August 2020

In today's contest you can win an MSI GTX 1660 graphics card and a Steam copy of Milky Way Prince - The Vampire Star!

Is your computer in need of a graphical overhaul? Dtoid has ya covered: Milky Way Prince - The Vampire Star hit Steam a few weeks ago, and we're giving away the game and an MSI GTX 1660 graphics card! Think of all the graphics you'll be able to look at. Just imagine.

The future looks bright and bug-filled for Grounded. When the game was first announced, I liked the idea of a shrunken survival game well enough, but it wasn't until I played it that I appreciated just how much potential there is. Obsidian could flesh out Grounded for years to come and I'd be stoked about it.

After update 0.2.0 with the bird, there's plenty to look forward to in monthly content updates, but what about bigger-picture stuff? The developers have started outlining their plans with a roadmap.

"As a caveat, we are still in active development, and this board is subject to change based on your feedback, the state of development, what's best for the game, the unknown, and our future plans. Nothing is set in stone and features could be moved up, pushed back, or unfortunately removed."

Here's the rundown as of August 2020:

Coming Soon (approximately a few months off)

• New Building: Zipline
• Koi Pond Environment
• Equipped Items Don't Use Backpack Space
• Hedge Environment
• Password Protected Games
• Friend Invites
• New Hostile Creature: Mosquito
• Localization: French, German, Italian, Spanish
• New Neutral Creature: Bee
• New Items: Water Themed Equipment
• Additional Quality of Life Improvements
• Signs / Stickers Base Decorations
• Inventory Management Improvements
• Additional Crafting Stations
• Additional BURG.L Quest Types
• Storage Management Improvements

Planned

They said they were going to do it, and they did it.

Read more...

Amingo was an original character introduced in Marvel vs. Capcom 2. He was part of a gentle race of plant people. He was good and he was my friend. Capcom killed Amingo in Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3, and I will never forgive it.

Read more...

I’m the kind of guy who, on a hike, will trip over a cactus because I wasn’t paying attention. I run my earbuds through the washing machine, scratch up my sunglasses, and drop my phone while jogging. And as someone who hates even the smallest signs of wear and tear, my clumsiness is often at odds with my ability to…

Read more...

Today Sega released a detailed Q&A about the future interaction between the original Phantasy Star Online 2 and the recently-announced Phantasy Star Online 2: New Genesis. 

We hear more details about what will be shared between the two games, how the engine of the original game will be changed, cross-game chat, finger movement, and more.

You can read it all below.

QUESTIONS FROM THE COMMUNITY

While Assassin’s Creed Valhalla takes inspiration from real historical events and figures, a new video shows it isn’t without its fair share of enemies inspired by myth and legend.

Streamed during the Gamesradar Future Games Show digital event held during Gamescom on Aug. 28, the video sees the game’s narrative director Darby McDevitt detail some of the more fantastical figures and creatures players can happen across during Valhalla’s side quests.

The first shown is the Black Shuck, a fiendish black dog out of English myth which is eager to rip humans limb from limb.

“There are a lot of stories and tales about black dogs that roam the night, and the Black Chuck is paerticular to East Anglia, but there are a lot of black dog phenomena found around England,” McDevitt says.

The developers incorporated these many myths to construct a terror worthy of the fear its name inspires, and players will be put to the test when trying to take it down.

Bloodthirsty creatures aren’t the only mythical enemies players can tangle with though. Assassin’s Creed Valhalla will also include several human legends for players to interact with and clash steel against, from the daughters of the King Lyrian — a reference to Shakespeare and protectors of a king betrayed by his country — to the men who once followed the fallen king Ragnar Lothbrok, and now battle aimlessly without their king to lead them.

Both will offer compelling interactions and backstories to go along with the battles you wage against them, melding their unreal elements with the more grounded portions of the game’s world.

It’s an interesting look into the game’s mythos and world to say the least, and fans of the series will want to check out the full video below.

A new trailer for the upcoming dinosaur-themed survival-horror game, Death Ground, was shown off during the Future Games Show.

Currently in development by Jaw Drop Games, Death Ground is shaping up to be a tense horror game with some truly monstrous encounters.

The game puts out big Jurrasic Park energy, but instead of loud action set-pieces, really focuses on the terror of being stalked by some of the greatest predators to walk the earth.

Death Ground will also feature co-op on release, so you will be able to evade and overcome these cold-blooded terrors alone or with up to three friends, if you so choose.

Many of the gameplay elements present in Death Ground are dynamic, and the AI will actively hunt you as you attempt to retrieve high-value loot and make it to safety in once piece.

Where the dinosaurs spawn, the weather system present, your objectives, and extraction points are all dynamically generated, meaning you will need to adapt your strategy on the fly.

While Death Grounds’ main focus seems to be on stealth and distraction, there is combat in the game, although taking on dinos in a head-on confrontation looks to be a really bad idea.

There is also a crafting system present in the game, with players able to craft all kinds of useful gear and weaponry to help them survive.

Players can also choose to play as a variety of unique characters, each with their own unique traits, skills, and tools to choose from.

You can watch the game in action for yourself below:

The Associated Press has just revealed actor Chadwick Boseman has passed away from cancer at just 43 years old.

Read more...

The Desert Rose is coming to Summoner’s Rift

Continue reading…

The Black Panther star had been battling colon cancer for four years

Continue reading…

A new trailer for Call of the Sea premiered during Future Games Show, discussing the themes of Out of the Blue Games' debut title. According to Out of the Blue Games co-founder Tatiana Delgado, Call of the Sea takes inspiration from H.P. Lovecraft's stories, albeit with a twist.

"But as you can see, although our game is heavily influenced by his tales, Call of the Sea is a twist on the traditional H.P. Lovecraft works," Delgado said. "We're trying to focus on the surreal and the oneiric more than the horrific and the grim. In short, Call of the Sea isn't a descent into madness but a rise to sanity. Losing your mind makes you see a dream-like, colorful world."

Previously, Delgado said the team wanted to specifically "target the next gen" with Call of the Sea, which is scheduled to release for Xbox Series X, Xbox One, and PC later this year. The game will be available through Xbox Game Pass as well.

Note: This post contains some spoilers for Control and some tiny story tidbits. If you want to uncover it all on your own, you might want to come back after you've completed Control and the AWE DLC.

When Control was released, it was fascinatingly weird and full of mystery. As we tried to fight the extra-dimensional Hiss, we learned about the strange entities in charge of the Federal Bureau of Control, discovered supernaturally Altered Items, and uncovered story tidbits linking Control to a Remedy cult classic, 2010's Alan Wake. But the game's greatest secret was hidden away in its best sequence, the Ashtray Maze. Listen carefully to the song that plays there, and you could hear a secret message that seemed to hint at hidden content buried somewhere inside Control.

One year later to the day, Control fans have discovered what that secret message was all about. It did hint at hidden content--but it was content that didn't appear in Control until the release of its final DLC expansion, AWE. Discover the right nook of the Oldest House in AWE and you'll find the puzzle's solution, unlocking a tiny tidbit of a story Easter egg--and what seems to be the game's greatest piece of gear.

The next generation of consoles is pushing hardware power further and faster, but the gulf of noticeable graphical and technical upgrades between generations is shrinking. Microsoft, for example, is consciously blurring the line by promising cross-generation support going forward with the launch of Xbox Series X. That makes quality-of-life features more valuable than ever, including at least one that's more significant than it may seem: multi-game suspension.

The feature has largely flown under the radar, part of the suite of new features casually announced when Microsoft first revealed its next-gen plans. It was announced alongside other ambitious plans and quality-of-life features for new hardware, like an SSD to support faster load times and a new version of its standard wireless controller.

Sony has not detailed specific plans for multi-game suspension, but it stands to reason that the feature could be included into the PlayStation 5. The company has already talked about a similar feature, reportedly to be called Activities, that will let you jump into individual game modes straight from the console dashboard without needing to load into a game's standard menu. It's conceivable that both console manufacturers could borrow these ideas from each other.

A new trailer for Cris Tales debuted during Future Games Show. It provided a fresh look at the upcoming stylish RPG. You can watch it, below.

In Cris Tales, you take control of the titular Crisbell (unless the title is actually in reference to her ally, Cristopher--yup, there's more than one Cris), a young orphan who becomes a time mage. Each time mage can affect time in a unique way--in Crisbell's case, she can see the world in the past, present, and future all at the same time. Using this knowledge, she can change the flow of time and influence the course of events.

For example, early-on in the game, Crisbell sees that in the future, two shops in town will fall on hard times after their respective store fronts mysteriously collapse. The means of preventing their collapse can only be achieved by mixing a potion from a rare fruit.

Newegg is kicking off the weekend with an awesome gaming PC deal that knocks a fair chunk of change off its price. The ABS Master gaming PC is $1,300 (down from $1,500) and comes with a Steam key for the standard edition of the upcoming Marvel's Avengers. This deal is only valid until September 6, and supplies are limited, so you'll want to order soon if you're interested. It comes with free shipping and can arrive as early as September 3--or even sooner if you increase your shipping speed.

The ABS Master gaming PC comes equipped with an i7-10700K processor, an RTX 2060 Super, and 16GB of DDR4 RAM. That makes it one heck of a machine that's capable of running most modern games at 1080p with high settings. It also comes with a 512GB SSD. I'd recommend buying an extra SSD if you want to store a lot of games on your PC at once. The ABS Master also comes with a keyboard and mouse.

During the Future Games Show, a new trailer for Chinatown Detective Agency: Day One was shown off. Releasing for PC on September 30, Day One is a free prologue to Chinatown Detective Agency, an upcoming Carmen Sandiego-inspired mystery adventure game set in 2032.

As seen in the trailer, you play as Amira Darma, an INTERPOL agent turned private eye who sets up shop in Singapore and whose investigations take her around the world. In the trailer, you meet three of the individuals who you'll interact with in Day One: Rupter Zhou the fixer, Tiger Lily the kingmaker, and Keeran Iyer the reformer.

Unlike most mystery-driven adventure games, Chinatown Detective Agency asks you to be intuitive enough to know when to look for clues beyond the game. You'll have to think like a detective and find the answers you seek through real-world investigations. Maybe that means popping into Google to look up the airport code that Amira needs or tracking down the origins to some quote you discovered in-game and then deducing how that information is relevant.

Star Wars has had a major presence in video games for decades, but the franchise is expanding to somewhere it's never gone before this September: The Sims 4. During Gamescom Opening Night Live, EA announced The Sims 4 is getting a Star Wars expansion, Journey to Batuu, and it's now available to pre-order as a bundle for PS4 and Xbox One at Amazon. The Sims 4 Star Wars bundle gets you the base game and the new Star Wars expansion for $40, so it's a great intro to The Sims 4 if you've never picked up the game. If you already have the base game, you'll be able to download the expansion on its own for $20 when it releases September 8.

The expansion takes your Sims to the Black Spire Outpost on the world of Batuu, which is occupied by both the Resistance and the First Order. Your Sim will have to choose which side to align themselves with, and as you complete missions, you'll earn reputation points with the faction you've associated yourself with, which in turn affects how the locals react to them.

With the release of Control's AWE expansion, the game's Ultimate Edition is now available on Steam. The current launch discount brings the $40 game down to $32, but if you want to save even more money, there are a couple of stores that have your back. Green Man Gaming has Control: Ultimate Edition for only $27.19, which is the best price we've seen so far. It's unclear when GMG's deal ends, so you should take advantage of it as soon as you can.

If you'd prefer to buy from Fanatical, then you can snag Control: Ultimate Edition for $28.79--still a great deal. Spending $20 or more at Fanatical right now gets you a bonus free game. Some of the games you can choose from include DiRT Rally, American Fugitive, and Reventure. Fanatical's deal is valid until September 2.

This is both a busy weekend and a lazy one. While the big announcements of Gamescom 2020 came during Gamescom Opening Night Live on Thursday, the German games show is still rolling online this weekend. And for us here in the RPS treehouse, it’s a long bank holiday weekend. We’ll have a few posts coming, but return in full force on Tuesday. See you then!

What are you playing this weekend? Here’s what we’re clicking on!

(more…)

Erasure - the experience of being rendered invisible - is a depressingly common facet of queer experience. For those who live and love beyond the boundaries of cis-heteronormative society, recognition, be it legal, social, or cultural, can be hard to come by, and visibility, when it does come, is often plagued with risks. This experience can be particularly pronounced in a culture like Ireland, which, for much of its existence as an independent nation, premised its national identity upon an often noxious blend of piety and purity. It is perhaps not surprising then that If Found..., the new interactive visual novel from Dublin-based developers DREAMFEEL and Annapurna Interactive, should take erasure as its core gameplay mechanic. What is pleasantly surprising, however, is how the developers have implemented that mechanic, and the story they have used it to tell.

So yeah, last week's "Whatcha Been Playin'?" was a little deep and I really appreciate the kind comments I received in return. The simple fact of the matter is that it's important to me that y'all know you're important. I don't dally about and I certainly don't bullshit anybody. Sometimes you just gotta let people know they matter. Life's too short - and currently far too unpredictable - so be sure to pass it on and let those that you care about know that they matter.

I've been really busy this week, which has put paid to a lot of my gaming opportunities. I've spent most evenings squeezing in sessions on Easy Trigger Games' Huntdown, which remains a solid contender for my favourite game of 2020. I'm currently trying to 100% the game on Hard, which is understandably a pretty wild ride. But with that soundtrack, those visuals, and a cameo appearance from Snake Plisskin, it's easy to keep walking the mean streets. If you haven't checked it out yet, don't sleep on it.

You know the score by now, we're just as interested in hearing what you've been playing lately. So whether you're rocking recent releases such as Ghost of Tsushima, PGA Tour 2K21, or Battletoads, or whether you're just jamming away at your backlog or replaying an old favourite, jump into the comments and share your gaming escapades with us.

Have a safe and pleasant weekend, from all of us at Destructoid.

Ever wondered what it’d be like if Pokemon’s perpetually-childish heroes settled down to start a farm? Lucky for you, that’s exactly the premise of Monster Harvest. Sowing its first seeds this week, Maple Powered Games’ upcoming crop punctuates Stardew Valley‘s pastoral life sim with brutal fights between half-plant, half-animal hybrids called Planimals. Geddit?

(more…)

Fancy a walk in the woods, readers? Werewolf: The Apocalypse – Heart of the Forest, a howling World Of Darkness narrative written by former Witcher devs and Wanderlust creators Different Tales, has opened its winding, text-based trails with a limited demo this weekend. Just try and stick to the paths while hiking, yeah? I hear there are beasts aplenty in the darkest depths of the forest.

(more…)

Apple has terminated Epic Games' App Store developer account.

It's the latest development in the two megacorps' public spat that ignited when Apple blocked Fortnite from the App Store after Epic Games circumvented Apple and Google's system to retain 100% of the funds generated by its in-app microstransactions. Microsoft also filed a statement in support of Epic and Unreal Engine.

Terminating the account prevents the developer from updating its published games or submitting new ones. It comes just days after Epic snuck one sneaky update in to add the evil Tart Tycoon character seen in the game's #FreeFortnite video.

Read more

Marvel's Avengers post-launch DLC characters will each have their own $10 battle pass.

In a lengthy and complex post in which Square Enix details how the game manages gear and cosmetics, the $10 passes - called Hero Challenge Cards - "allow players to earn Resources, Units, Credits, and Cosmetics for completing in-game challenges".

The premium Hero Challenge Card rewards have already been unlocked for the six starting heroes, something Square Enix says "prevent[s] content gating and guarantee that you and your friends can experience these exciting additions together". However, to unlock all rewards for any new heroes introduced post-launch, players will have to unlock premium rewards for each one separately with 1,000 in-game credits.

Read more

Some people just want to set the world on fire. Or drown it, or cover it in goblins, or unleash ruinous magicks upon the land. Such is Ruinarch, a villainous fantasy sandbox that lets you meddle in the meticulously-modeled lives of tiny hapless townsfolk. Released earlier this week on Steam early access, your devilish dabblings can be found at a discount until this coming Tuesday

(more…)

God of War (PlayStation Hits) | $14 | Amazon

Read more...

Doom Eternal's first single-player expansion, The Ancient Gods, Part One, will be available as a standalone game.

This means players can jump into the new DLC - which is part of Doom Eternal's Year One Pass and sees you travel to new realms in the Doom universe and face new enemies - even if they don't have the base game, or haven't completed the main campaign.

"When we look at how many people have played through the game we have a large percentage - higher than 2016 - that have completed it, so you're always looking at that and seeing how far players make it through your game," executive producer Marty Stratton told PCGamesN. "It's important as we want the DLC to reach as many people as possible. In fact, you don't even need to own Doom Eternal to buy the DLC and play it."

Read more

Fate/Accel Zero Order, the crossover event between Fate/Grand Order and Fate/Zero, the prequel story to Fate/Stay Night is due to run soon, with added rewards and a new Servant to roll for.

The post Fate/Zero and FGO Cross Paths With the Fate/Accel Zero Order Event appeared first on Siliconera.

Devolver Digital has dropped another absolutely wild trailer for its upcoming shooter sequel Serious Sam 4. The new preview sees our chunkhead hero visit, of all places, Vatican City in Italy, where he takes possession of a rather... erm... abstract interpretation of the "Papamobile," or "Popemobile."

Doom Eternal

‘s upcoming DLC might take place in the immediate wake of the base campaign, but that doesn’t mean you’ll need to have actually played it. Arriving this October, Id Software this weekend confirmed that you’ll be able to pick up the first bit of two-part romp The Ancient Gods without having actually bought the base game, letting you jump straight into the deicidal carnage.

(more…)

It’s been a minute, eh Tunic? For as long as I’ve been paying attention, Andrew Shouldice’s sharp, foxy roll n’ slash has been hiding in the bushes. Ever-present, yet always skittering just out of sight. But while Tunic may be no closer to an eventual release, you can play a bit of it right now thanks to a free Gamescom demo.

(more…)

This week we ponder delaying the next generation, throw Mario into a dryer, check out the new trailer for LEGO Star Wars, find out more about the weird far-right conspiracy featured in a Black Ops: Cold War trailer and yell at some capybaras.

Read more...

Trying to make sense of comics continuity at the best of times requires offering up a tiny little part of your brain to be smushed to gooey smithereens in the mortar and pestle of comic book publishing tomfoolery. But friends, I fear trying to make sense of Marvel’s newest tango with the world of Fortnite has done…

Read more...

The highly-anticipated remake of BioWare's celebrated sci-fi trilogy, Mass Effect, was expected to release in October 2020, new sources claim.

Now, however, delays thought to be connected to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic might have scuppered publisher EA's plans, pushing the release back, but a source that claims to have intel on the project insists "I know it's real".

"Up until, like, this last week, I know the plan for sure was to announce it in early October, release in later in October. So good news," revealed GamesBeat journalist Jeff Grubb on a recent podcast (thanks, VGC). "Maybe bad news - it's 2020 - maybe that could start to slip, it sounds like maybe that's a possibility, nothing for sure yet."

Read more

Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart will offer players the choice to play in either 30fps or 60fps.

In an interview with Famitsu (thanks, Siliconera), developer Insomniac confirmed it would offer 4K resolution with 30fps, while 60fps was also possible with a lower, and unspecified, resolution.

To date, we've reportedly seen the game running in 4K in 30fps.

Read more

As Fall Guys continues to take the world by storm, development team Mediatonic has outlined some of the upcoming plans it has for the fan-favourite, non-violent battle royale, but acknowledges that "it'll take us a little while to figure out" how it can implement features like custom lobbies and crossplay.

"It's still early days, but it's something we hear a desire for," Mediatonic's Joe Walsh told The Loadout when asked about custom modes, such as private lobbies. "Fall Guys is ultimately a TV show, and people want to be the director, they want to run their own show. We totally hear the demand for that, but it'll take us a little while to figure out what that looks like exactly. But it's on our list of things to do."

As for the introduction of crossplay to unite PC and PS4 players?

Read more

Good news! There's Streets of Rage 4 DLC on the way. Bad news! There's no ETA on when we'll get it just yet.

Posing a hypothetical question on its own Twitter feed, developer Dotemu responded to a question about additional content by confirming DLC is on the way.

"YES, we will [add new content] but there is no ETA," the developer said. "You guys are awesome and deserve the best so give us time to do things right."

Read more