delay launch of Fortnite Season 3 and The Device as well as showing their support for equality.

“Recent events are a heavy reminder of the ongoing injustices in our society, from the denial of basic human rights to the impact of racism both overt and subtle against people of color. We’re acutely aware of the pain our friends, families, team members, players, and communities are experiencing.

We believe in equality and justice, diversity and inclusion, and that these fundamentals are above politics.

The team is eager to move Fortnite forward, but we need to balance the Season 3 launch with time for the team to focus on themselves, their families, and their communities.

The live event The Device will be delayed to Monday, June 15, and the Season 3 launch delayed to Wednesday, June 17. We know this delay comes on the heels of another one, and we appreciate your patience and understanding during these difficult times.”

Sega Shiro and Sega Hatan Shiro's battle reaches a climax in the third video. Will young Sega Shiro protect Sega like his father before him?

The post The Sega Shiro Saga Continues With a Shocking Twist for Segata Sanshiro’s Son appeared first on Siliconera.

Gwent, the card game spin-off of The Witcher 3, has a new expansion coming. On June 30, players will be able to play the Master Mirror expansion, which brings back the ominous Gaunter O'Dimm.

As the trailer below shows, O'Dimm has been pulling the strings behind the scenes for some time now, and this expansion will bring him to the forefront in the card battling game. The trailer suggests that this will have some major implications for Gwent's storytelling.

The expansion will add 70 new cards, including several faction-specific cards and a new Legendary card type. There are 11 new neutral cards coming, too, as well as new statuses and abilities.

Calling all those who are fans of both Star Wars Battlefront 2 and Tiger King. Yes, that's not a typo. There's a new Star Wars Battlefront 2 Mod that reskins Han Solo as the infamous Joe Exotic from Netflix's hit show.

Tiger King made our list of the biggest Netflix exclusives in 2020 and Joe Exotic's popularity has skyrocketed accordingly. While a controversial figure amongst viewers, there's no doubt that he's made it into this year's pop culture lexicon, so this Star Wars Battlefront 2 mod doesn't come completely out of left field.

This mod is currently available on Nexus Mods, and it reskins the in-game Han Solo model to look just like Joe Exotic. We're talking hairstyle changes, fashion faux pas, and more. Users who have downloaded the mod have been leaving comments requesting a Carol Baskin skin for another Star Wars Battlefront 2 character, but it doesn't look like the original creator has delivered on that particular front.

Days of Thunder, the 1990 Tom Cruise film, received a spin-off game on NES back in 1990--but a different game based on the movie that was in development was scrapped, and never saw the light of day. Now, 30 years later, this alternate version of Days of Thunder has been reconstructed into a playable title by video game historians.

Chris Oberth was working as a programmer at Mindscape in 1990, and thanks to The Video Game History Foundation a never-before-seen game by him has been reborn. Oberth passed away in 2012, and the VGHF was later approached by a friend of Oberth's family asking if its members could "make sense" of some of the materials Oberth left behind. In early 2020, the foundation was granted access to Oberth's materials, in which they discovered a disc labelled "NINTENDO HOT ROD TAXI FINAL".

Oberth was known to have worked on an unreleased Days of Thunder game, thanks to a three-part interview with The Retrogaming Times, and after some investigation and sorting through materials the team found close to 40 floppy disks, containing multiple encrypted and split files that would need to be reconstructed to get the game properly running.

Borderlands developer Gearbox Software has joined the chorus in supporting Black Lives Matter following the murder of George Floyd and pushing back some of its scheduled plans for Borderlands 3 in solidarity with the movement. In a statement on Twitter, the developer said it's delaying the release of the Takedown at the Guardian Breach update.

Additionally, the studio is muting its Twitter channel--with the exception of this announcement--out of respect for "what's going on in the world right now." A new date has not been announced as of yet.

2K Games, which publishes the Borderlands series, said it's adding another $1 million USD to the 2K Foundations Program and expanding its scope to include fighting racial injustice and inequalities in black communities around the world.

Path of Exile's latest expansion, Harvest, has been announced. It will be available to PC players from June 19, and Xbox and PlayStation players from June 24. This expansion will introduce a new challenge league, feature extensive balance changes to the existing game, and also visual improvements on top of other additions.

Harvest will revolve around an area called the Sacred Grove, which will provide players with both rare items and formidable foes to face down. Exploring new areas will grant you with items called Seed Caches, and their contents will have to be planted by players within the Sacred Grove. Planting rare seeds will grant you with rarer monsters to fight or harvest, and each will have specific rewards. Players will be able to use the Grove to their advantage to customize their builds and to obtain beneficial items that suit their individual needs.

Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick is one of the highest-paid executives not only in video games, but across the entire entertainment media industry. He made more than $30 million in 2019. One of the company's shareholders, The CtW Investment Group, is now calling on other stakeholders to vote against a measure that gives the company freedom to pay Kotick high rates. [Update: Activision Blizzard has responded with a statement, which you can see below]

In a filing with the United States government, The CtW Investment Groups' director Dieter Waizenegger called on other stakeholders to vote against the "Say-On-Pay" proposal during Activision Blizzard's upcoming annual meeting scheduled for June 11, 2020.

"Despite repeated low approval votes from shareholders, Activision Blizzard maintains multiple, overlapping opportunities for its CEO to earn outsize equity awards, even when performance-related vesting thresholds have not been met," the note says. "Despite failing to disclose pertinent information on performance targets for its Short Term Incentive Plan, Activision Blizzard's proxy statement reveals significant human capital management challenges."

Wasteland 3's third dev diary is here, and it's focused in on the consequences of player choice. The video below delves into how player choices will impact the world of Wasteland 3, and what kind of role-playing is possible.

InXile Entertainment studio head Brian Fargo says that reactivity is "the hallmark of a great roleplaying game," and that a lot of work has been put into making sure that the reactions of the word are "telegraphed"--so you know that events that play out are a direct result of your actions, minor and major.

An example is shown of a scene where you can steal a gun from a poor couple--the gun is going unused, as it has sentimental value to them, but it could be very useful to the player. As Fargo points out, "most players won't do it"--but the option is there, if you don't mind being evil in-game.

Infinity Ward is increasing their efforts to ban racist names from Call of Duty: Modern Warfare and Warzone, the developer announced in a recent tweet. The post says that they already ban users with racist or hate-orientated names from the game but additional counter-measures are being put in place to make sure names don't slip through the cracks.

"There is no place for racist content in our game. This is an effort we began with launch and we need to do a better job. We're issuing thousands of daily bans of racist and hate-orientated names. But we know we have to do more - and we are," Infinity Ward said in the statement.

The tweet goes on to say that they will be adding additional resources to monitor and ID racist content and additional in-game reporting systems to increase the number of bans per hour. They will also be adding filters and greater restrictions on name changes in addition to increasing permanent bans to root out repeat offenders.

Battlefield V's last big content update--the Summer Update--is coming soon, and now developer DICE has shared more details about it. First and foremost, DICE said it will not publish promotional materials or trailers for the new update like it's done in the past so as to not distract from the more important issues in the world today following the murder of George Floyd.

"We're otherwise encouraging that we all take notice of what's happening in the United States, as well as other places around the world, and ask how we can all do more, as we must do more," DICE said in a blog post. "Racism should not exist in our society. We stand with all of our African-American / Black colleagues and partners, families and friends, and everyone around the world who is ready to see it end."

DICE is owned by Electronic Arts, which has pledged more than $1 million to organizations including the Equal Justice Initiative and the NAACP Legal Defense & Educational Fund, along with others to be announced. EA will also double-match employee donations.

Respawn has continued to make bold storytelling decisions when it comes to Apex Legends and that trend has continued in Season 5: Fortune's Favor as the battle royale game moves towards a true episodic experience. Apparently Season 5 is already hinting at upcoming content with the map changes made to Kings Canyon, like the addition of mysterious hatches that seemingly lead to bunker-looking areas that can't yet be accessed.

"The hatches are a fun way to sprinkle changes throughout the map," Apex Legends design director Jason McCord said, according to VG247. "We don't have to make massive changes everywhere, we can sprinkle these things around. We're doing something kind of new, where we have some stuff that is there, but is not unlocked yet. And we're going to unlock it at a certain time, that lines up with some other stuff that we have coming."

Some of this content could have already been teased in Season 5. McCord said he thinks there are still Easter eggs and secrets tied to the new content in Season 5 that fans haven't yet discovered, which may or may not be hinting towards Season 5's "pleasant surprise" for Titanfall fans.

Bohemia Interactive, famous for being behind DayZ, has not in fact been bought out by Tencent. It was reported earlier in the week that Tencent had invested a whopping $260 million in the studio, but this has since been refuted by the Chinese company.

The Information published an article earlier this week which stated that Tencent had acquired "between 70% and 80%" in Bohemia Interactive as part of the tech giant's expansion into the European market. However, this figure, as well as Tencent's involvement with the Czech company at all, has since been refuted in a press release by Tencent.

The last big investment made by Tencent in the region was in Sumo Group, a large British developer with a hand in titles like Forza Horizon 4, Team Sonic Racing, and more. Acquiring Bohemia Interactive would have added the Czech company to a growing portfolio of gaming investments where Tencent has controlling interests; the company would join the likes of Riot Games, Path of Exile's Grinding Gear Games, and Supercell.

The Nintendo Switch always has some good deals on hand, with new ones refreshing every week. To kick off June, the Switch has a sale on almost every Resident Evil game on the console--the Revelations games are not included. Each game is discounted by at least 50%, and you have until June 17 at 12 AM PT / 3 AM ET to take advantage of the lower prices.

The classic-style Resident Evil 0 and Resident Evil Remake have both dropped their prices to $12.89, while the over-the-shoulder, more action-oriented Resident Evil 4, Resident Evil 5, and Resident Evil 6 are down to $15. Almost every game in the Resident Evil franchise is quite good, and while Resident Evil 6 doesn't match up to the series standards, its Switch port is still pretty impressive.

Each one of these Resident Evil games scored at least an 8/10 in GameSpot's reviews, except for Resident Evil 6. Resident Evil 4 was even named GameSpot's Game of the Year for 2005. If you're looking for some excellent games to keep you busy, it's hard to go wrong with most entries in the Resident Evil series.

Update: the leak was officially confirmed on Twitter by THQ Nordic.

Do you remember 38 Studios’ would-be masterpiece RPG Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning? Apparently, it’s coming back.

Today the Microsoft Store published a likely-leaked listing (found by Twitter user WalkingCat via Resetera) for Kingdoms of Amalur: Re-Reckoning with a release date of August 11, 2020.

It appears to be a remaster of the cult RPG released by Electronic Arts in 2012. We knew that THQ Nordic had aquired the rights for the series a couple of years ago, and looks like they’re finally delivering.

Below you can read a description, the cover art, and feature list:

“The hit RPG returns! From the minds of the bestselling author R.A. Salvatore, Spawn creator Todd McFarlane, and Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion lead designer Ken Rolston, comes Kingdoms of Amalur: Re-Reckoning. Remastered with stunning visuals and refined gameplay Re-Reckoning delivers intense, customizable RPG combat inside a sprawling game world.

Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning, the 2012 RPG from controversial former Boston Red Sox pitcher Curt Schilling's ill-fated development studio 38 Studios and publisher EA, is making a comeback of sorts, and it has a brilliant new name.

New rights-owner THQ Nordic is re-releasing the game in August under the name Kingdoms of Amalur: Re-Reckoning. The publisher has a history of adding silly names to re-released games, including Darksiders 2: Deathinitive Edition.

German studio Kaiko is said to be handling the re-release according to a retailer link that went live before the announcement was official.

Kart racing fans rejoice! KartRider: Drift's second closed beta is now live, and players who have been accepted can download the game and jump right into Nexon's latest free-to-play racing game.

If you've been wanting to get into the beta but haven't been able to yet, our KartRider: Drift beta code giveaway is still active for a few more hours so enter now! Players can continue registering for the game even while the beta is active—the cut-off date is June 8.

Those who experienced the first wave of beta testing for KartRider: Drift will notice a number of in-game improvements, including a totally redone UI, a cleaner HUD, a rearview mirror, and other balance changes to make your racing experience more realistic. This second wave of the closed beta also introduces a new character, Diz, and new courses for players to try out along with a variety of cosmetic upgrades.

Slay the Spire developer MegaCrit announced that the roguelike collectible card and deck-building game will be coming to iOS devices sometime this month.

The studio announced the mobile port on the game’s official Steam news page alongside two screenshots of the iPhone version. Both can seen below, which looks pretty much like the original game but on a wider screen.

The iOS version will cost $9.99, and the studio said the game will be the complete experience it was on PC but jokingly without “anime mods.”

MegaCrit did not give an exact release date for the iOS version other than “this month,” but said to watch the upcoming Guerrilla Collective event on June 6 for more information.

The Guerrilla Collective event will show a series of game announcements from over 20 developers and publishers including Coffee Stain Studios, Good Shepherd Entertainment, Larian Studios, Humble Publishing, and more.

An Android version was also announced, but the studio said it is “in the works” and were not ready to detail its release further.

Slay the Spire originally launched for Windows PC, Mac, and Linux at the beginning of 2019. It was then ported to PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch, and Xbox One throughout 2019.

A new edition of Gear Club Unlimited 2, the Switch exclusive racer, is releasing later this year. Gear Club Unlimited 2 - Tracks Edition will launch on August 25, and it'll introduce new tracks, features, and a campaign focused on providing an experience closer to real motorsport than what the original release offered. It will also feature all the content and DLC released for the base game so far.

One of the big additions is the 24 hours of Le Mans circuit, which players will be able to compete across from the qualifying session through to the final event. How this will actually work in-game isn't clear yet--we're not sure whether you'll need to run your Switch for 24 hours straight--but it will include pit stops, tire changing, fuel management, and other strategy options that were not available in the original release.

You can watch a teaser trailer for the new Tracks Edition of the racer below.

The Addams Family and The Twilight Zone are just TV shows to me, not pinball tables. I’ve never had an affinity for IRL bumpers and flippers. I do, however, quite like pinball-infused video games.

The absolute joy that is Yoku’s Island Express opened my eyes to what a video game could do with pinball elements, a few years back. And, in 2019, Creature In The Well did it all over again. Rather than a postbeetle-shaped ball, you’re essentially a moving flipper in this hack and slasher, tackling bumper-filled dungeons one room at a time.

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