August 2020

Don't pack up your original PlayStation 3 just yet if you're invested in PS3 games or backward compatibility with PS1 and PS2. If anything, superglue that sucker in place – it's not going anywhere.

While Sony hasn't divulged the full details on how extensive backward compatibility will be on PlayStation 5, reading the room, it's looking like support for the "overwhelming majority" of PS4 games is our best bet on the new console and everything else – PS1, PS2, and PS3 – is wishful thinking.

While this isn't the be-all and end-all on the subject (and it sure would be nice to have clarity from Sony), according to a Ubisoft support page, backward compatibility "will be available for supported PlayStation 4 titles, but will not be possible for PlayStation 3, PlayStation 2, or PlayStation games."

[Update: After widespread circulation, Ubisoft removed that sentence from the support page.]

The meaning behind that wording could be interpreted in a few different ways, so for comparison's sake, it's worth looking at the equivalent support page for Xbox Series X. As Ubisoft puts it, backward compatibility "will be available for supported Xbox One, Xbox 360, and Xbox titles" on Xbox Series X.

It's a stark contrast. I get that BC support isn't a priority for Sony and many players, but for those of us who do care about it – enough to dig up a Ubisoft support page for details – it's such a big deal.

Mentally, I'm at the point where I just hope all of my PS4 games work on PS5. The bar is that low.

Once again, huge changes are coming to the very much alive Heroes of the Storm.

Amid reworks for D.va and Gazlowe, the game is also eliminating Heroes Brawl (RIP and replacing it with ARAM (All Random All Middle). In case you forgot, Heroes of the Storm introduced "Brawl" (in the same vein as Hearthstone) several years ago. While it was decently received at first it never really stuck, as Blizzard seemingly ran out of resources to support it; over time, it stopped producing new Brawls and just recycled old ones.

ARAM, on the other hand, has been thriving. Up until this month it hasn't been an official mode, so folks have either been waiting for it to randomly arrive in that week's Brawl or play it unofficially via private games, using Discord servers to meet up. Now all you need to do is click a mode and go: just like several other high-profile MOBAs.

The game itself is also getting a huge mechanical shakeup with the Nexus Anomaly "Gladiator's Medallion." Taken from the classic WoW item nomenclature, the idea is that everyone (except Deathwing and Gall) now have a baseline item that can be activated to provide unstoppable (a self-cleanse): countering things like roots and stuns. This powerful ability will run on a 300 second cooldown for balance purposes.

The ripple of this anomaly will be felt throughout the game. Players have been complaining for a long while that certain supports don't have a cleanse and that the game is too stun/crowd-control (CC) heavy; but the jury is out on whether or not this is a long, or even short-term solution.

Overwatch's D.va was introduced to Heroes of the Storm in mid-2017 to a mixed welcome.

Although there are D.va fans out there and folks who can make her work, she's slowly lost favor with the general playerbase due to a mixed-flavor kit that's frankly outdated. A "D.va rework" has been in the cards for some time as a response, and now it's hitting the game today in PTR (until "the week of September 7"), alongside of a surprise Gazlowe rework and some other changes.

D.va has become more of a "traditional bruiser" in the words of Blizzard, with an expansive talent selection that has some of her more important aspects baked directly into her kit. On paper, she should be a lot more formidable and fun to play (Big Shot now being available baseline is a huge change). We'll see once she's in the hands of players.

Gazlowe, one of the first-ever heroes to enter the fray, is also getting a much-needed second pass. The little turret-laying goblin now uses scrap instead of his mana bar: drastically changing his playstyle and allowing him to become more uniquely flavorful and thematic. Turrets are now less powerful overall but his other basic abilities (Deth Lazor, Xplodium Charge) no longer have any cost associated with him.

His Robo-Goblin Heroic (the old favorite) also has an unstoppable activation built into it, with Grav-O-Bomb seeing a reduced cooldown of 60 seconds. Even if those were the only changes he'd feel different, but Blizzard has now allowed him to embrace a more frontline role: which should hopefully result in more engaging teamfights and less "Gazlowe is playing his own game by himself" situations.

Ninja, MrBeast, Aim Lab, and G2 Esports have teamed up for a massive one million dollar donation to SpecialEffect, a UK-based charity that helps gamers with disabilities.

Unbelievable! THANK YOU to the winners @aimlab, @G2esports, @MrBeastYT, @Ninja & everyone who bid, and to @FallGuysGame for making it all possible. Your generosity will enable us to continue making gaming dreams come true for people with physical disabilities around the world!💙 https://t.co/cBKDIBwN4p pic.twitter.com/HD16H07BML

— SpecialEffect (@SpecialEffect) August 31, 2020

That's a noble cause and a huge donation for sure. How did it all start? Well, Fall Guys.

0-7 Years (PS4, PSVR)

Ghost of Tsushima – 1 month

Latest: Ghost of Tsushima (July 2020)

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Summer is almost over and a lot of people will soon be really busy within the next few weeks when either school or work becomes their main focus.

Some of us won’t be able to put as much time as we want into longer, content-rich games like Ghost of Tsushima or The Last of Us Part II.

So if you want to play and finish a few games before then, we’ve put together a handy list of really short video games you can complete before the summer’s over.

Getting through the story in the particular games on this list will only take at max eight hours so you’ll have plenty of time to start up another one or dive a little deeper to grab some achievements or finish a few side quests.

Since there aren't many imports, let's cheat a bit this week. Square Enix's Marvel's Avengers is the big game release worldwide.

The post This Week In Imports: The Avengers Takes a Stand appeared first on Siliconera.

Taito set a Guinness World Record with 454 claw crane machines at its new Taito Station shop.

The post Taito Sets Guinness World Record for Most Claw Crane Game Machines at a Single Venue appeared first on Siliconera.

The first story expansion for The Outer Worlds won’t be taking you to a relaxing corner of space for some well-earned relaxation. No, there’s no rest for the wicked in corporate space so you’ll be headed to an old research asteroid to find out what the heck has gone wrong. As you can bet based on the title, Peril On Gorgon will dunk you into the thick of it. You can catch one of the early quests in a new developer commentary video showing off a bit of the expansion coming in September.

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Two weeks ago, Mediatonic challenged popular gaming brands and personalities to a charity bidding war. The prize would be a Fall Guys skin dedicated to the one that pledged the highest donation to gaming accessibility organisation Special Effect. The contest has run its course and Mediatonic have declared a $1 million (£748k) group pledge the winner.

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We've seen a fair few soulslikes, and plenty of metroidvanias, but it's not every day that a game can lean in both directions and still stand out in the crowd with an unmistakable look. Grime is getting there. It's aiming for a 2021 release on Steam courtesy of Clover Bite and publisher Akupara Games.

Apart from a surreal world with "weeping caves," "face-covered deserts," and nasty "living weapons," I'm most intrigued by the way you gain skills in Grime – you can absorb enemies and "use their traits against them." That goes for bosses, too. The big lugs can teach you combat and traversal abilities.

According to Akupara, "other platforms" will be announced later, so there's hope for console players.

I don't think I've ever played a game with a centipede whip before.

By their bank accounts combined, four sets of deep pockets chipped in together to win Fall Guys' "Battle of the Brands" charity auction. That's bending the rules a bit, but no one's gonna cry foul when a cool mil is going to a good cause.

YouTuber MrBeast, streamer Ninja, esports org G2, and FPS training software Aim Lab came up with a collaborative bid of $1 million for charity. Fall Guys developer Mediatonic chose UK-based Special Effect as the recipient of the proceeds. Special Effect is dedicated to making gaming accessible for people with physical disabilities.

Not only is ScourgeBringer leaving Steam Early Access on October 21, the roguelite action game's launch plan will also include same-day Nintendo Switch and Xbox One versions (and PC Game Pass support).

"After 130 weeks of development, 30 weeks of Steam Early Access, 4 updates, and 150 pizzas, we can hardly believe the date is almost upon us," Flying Oak Games said in a message to Early Access players. "We couldn't have done it without the support of our amazing community."

I put a few hours into the unfinished version this year, and while it was light on lasting appeal, the aerial combat felt fluid, and I liked the pace of progression during my average dungeon runs. ScourgeBringer isn't going to win over folks with serious roguelike fatigue, but it'll click with some of you for sure.

What's new for launch? The 1.0 release will have a new zone called The Beyond, tweaks to the item and weapon mod systems, new shops and NPCs, mini-bosses and other content to help freshen up the older areas, secret rooms, and Chaos Roots, "a new post-game mode with a bunch of run modifiers."

I'd recommend using Game Pass for PC if you can. Otherwise, the Switch port sounds fab.

In a bizarre twist, Sherlock Holmes finds himself fighting for justice for an elephant. That's just one of the weird cases waiting in Sherlock Holmes: Chapter One. An elephant (who is presumably innocent or at least misunderstood) is sentenced to death by hanging from a crane.

Eccentric and horrific, right? That's some shit they used to do! I didn't want to start my week by researching pachyderm capital punishment but it happened on accident. I'll spare you the details but it's easy enough to find if you want. The world sucks now, but it also sucked like 100 years ago and 200 years ago and basically for all of time.

Anyway, Sherlock Holmes: Chapter One's "Mediterranean paradise" also sucks because this island is overrun with crime and Final Fantasy XV-ass haircuts. Get a load of the revenge pillars where someone does something violent and then sticks a knife in the pillar. There are so many knives!

There's going to be a Mass Effect trilogy remaster in the next six months or so. That's a drum that GamesBeat's Jeff Grubb has been banging for a while now. Grubb has knowledge of EA's plans to get the Shepard Trilogy remastered and released by the end of the fiscal year (March 31, 2021).

On a recent GamesBeat podcast (embedded above), Grubb says that EA may have been forced to push the Mass Effect remaster back from a planned October launch (as reported by Video Games Chronicle). "Up until like this last week, I know the plan for sure was to announce it in early October, release in later in October," he states. However, Grubb goes on to say that his sources think maybe COVID-related issues will put a temporary damper on those plans.

Grubb adds "I think they were planning to have this Mass Effect trilogy be the other big thing for $60 this holiday [alongside Star Wars Squadrons], so that's why I’m still pretty confident it will make it out. But with everything else falling apart, like across the board, I could see them also wanting to just delay."

Here are some potential targets. It could launch in October as intended. It could slip to November 7, a/k/a N7 Day (which is a Saturday and not a traditionally good day to launch video games). However, EA might want to steer clear of getting current-gen remasters on shelves that close to new consoles. That's why it might just move into 2021 altogether.

During this weekend's Future Games Show publisher Modus Games released another trailer for its delightful-looking fantasy adventure Cris Tales, which is currently in development at both Dreams Unincorporated and SYCK for PC - as well as current and next-gen consoles.

Cris Tales is a chrono-chaotic adventure about a young time mage, Crisbell, who is sent on a quest across the four kingdoms of Crystallis in order to stop the machinations of the diabolical Time Empress, who has seized power and now rules a tyrannical empire. Along the way, Crisbell will party up with a cast of talented allies, while making decisions that will have far-reaching consequences for herself, her new friends, and maybe even time itself.

While Halo Infinite is delayed to 2021, a partnership between Monster Energy and Halo Infinite begins now. You can pick up Monster Energy Halo Infinite drinks to earn XP bonuses, bank them, stack them, and get ready to put in those long energy drink fueled shooty hours.

Okay, so XP bonuses are nice but what else? Snapcodes. Yeah that's right. Halo Infinite Snapchat filters. I don't know what the hell people do on Snapchat to be honest, but I had fun with the filters on Instagram once, so it's probably pretty cool.

Finally, the partnership has a veritable arsenal of weapon skins, weapon emblems, and player emblems to unlock. These are probably the most enticing reason to get players to pound some cans of caffeinated candy. They actually look pretty slick. 

PS5 is not backwards compatible with PS3/PS2/PS1 games, according to a Ubisoft supprot page https://t.co/j1wTcAApZ3 pic.twitter.com/hnbpndATPi

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I knew this would happen. The second I saw that Dragon Age 4 video at Gamescom, I knew I’d be back on my particular brand of Dragon Age bullshit. I want you to know I tried. I fought against the siren’s call as best as I could. But like many an ancient sailor, I too succumbed, lasting a scant 24 hours before…

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Between pirates, scammers, alien invaders, and other players, one is never truly safe in EVE Online. Recently, a brand new threat has emerged, one with the ability to force players to change how they play the game: the weather.

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The Umbrella Academy has already jumped from the comic book panel to the small screen, with season two of Netflix’s show now streaming. Now, it’s The Umbrella Academy Game thanks to Studio 71 Games. We had a chance to test out an early version of the card game and it’s off to a promising start, but there are some…

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That terrifying movie from when you were a kid is still terrifying

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