June 2020

The Sims 4 Eco Lifestyle expansion will be live in a few hours, but an update that's been rolled out to prepare players has had some unintended consequences. It appears that the latest Sims 4 patch is making Sims pee fire.

If it all sounds a bit dramatic, that's because it might well be. Sims 4 players have been reporting that using the bathroom after the latest patch has resulted in fires springing up in toilets. This is an uncommon sight even in the rather wacky universe of the Sims, and the official subreddit for the game has been afire with players commiserating with each other over this strange occurrence.

The common consensus appears to be that it is the result of the latest Sims 4 patch. As reported by Rock Paper Shotgun, there have been a number of other strange bugs popping up in the wake of this content update, including issues with crashes, save files not functioning as intended, and of course, this particular burning issue.

Xbox Live is suffering from issues today, June 4, effectively preventing users from accessing the service on Xbox One and Windows 10. Microsoft has confirmed the problems and is looking into them, but there is no ETA for when servers will be back online. [Update: Microsoft reports that players are beginning to sign in without issue, so it appears the problems have been fixed for now.]

More specifically, Microsoft acknowledged on Twitter and the Xbox Live status site that sign-in issues (which fall under the umbrella of "Xbox Live Core Services") are impacting the service right now.

The "Star Wars: Battlefront III" listing spotted on SteamDB has been confirmed to be fake. Originally spotted by Gematsu on Twitter, the listing on SteamDB (which is not affiliated with Steam) appeared to show a remastered version of a sequel to the original Battlefront games that never released.

The page was quickly updated with a message from SteamDB staff stating that the listing is "fake and not official." The page also used the box art from Star Wars Battlefront: Elite Squadron, released for the PSP and DS. The page has been updated to "Unity App Student Project" and the EULA on Steam simply reads, "Some EULA stuff goes here, I don't care to fill it out."

Pokemon Sword and Shield introduce a variety of new features to their series, but one of the most exciting is Max Raids. Much like in Pokemon Go, you can team up with three other trainers (either locally or online) and take on supersized Dynamax Pokemon together in cooperative battles.

The Pokemon you encounter in these Max Raids are special in a few different ways. First, there's a chance the monster will have its Hidden Ability. Regular wild Pokemon you come across in Sword and Shield will never have these, making Max Raids the only way to obtain Hidden Abilities in the games (outside of breeding, and in that case one of the parents would need to have the Hidden Ability in order to pass it down).

Depending on the level of the Raid, the Pokemon will have a couple of perfect IVs (base stats) as well, making them useful for breeding if you're trying to put together a competitive team. You'll also receive an assortment of rewards for clearing Max Raids, including Exp. Candy and TRs, which can otherwise only be purchased with Watts (and are quite costly). Finally, Max Raids are the only way to encounter Gigantamax Pokemon; unlike standard monsters, these Pokemon take on a different appearance when they Dynamax and all have a unique G-Max move.

With GDC 2020 postponed and E3 2020 canceled, both Microsoft and Sony have had to share additional details about their respective next-gen consoles on their own terms, revealing insight into the hardware specs, games, and features that players can come to expect in the next generation. If you haven't been keeping up, Sony's next-gen console is called PlayStation 5, or PS5 for short (surprising literally no one). Microsoft's Project Scarlett has been officially unveiled to be the Xbox Series X--check out our exclusive coverage of the new console in an interview with Xbox boss Phil Spencer, including insight into why it's named Series X.

In the following article, we dive into the differences and similarities between Xbox Series X and PlayStation 5. We still don't have all the details (Sony has yet to officially reveal what its console looks like, for example), but we have enough to make some preliminary comparisons. Both Xbox Series X and PS5 are currently slated to release within the same window: the holiday season in 2020. So unless you're prepared to drop the cash for both, consider using this article to help you figure out which next-gen console is the one you want.

As 2020 rolls on, we're slowly getting an idea of what Nintendo has in store for the rest of the year. Its major first-party games for the year include Animal Crossing: New Horizons, Pokemon Mystery Dungeon Rescue Team DX, Bravely Default II, and Paper Mario: The Origami King. That's not as strong a lineup compared to previous years, and we still don't know much about when Bayonetta 3, Metroid Prime 4, and the sequel to The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild might hit (we wouldn't count on any of them hitting this year). While we wait for Nintendo to announce more releases, it's a good time to catch up on Switch titles you might have missed the first time around, and maybe pick up your first (or second) Switch. To help you do that, we've rounded up the best Nintendo Switch deals you can find right now.

There are now two Switch consoles on the market: the original Nintendo Switch and the smaller, handheld-only Switch Lite. Normally sold for $300 and $200, respectively. Right now, however, you'll be hard-pressed to find a console at all, let alone for a discount. If you want to keep track of where to find a Nintendo Switch, we've got a round-up of major online retailer listings.

Sea of Thieves has finally cast off the shackles of Windows Store exclusivity on PC and is now available on Steam - and to usher in this new era of piracy on the seas, Rare is currently running a slightly unwieldy array of special events and limited-time challenges.

Event number one actually kicked off yesterday, and promises a new cosmetic treat - including emotes, ship parts, and items - every day for the next two weeks. All you need do each day is watch a partnered Sea of Thieves Twitch streamer complete a Daily Bounty or simply view their stream for 30 minutes, and you'll get a new reward.

Yesterday gave away the Mutinous Fist Wheel ship cosmetic, and the Mystical Divination Emote is still up for grabs today - and you can see what's new each morning over on Sea of Thieves' Twitch Drops page. The event, incidentally, comes to a close at 10am in the UK on 17th June.

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Fire Emblem Heroes is adding a whole bunch of characters from Fire Emblem Awakening and a new Mythical Hero in the latest banner.

The post Fire Emblem Heroes Adds Anna, Say’ri, Mustafa, and Mirabilis appeared first on Siliconera.

A Neptunia Virtual Stars PS4 localization has been announced by Idea Factory, changing the title from Japan's VVVtunia.

The post Fight for Your Right to Create Content when Neptunia Virtual Stars Arrives in the West in 2021 appeared first on Siliconera.

Featured Deal: Hamilton Alexander Hamilton (Pre-Order)| $9 | Amazon

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The Switch eShop is getting two of its most interesting games in weeks: a high-profile port of our own 2019 GOTY choice (The Outer Worlds) and a first-party game in Clubhouse Games: 51 Worldwide Classics. It's a good duo, and we have full rundowns of both at the links above, so make sure you check them out if you're on the fence.

Interestingly, now that the general public has access to Clubhouse Games, they're feeling the strain of the insanely smart AI like Jordan and I have been for a bit. It's crazy how good they are at the top setting! I also appreciate the multiple-play-method style (solo with AI, multiplayer same-screen or multiplayer [limited] download play), which keeps things fresh.

Nintendo should really revive the whole "download play" concept from their portable line actually: it ruled, and it rules in Clubhouse Games.

A digital storefront leak isn't the sexiest type of next-gen rumor, but it's a leak nonetheless.

Thurrott has gotten its hands on a leaked build of the new Xbox Series X store which is purportedly codenamed Project Mercury. Originally thought to be an overhaul of the Windows Store app on PC, it's now believed to be the store that will ship on the Xbox Series X operating system.

As shown in the video, this storefront seems like it'll be a redesigned and simplified version of the marketplace that's currently on Xbox One. It's cleaner, moves the system-level navigation stuff to the left-hand side, and just generally looks like a more intuitive store. A sub-menu for various editions within a game's listing seems like a particularly efficient touch.

Of course, Microsoft hasn't confirmed that this is legitimate. That's par for the course with rumors. But, Thurrott has a good track record with Xbox leaks; recently, it more or less nailed the port design of the Xbox Series X. It's also not known whether this will be exclusive to Xbox Series X or be implemented on Xbox One too. It's easy to imagine it'll come to both consoles.

That's (probably) one more tiny piece of the next-gen puzzle solved.

Redesigned Xbox Store Revealed in Leaked Screenshots [Thurrott]

Developer Infinity Ward has pledged to "do a better job" at cracking down on racist content generated by players in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare.

In a statement posted to Twitter, it wrote, "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 bans of racist and hate-orientated names. But we know we have more to do."

Infinity Ward's statement comes as Black Lives Matter protests continue around the globe following the police killing of George Floyd last week. As companies throughout the games industry pledge their support for the movement, Call of Duty fans had once again highlighted Infinity Ward's reported failure to effectively tackle racist content and slurs in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, particularly in relation to its customisable player names feature.

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Kadokawa Games released a third trailer for Root Film. It focuses on the characters involved in a murdery mystery and reveals the theme song.

The post Root Film’s Third Trailer Debuts the Game’s Theme Song appeared first on Siliconera.

The Imagination Works Goku figure will include multiple pairs of eyes, face plates, and hair parts that let it go Super Saiyan.

The post Imagination Works Goku Will Go Super Saiyan in October 2020 appeared first on Siliconera.

Undaunted: Normandy is a World War Two game about combat on a very small scale.

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What would an over-the-top soccer game be without an over-the-top collector’s edition? Bandai Namco has put together several Europe-exclusive packages for the August 28 release of Captain Tsubasa: Rise of New Champions, the largest of which includes a full-size, customizable foosball table.

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So you went and got yourself a fancy new Dolby Atmos surround sound setup, and you want to see what it can do. Or maybe you want to show it off to your friends and family, but need the perfect scene to really drive it home. You have more options than you might think.

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Thanks to the abudance of mods and player-created content bogging down any given Sims 4 save, plus the game’s age, new updates can often break a bunch of stuff. Something I’ve never seen before, though, is a Sim’s excrement catching fire in a toilet bowl.

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In today's contest, you can win a copy of Remnant: From the Ashes and its Swamps of Corsus DLC for PS4 and Xbox One!

What's better than giving away a game? Giving away a game and its DLC. That way, you get double the stuff for free!

On the menu today is Remnant: From the Ashes and its new DLC Swamps of Corsus, where you can win on PS4 and Xbox One!

It's incredible to me that Rock of Ages has become a full series. The art-history-inspired wackiness hasn't settled down one bit. If anything, Rock of Ages III: Make & Break has only gotten stranger. If you're still into the rolling-action premise after all these years, there's a chance to try the upcoming sequel.

ACE Team and Giant Monkey Robot are lining up an open beta for Rock of Ages III. The PC beta will run on Steam from June 9–16, while the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One betas will go from June 23–30.

Why roll around as a boulder when you can crush structures as a meatball, cheese wheel, or squished-together flock of sheep? The fact that I can even raise that rhetorical question is an encouraging sign.

Rock of Ages III is also coming to Nintendo Switch, and all platforms are aiming for July 21, 2020.

Activision CEO Bobby Kotick is one of the most well-compensated executives in all of video games. That's not entirely unexpected for the captain of the ship that has perennial billion dollar-earner Call of Duty to its name. Still, some Activision investors think it's far too much.

CtW Investment Group, who represents some Activision-Blizzard shareholders, has filed a report with the SEC that urges other voting shareholders to change Kotick's pay. Speicifically, CtW wants people to vote against the "Say-on-Pay" proposal at the upcoming June 11 annual meeting, which compensates Kotick based on the performance of the company's stock price.

In its submission, CtW argues that Activision structures Kotick's pay in a way that unfairly enriches him because of "multiple, overlapping award provisions." Essentially, Kotick has several performance incentives in his contract, and CtW believes that many of them are too closely related to one another to justify bonuses for meeting each one. CtW says it's "an equity award scheme that allows multiple bites at the apple."

(As an aside, I'm not sure these euphemism creators understand fruit. I'd be upset if someone gave me an apple and told me I only get one bite.)

Black Girl Gamers, a collective of black women content creators and streamers, is currently running their Wellness Week series of streams and will continue their fundraising efforts until June 7. Throughout this period (and every week), you can catch a number of different streamers on the Black Girl Gamers Twitch channel--you can see the schedule below so you don't miss out on their streams.

Wellness Week is an opportunity for their audience to come to a chill, relaxing stream, but it's also a concerted effort to raise funds for Color Of Change and The Bail Project. Color Of Change creates campaigns to fight injustices and unjust policies that impact Black people, while The Bail Project provides free bail assistance to those in poverty.

The current stream schedule for Black Girl Gamers features 13 different streamers--and you can check out each of their individual channels below as well:

SpongeBob SquarePants: Battle For Bikini Bottom - Rehydrated has added a new mode that was not featured in the 2003 original. A trailer has been released for a two-player multiplayer mode, which will let players team up and battle against hordes of enemies.

The horde mode, which lets you play online or locally, will feature 26 different islands to battle across. While we don't anticipate a challenge on par with the horde modes from the Gears of War series, it could be a fun addition.

For SpongeBob fans, one of the highlights of this mode will surely be playing as 7 different characters from the series--including Gary the snail. Each character will have their own unique attacks.

The Pokemon Company is continuing to give away free Pokemon in the lead up to Sword and Shield's first DLC expansion, The Isle of Armor. This week, you can claim a free Galarian Corsola with its Hidden Ability, along with a handful of hard-to-find evolutionary items.

Galarian Corsola's Hidden Ability is Cursed Body. When the Pokemon is hit by an attack, there's a 30% chance the move will be disabled, preventing the opposing Pokemon from using it again for four turns.

In addition to Galarian Corsola, The Pokemon Company is giving away a free bundle of evolution-inducing items. You can see the full list, along with which Pokemon they evolve, below:

Valorant is officially out and available to download on PC after a successful closed beta period. Whether or not you were part of the closed beta prior to launch, Valorant is free for all players. Here's our step-by-step guide on how to download and play Valorant right now.

How To Download Valorant

• Step 1. Head to Riot's website and hit the Play Now button, or download it here. If you don't already have a Riot account, you will be prompted to create one.
• Step 2. Download and install the client. This will also install Riot's Vanguard anti-cheat program.
• Step 3. Launch the client and sign-in to your Riot account. You may need to reset your computer to activate Vanguard in order to play.

If you were part of the closed beta and already had Valorant downloaded and installed prior to launch, all you need to do is launch the Valorant client and allow it to download the version 1.0 update. The patch pushed the game live on June 2, bringing with it a new Agent, a new map, and a new game mode.

It seems Microsoft is preparing yet another re-design for the Xbox dashboard. Specifically, the Xbox Store is apparently getting a major overhaul as part of a new firmware update in the future.

Codenamed "Project Mercury" according to Thurott, the re-design initially leaked via screenshots posted by @wincommunity on Twitter. The images and video showcase the app running on PC, but noted Microsoft insider Brad Sams says this is an update for Xbox, not Windows.

Sams got his hands on the new Xbox Store re-design, and you can check out the video below to see it in action. It looks sleek and easy to use, which is good considering the Xbox dashboard has historically been known to be somewhat unwieldy.

The release of Destiny 2's Season 11 is imminent, with less than a week left of the current Season of the Worthy. With the new season will come a livestream presentation that'll address what's coming next for Destiny 2 in Season 11 and the game's upcoming fourth year, as well as a new update to the game to make some changes. Bungie gave a preview of that patch in a weekly blog post, and while most of what it mentions has already been announced, a few tidbits should be welcome to players.

The developer dropped the info in its latest This Week at Bungie blog post, providing a portion of the patch notes for Update 2.9.0. Most interestingly, Bungie is tweaking Trials of Osiris to deal with some issues it saw in the Season of the Worthy. Trials pits players in intense multiplayer battles where the goal is to get a "flawless" run of winning seven matches in a row. Bungie tweaks Trials to get harder over time, so the closer you are to going flawless, the more likely you are to run into other players who are also closing in on a flawless run. But in this past season, some players would repeatedly reset their Trials tracking cards so they would be put back to the beginning of a run, and therefore have the easiest matchmaking, so that they could earn Trials tokens after each match, which could be used to purchase the activity's armor and weapons.

Update. 2.9.0 changes trials so that tokens will only drop at the 3-, 5-, and 7-win milestones, instead of after each match. That should discourage players from repeatedly resetting their cards so they can go after easier teams and stockpile tokens, and give less-skilled teams more of room to compete.

The Outer Worlds developer Obsidian has released a statement condemning racism and police brutality and voicing support for Black Lives Matter. Additionally, Obsidian is donating $25,000 USD to the NAACP, becoming just the latest video game developer to make a sizable contribution to a charity that fights racism in the wake of the death of George Floyd.

"We stand against systemic racism, injustice, and violence perpetrated against the Black community not only by police, but by anyone," the statement says. "We stand with those who are making their voices heard to bring justice. It is to those voices that we are committed to being better, to changing the system, and to growing as a studio."

Obsidian went on to say that it will improve its hiring practices as it relates to creating a more diverse workforce.

NBA 2K20 paused its online play for two hours and provided free Black Lives Matter and I Can't Breathe in-game shirts to players, according to a tweet by ESPN. This comes in the wake of the killing of George Floyd by Minneapolis police and the protests that followed.

The video in the tweet shows a group of players walking around in-game wearing the shirts--an event further collaborated by other Twitter users, as seen below. 2K Games had previously announced that they increased funding for their 2K Foundations Program by $1 million to expand "its mission to help fight racial injustice and inequalities in black communities across the globe."

The Gaming Community Expo (GCX) has added well-known streamer, Benjamin "DrLupo" Lupo, as a board member. The Florida-based event won't have a physical setup this year, but will go ahead with online fundraising and a digital showcase later this summer.

A video was released on the official GCX Twitter account earlier this week, narrated by Lupo himself. It confirmed that he would be joining the event's board and working closely with the Rare Drop organizing team on the GCX experience in the future.

Lupo acknowledged that while the event would not be going ahead with its in-person element this year, there was still plenty of fundraising to be carried out for the St. Jude Childen's Research Hospital as part of the replacement festivities that had been arranged.

A number of Take-Two’s games, from Grand Theft Auto to Red Dead, took their servers down for a couple of hours today to “honor the legacy of George Floyd”. NBA 2k20 did as well, but the basketball game is getting more active with its messaging than just going offline.

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Square Enix provided an update about the organization of the upcoming Final Fantasy XIV Fan Festivals coming between 2020 and 2021.

The update came on the official forums with a message from Director and Producer Naoki Yoshida.

Yoshida-san mentions that after much deliberation the North American Fan Festival scheduled to happen in November in San Diego won’t be held due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

That being said, the publisher has not given up the possibility of organizing a Fan Festival in North American and they have plans in motion to examine possible cities and dates in the first half of 2020. As a result, we can say that it’s postponed, more than canceled outright.

On the other hand, plans for the Japanese and European Fan Festivals in December 2020 and February 2021 are going forward, with Square Enix continuing to carefully monitor the situation.

“We have received queries from many worried players, concerned with how the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) will impact the North American Fan Festival. Allow me to explain the current situation.

The North American Fan Festival was scheduled to be held in San Diego half a year from now in November, but after much deliberation we have made the difficult decision to cancel proceedings.

Although we have been moving forward with various arrangements to adapt to the unfolding pandemic, we ultimately feel that we cannot guarantee the health and safety of the attendees, performers, or company staff members who would be present at the event. Thus it is with great regret that we arrive at this conclusion, and I offer my sincere apologies to all who were looking forward to enjoying the festivities.

Today Star Citizen released a new video showing upcoming features coming to the game in the future. 

In the current build, finding your assigned landing pad or hangar at a spaceport may require a bit of searching, but this should be a thing of the past (at least in Lorville and Area 18) in 3.10 with new landing splines guiding you all the way to your destination. 

We also get to see some impressive visual effects including new atmospheric re-rentry particles that will be visible even from the surface of a planet, and new water for the game’s many planetary oceans. 

A little less impressive visually (for now) but certainly interesting mechanically, is a very early look at possible effects for fire propagation.

You can check it out below.

In other Star Citizen news the crowdfunding total  has passed $297 million.

To be more precise, it’s almost at $292 million and it’s sitting on $297,292,273 at the moment of this writing, meaning that it made nearly 5 million since the latest report last Friday.

The number of registered accounts is now very close to 2.7 million (currently 2,699,900).

Tax returns are exciting, but a big gacha pull return is pie in the sky stuff. The King of Fighters ALLSTARS Ruby Refund is some wild stuff.

The post Go for Broke During King of Fighters ALLSTAR’s Ruby Refund Event appeared first on Siliconera.

Pokémon’s official Japanese Kids TV channel today released something definitely worth four minutes of your time: a short called Chase the Beans, starring Scraggy and Mimikyu.

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Victorin Ripert is an artist from France.

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Am I a bad dad for letting my daughter run around with a pet bear cub? Almost certainly given the circumstances, but seeing as how I’d already let her enlist a snail, magical rooster and a prickly hedgehog into her army of so-called ‘secret agents’, I thought it would be churlish, if not positively unfair, to deny her this new, grizzly companion. After all, my incompetent staff had either eaten or sat on the rest of her strange menagerie, and I did not want a repeat of more tears and tantrums in my already shambolic throne room. She promised she would feed it and look after it, and that was good enough for me.

Besides, when you’ve already got one daughter being held ransom by her tyrannical husband whose hostile army are breathing down your neck, not to mention precious few resources to help deal with your own belligerent peasants, a bear cub seemed like the least of my worries in Brave At Night’s medieval management RPG Yes, Your Grace, so I thought, what the heck? Might as well add another potential disaster to the pile.

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Following a wave of postponements of the events that were supposed to happen this weekend to replace the canceled E3 trade show, Guerrilla Collective also went the same route.

In response to the tragic events happened in the United States and to the protests they sparked, the organizers of the event issued a statement announcing that it will happen between June 13 and June 15.

On top of that, on June 7 there will be a livestream dedicated to showcasing games created by developers of color and featuring protagonists of color.

You can read the full announcement made on Twitter below. 

Just yesterday, we learned that the PC Gaming Show and the Future Games Show, which were also planned for June 6, have been shifted to June 13 for the same reason.

Of course, you can expect coverage from all the summer shows here on Twinfinite, regardless of when they will be broadcasted.