August 2020

Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout released today, and thanks to a successful beta, lots of people were excited to play it. So many, in fact, that the game has been experiencing server issues, which makes it difficult to play and enjoy.

The server issues made users understandably frustrated, but rather than wait for the issues to get sorted, some bombarded the game with negative reviews on Steam. 

We're currently being review-bombed on Steam... ☹️

We're working really hard to get running smoothly for SO MANY players!

We know it's super frustrating, but if you could hold off from negatively reviewing - Until you get chance to play the game, it would really help us out ♥️

— Fall Guys 👑 (@FallGuysGame) August 4, 2020

After posting about the review-bombing situation on Twitter, something unusually nice happened. Fans counteracted the negativity with positivity, bringing the game's overall user score back into "mostly positive" territory.

There's a State of Play scheduled for this Thursday, but don't get your hopes up too high. Sony got out in front of the inevitable conjecture and said that this stream will mostly focus on PS4 and PlayStation VR games. PlayStation 5 will not make a meaningful appearance.

But, that doesn't close the door on PS5 news in the near future. Bloomberg reports that Sony plans to make a PS5 announcement sometime this month. However, that isn't set in stone. Bloomberg uses the word "tentatively," indicating that its source very much acknowledges that Sony could move away from some sort of August reveal.

For those of you keeping score at home, we're still without a price and launch date for the PlayStation 5 (and Xbox Series X for that matter). We know the games, we know what it looks like, we know that there are two models. Just two crucial pieces of information left, and maybe -- just maybe -- we'll get them later this month.

Sony Gives Conservative Forecast After Profit Tops Estimates [Bloomberg]

Slightly Mad Studios has released another glossy new trailer for its upcoming driving simulator Project CARS 3, which launches on PS4, PC, and Xbox One on August 28.

The new trailer, titled "What Drives You," gives fans a look at some of the sleek and sexy roadsters available to take for 200 MPH burn around any one of the sequel's 140 global tracks. Whether you're all about speed, handling, drifting, or just looking like a massive wanker billionaire, you're sure to find the car of your dreams among the 200 models on offer. Engage in races and casual drives, and use credits won in-game to purchase customisation options for all of your vehicles and drivers.

Mobile Suit Gundam Extreme Vs. Maxiboost On had a reputation to live up to outside of Japan's arcades and the import community who played its predecessors.

The first major waves it made outside of that community was around the release of Gundam Versus, where a vocal crowd criticized Namco for releasing that instead of the arcade title. With the announcement of the home console port earlier this year, the question on many minds outside of that crowd, including my own, was simple: is it worth the hype? Could an old title really be that good?

Turns out, it absolutely does live up to that hype.

There's one month to go until Marvel's Avengers launches and we're already so tired.

Following yesterday's Spider-Man PlayStation exclusivity news – short recap: the entire character, not just an innocuous skin, will skip Avengers on Xbox One and PC – there's even more deal-making.

The PlayStation versions of Marvel's Avengers (it's also coming to PS5) will get "30-day exclusive access to a Legendary Outfit, Legendary Emote, Epic Takedown, and nameplate for each Super Hero as they are released," including characters like Hawkeye, the first post-launch arrival, and the day-one cast.

That's far from it. "Certain" Community Challenges – shared goals with shared rewards – will be exclusive to PlayStation. As for PlayStation Plus rewards (you knew that was next), there's a few.

"For each Super Hero added to the game post-launch, Hawkeye included, all PS Plus members will receive a free bundle that contains a Rare Outfit, nameplate, and 100 Credits to celebrate the addition of another Avenger to the roster," said Crystal Dynamics. A Ms. Marvel bundle is up first at launch.

There's also early beta access on PS4 this month, but we already knew about that. This fuckin' game...

Work together in style with Community Challenges and cosmetics for Marvel's Avengers [PlayStation Blog]

Why did the game developer cross the road? To make a living, probably, but after traversing dozens of mobile highways it’s about time to look to the stars. Announced earlier today, Tombstar sees Crossy Road developer Andy Sum team up with designer Marcus Grambau in ditching the sidewalk to pick up a sci-fi six-shooter sometime this year. Let’s just hope his aim’s as good as his traffic-dodging gymnastics, eh?

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Programmers at Disbelief are called on to develop and debug in a variety of areas from game play to core engine programming. ...

At the core of every book, video game, television series, or movie involving a zombie apocalypse is an idea about humanity’s drive to consume, or how easy it would be for civilizations to crumble in the midst of an unforeseen disaster. Like, for instance, the sudden spread of a deadly virus that swept its way across…

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Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout released today on PC and PlayStation 4 to much fanfare—perhaps too much. The hotly anticipated physics-based party platformer has been plagued by server issues all day.

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Marcus Grambau and Andy Sum, the developer behind massive mobile hit Crossy Road, have unveiled TombStar - a rootin', tootin' top-down "space Western" shooter, which will be making its way to PC and consoles next year.

Unfolding at the outer reaches of the Frontier Galaxy, TombStar pits players against an assortment of gun-toting miscreants - "from pistol-wielding cowpokes to robots with death lasers", according to the official announcement - across four visually distinct planets.

What follows is a blend of "tough, bullet hell gunplay and winding procedural exploration" (with roguelike elements) inspired by 80s cartoons, all of which can be tackled using one of three playable renegades, each with their own special powers.

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How to get Crowns being the last Fall Guy standing

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The hard part is finding the Netherite

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Black Ops studio moves up one year in development rotation

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In today's giveaway you can claim a Gift of the Noble Guard key for Neverwinter PS4 or Xbox One!

It's giveaway time again! Today we've got console keys for Neverwinter: Avernus contest, giving you exclusive content and a boost in XP for your adventures, so claim one before they're gone!

With a Q4 2020 release planned for the next Call of Duty and its leaked Black Ops Cold War name spinning around our heads, it's about time we learned who's developing the game. As announced during Activision's earnings call today, Treyarch and Raven Software – not Sledgehammer – are on point.

It’s official. Looking forward to showing you what we’ve been cooking up with @RavenSoftware!

— Treyarch Studios (@Treyarch) August 4, 2020

It's hard to generalize for a series as big as Call of Duty, but I'd say that many fans have a soft spot for Black Ops – Treyarch has fun. Even without concrete details, there's wiggle room for cautious excitement. And, as far as these things go, I appreciate having a condensed marketing cycle. As noted on the call by Activision president and COO Daniel Alegre, they're still planning a "release later this year."

One thing is for sure: Activision will have to continue juggling Call of Duty: Warzone. The latest milestone? 75 million players. It's a winning format, but I hope they can rein in the bloated file size.

This week's Humble Bundle has a little more tension than usual, as it's a collection of games where any misstep could be your undoing.

Bohemia Interactive is the subject of the newest Humble Bundle, meaning that DayZ and a ton of Arma games are on sale. Arma shoots for the tactical military simulation angle, and DayZ is all about ultra-gritty post-apocalyptic zombie survival. It's all very realistic if zombies were realistic.

Anyway, you can definitely get your fill of both if you shell out a little cash this week. Here's what's on the table:

Like many LARPers before them, Disney's Imagineers have transplanted role-playing game mechanics into the real world setting of Star Wars Galaxy's Edge. Here's a breakdown of what they did. ...

My brother and I started taking World of Warcraft Classic seriously again two weeks ago. We both played during the mid-2000s Vanilla period—the era Classic attempts to replicate—and jumped into Classic last year, grinding to the mid-20s. Back then, it really seemed like Blizzard’s experiment was going to work.

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EarFun Air True Wireless Airbuds | $44 | Amazon | Clip $10 coupon + Promo Code EARFUN42

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Hellboy is being turned into a second tabletop RPG (the original is almost 20 years old), this time based on DnD5E. It’s coming to Kickstarter later this Summer.

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Sucker Punch recently added a new difficulty level to Ghost of Tsushima. In addition to Easy, Normal, and Hard, you can now take on the Mongol armies in a “Lethal” difficulty level. The devs bill it as more difficult than Hard, but in practice it’s more a gameplay tweak. Yes, enemies are stronger—but you are, too.

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Sometimes, you don’t know how much you want something until you realize it may have already slipped through your fingers. That’s what I told myself on Saturday, as sunk-cost fallacy convinced me to feverishly calculate how much it would cost to buy a Warframe suit that had been completely free less than an hour prior.

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Featured Deal: Watch Dogs Legion | $20 | Amazon

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Wargroove, a turn-based strategy game in the vein of Advance Wars, received free DLC earlier this year--but only on Switch, Xbox One, and PC. The Double Trouble expansion, which added a co-op campaign, was missing from Sony's system back in February, but now, six months later, that has been rectified.

The Double Trouble update has come to the PS4 version of Wargroove, adding a new, lengthy campaign, three new Commanders, two new units, and several other features to the game. Developer Chucklefish says that the campaign takes about 15 hours to complete, and it supports both couch and online co-op.

The DLC also contains new arcade missions, a volcano map theme, and new music.

Furthermore, the PS4 version now finally has cross-play. This feature was available at launch for the Switch, Xbox One, and PC versions, but PS4 players missed out until now. This means that players diving into the DLC will be able to team up with their friends on other systems.

"We're very happy to finally complete our vision of one big happy Wargroove community as PS4 Wargroove players can now play with those on Nintendo Switch, Xbox One, and PC," Wargroove lead programmer Rodrigo Braz Monteiro said in a statement. "Thanks for your patience, and hope you'll have fun!"

Wargroove received an 8/10 in GameSpot's review, well before the free DLC launched. "Chucklefish could have offered up a prettied-up take on Advance Wars with online multiplayer and called it a day," wrote reviewer Chris Pereira. "Instead, it's made meaningful improvements that make this both a satisfying answer to starved Advance Wars fans' wishes and a genuinely great experience on its own merits."

This article and video contain very mild, early spoilers for The Last of Us Part II.

The Last of Us Part II is a fairly grim game, but it isn't all doom and gloom. One early section flashes back to a happier moment in Joel and Ellie's lives, when Joel gives Ellie an incredible gift: a trip to an abandoned museum, full of dinosaur skeletons. Now, Game Maker's Toolkit, has dived deep into how that section was made

Evan Hill, a former Naughty Dog level designer who led the creation of the museum (the level is called "The Birthday Gift"), says that he was given a brief two-paragraph summary of the museum's narrative function from director Neil Druckmann, but was given freedom from there.

Michael "Shroud" Grzesiek, has begun teasing his return after the Mixer shutdown. Like Ninja, Shroud was one of the big streamers that signed an exclusivity deal with Microsoft's platform after finding success on Twitch. It's unclear what exactly Grzesiek is teasing, but he has posted two animated kill montages.

Both teases appear to show footage from Valorant, Riot Games' tactical team shooter. Valorant was one of the many games Grzesiek would stream and has been compared to Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, which Grzesiek played professionally on Cloud9's team before retiring to streaming.

Microsoft has shared a new song from the Halo Infinite OST. The track "Reverie" was composed by Curtis Schweitzer, who is working on the game's music alongside Gareth Coker.

"Reverie" was featured in the "Discover Hope" trailer for Halo Infinite, while it was also heard in the campaign demo for Halo Infinite in July. You can listen to it below.

Schweitzer explained on the Halo Waypoint website that he's been a fan of Halo for a long time. "I've been composing most of my life, and also playing Halo for a good chunk of it, too, so the chance to put those two things together is something I'm very excited about," he said.

BlizzCon 2020 was canceled due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, but the event will come back next year--albeit in a different state. Activision Blizzard announced during its fiscal earnings call that it will host a virtual BlizzCon event in early 2021.

BlizzCon executive producer Saralyn Smith had suggested the possibility of an online replacement for BlizzCon to take place early next year, but at the time the plans had not yet been confirmed. The company promised more details as plans develop, and this is the first confirmation that it's definitely happening.

"We're talking about how we might be able to channel the BlizzCon spirit and connect with you in some way online, far less impacted by the state of health and safety protocols for mass in-person gatherings," Smith wrote at the time. "We'd want to do this as soon as we could, but given that this is new-ish territory and the different factors involved, it will most likely be sometime early next year."

While we know next to nothing about this year's Call of Duty, publisher Activision said co-developers Raven Software and Treyarch will show off the game "fairly soon."

This news came during a recent Activision Blizzard earnings call, where Activision president Rob Kostich said Warzone helped the Call of Duty teams rethink how content is revealed while also confirming that Call of Duty 2020 news is on the way.

"It's Warzone, I think, that's caused us to rethink how, when, and even where we reveal our upcoming title," Kostich said. "So we can't wait to share it with the community, and we think it's gonna be very different and more engaging than anything we've ever done before.

Over the next week, Newegg has a ton of great gaming deals just in time for the back-to-school season. If you've been in the market for a new gaming laptop or desktop, then now's a great chance to snag one at a discount. The latest sale also features some fantastic gaming monitors and external hard drives that are perfect for consoles like the PS4 and Xbox One.

Many of these deals are available until August 10, though be sure to double-check availability and price before ordering. We'll keep this article updated throughout the week with more products and deals as they go live or their stock is depleted.

The best gaming deals at Newegg

Twitter is, for the most part, an absolute cesspool of a website, a wretched hive of villainy and scum that only sometimes makes its continued existence worthwhile. For the past few months, the only worthwhile thing on Twitter has been getting updates on the next game from Hörberg Productions. The creator of Gunman Clive and Mechstermination Force has been toiling away on a brawler that looks so wonderfully gay.

System Era designer Aaron Biddlecom and gameplay programmer Elijah O'Rear explain how they mined their own game design to invigorate Astroneer's "flat" crafting system. ...

Alexander Shatohin is an artist from Russia.

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Activision Blizzard boasted of “record results” for Q2 2020 in an earnings report released earlier today, with an eye on long-term growth thanks to the boost received in the previous quarter from the ongoing covid-19 pandemic. This financial victory lap, however, comes just days after workers collaborated on a…

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Bill English, one of the two men responsible for the invention of the computer mouse you may be resting your hand on right now, has died at the age of 91.

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Super Smash Bros. Ultimate started with a ton of characters, stages, and modes, and those numbers have only grown. The two Fighters Passes have added several new characters and stages along, but Nintendo has announced that with the free, newly released version 8.1.0 update, players can add the new Small Battlefield stage to their catalog of arenas.

As the name indicates, Small Battlefield is a more compact version of the existing Battlefield and Big Battlefield. Known as one of the most neutral stages in the game, Battlefield is often picked in competitive settings. Small Battlefield looks to give players a new way to Smash in closer quarters.

In addition, this new update gives players the ability to choose any music track, stage-specific or otherwise, when playing on Battlefield, Big Battlefield, Small Battlefield, and Final Destination. The update also promises several adjustments to the online experience.

Version 8.1.0 is available now to all players.

[Source: Nintendo]

When both Battlefield and Big Battlefield are too much, maybe Small Battlefield is just right.

The post Super Smash Bros Ultimate Small Battlefield Added in Update 8.1.0 appeared first on Siliconera.

Detroit: Become Human studio Quantic Dream announced today that the game has sold five million copies worldwide since its launch.

The narrative adventure game originally launched only on the PlayStation 4 in May 2018, and soon sold through 1.5 million copies within three months. In December of the same year, it became Quantic Dream’s fastest selling title at two million copies sold.

Detroit: Become Human was then ported to PC in December 2019 for the Epic Games Store and June 2020 for Steam. The five million sold milestone comes just one month after the studio released the title alongside Heavy Rain and Beyond: Two Souls to Steam.

The studio had also created a Twitch extension for the game, Detroit: Community Play, allowing viewers to vote on in-game decisions in real-time. The extension has seen nearly 500 streamers use the extension and over 1.5 million votes tallied.

“Launching Detroit: Become Human on Steam has been a delightful experience for us,” said Co-CEO and Head of Publishing at Quantic Dream Guillaume de Fondaumière. “The response we’re seeing has been incredibly positive, in particular in Asian markets. We are also thrilled by the response garnered by the concomitant release of our Community Play extension for streamers and viewers on Twitch, which elevated a fundamentally single player game into a social experience.”

There’s a lot to love about Fall Guys, the new battle royale game out on PS4 and PC this week, but I’m here today to talk about all the friends I’ve made playing the game who are now no longer my friends.

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