August 2020

When will Super Smash Bros. Ultimate stop getting random updates and fighters? Not for a while! This week's big news is a new modified stage, as well as some "adjustments" for online play and some bug fixes. Let's dig in.

The new arena is called "Small Battlefield," and is literally just a rework of the existing Battlefield stage. You can now set it as the "preferred rule" in online battles if you really want to dive into more intimate battles on a regular basis. Music selection has been altered a bit too for Battlefield, Small Battlefield, Big Battlefield and Final Destination.

As for online play, some nondescript adjustments have been done, with promises for "further investigations" into future online improvements. Good idea now that everyone is locked in! I just wish this happened sooner as online play is one of the only major flaws of Smash Ultimate nearly two years in.

Wait, nearly two years? Yep, Ultimate has remained relevant for that long and will hit its second anniversary this December. Bless it.

Ver. 8.1.0 [Nintendo]

Been wanting Final Fantasy VII Remake, but hoping for a nice sale? Well, it's temporarily at its lowest-ever PlayStation Store price.

The post Final Fantasy VII Remake Price Is at Its Lowest Ever on the PlayStation Store appeared first on Siliconera.

The Fire Emblem Heroes Pirate's Pride trailer offers a better look at the Pirate Tibarn, Geese, Brigid, and Veronica & Xander units.

The post Take a Better Look at Fire Emblem Heroes Pirate’s Pride Units appeared first on Siliconera.

Get ready, the Gran Colosseum is almost here, and Half-Nightmare Alice is one of the rewards.

The post The SINoALICE Gran Colosseum Will Open on August 9, 2020 appeared first on Siliconera.

Saviors of Sapphire Wings and Stranger of Sword City Remastered marks the English debut of Experience's Azure-Winged Chevalier.

The post Experience’s Azure-Winged Chevalier Being Localized as Saviors of Sapphire Wings appeared first on Siliconera.

The Samsung 970 Evo may have been replaced by the 970 Evo Plus quite some time ago, but when the UK’s BT Shop currently has the 500GB model for a very agreeable £78 versus the Plus’ usual going price of over £100, this is one SSD deal that’s definitely worth snapping up if you’re in need of some new storage. They’ve also got the 1TB model for £138, which is a good £40 cheaper than its equivalent Plus model.

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If you’re looking for a great price on one of today’s best SSDs for gaming, you’re in the right place, as we’ve rounded up all the cheapest deals in the UK and US from around the web. There are some great deals to be had on the Samsung 970 Evo this week, as well as smaller models of the WD Black SN750.

It’s not just NVMe SSD deals we’ve got here, though, as there are also loads of SATA SSD deals around in all sorts of different size capacities. Whatever you’re looking for, these are the cheapest SSD deals of the week.

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It’s time to collect your driving licence, because Fortnite‘s Joyride update just added some shiny new vehicles for you to race around in. There are four cars/trucks for players to find across the battle royale now, each allowing you to pick up your buds, hang out the windows and cause some carnage. You can even stick on their radios for a little sing-along if you fancy.

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Street Fighter V’s final season will see Dan, Rose, Oro, and Akira Kazama of Rival Schools join the game, Capcom announced during a special live stream this afternoon.

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It’s 1993, and your grandma reveals she bought you a VHS copy of Aladdin. You’re thrilled until you discover it’s a cheap 40-minute knock-off that has nothing to do with Aladdin, Jasmine, and Abu. It’s called a mockbuster: It’s totally legal, quite terrible, and the reason it exists is absolutely wild.

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When it comes to depicting the prejudices of historical time periods, most video games sidestep the issue. They avoid acknowledging that these prejudices existed or don’t emphasize them.

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Today, during a “Summer Update” livestream, Capcom revealed four new characters that will come to Street Fighter V: Champions Edition.

The new season (the fifth) has been defined as “the last” for the game. As previously announced, it will include five DLC characters.

The first will be Dan coming with four costumes in winter 2020. In spring 2021 we’re getting Rose with five costumes and her own stage.

In summer 2021 Capcom will release Oro with 3 costumes and a new crossover character, Akira Kazama from Rival Schools (with 5 costumes). Akira will also have her own stage and the developers mentioned that they’re working on implementing some fun gimmicks from Rival Schools.

Below you can check out the artwork showcased for the characters and the roadmap with all the content coming for Season V.

The fifth character is still unknown and will be released in fall 2021.

Developer Sperasoft has this week announced it’s joining forces with 343 Industries in the development of Halo Infinite. The anticipated upcoming shooter is slated to launch later this year in tandem with Microsoft’s next-generation Xbox Series X console, and the Sperasoft has been drafted in to contribute across “multiple development mandates, developing components of the game and experience.”

Denis Larkin, Chief Commercial Officer at Sperasoft, said of today’s announcement:

“It’s an honor to contribute to the most famous FPS series in the world and to support the next generation of the Halo franchise. Our development teams are thrilled with our 343 Industries collaboration on the anticipated upcoming release: Halo Infinite”.

Sperasoft is something of a co-development specialist, having also contributed to major AAA projects such as Rainbow Six Siege, Call of Duty: Black Ops 4, and currently, Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla.

During the last 16 years, Sperasoft has grown to over 600 developers, and opened 4 offices around the world.

The timing of today’s news is interesting when one considers that Halo: Infinite’s big gameplay reveal endured a torrent of backlash following Microsoft’s recent Xbox Series X presentation. It was so severe that 343 Industries felt it necessary to acknowledge it had “work to do” in order to sharpen up the appearance of Halo: Infinite.

Whether 343 Industries has brought Sperasoft on board specifically to that end or if the timing of today’s announcement is purely coincidental is unclear.

Today’s issue of Weekly Famitsu included an interview with Dynasty Warriors producer Akihiro Suzuki, who talked about the future of the series.

First of all, he mentioned that an Xtreme Legends version of Dynasty Warriors 9 is not planned. It simply would not fit the way the game works.

Speaking of DW9, he mentioned that many among the veteran audience of the franchise strongly criticized the open-world nature of the game, even if there were also voices that praised it.

In the future, possible numbered Dynasty Warriors games may not adopt an open-world setup, even if Suzuki-san still believes it’s the best way to convey the charm of the Three Kingdoms. He doesn’t know what kind of game it could be, but in the future, he’d like to try it again.

In his personal opinion, a Dynasty Warriors 9-2 could be a possibility.

Interestingly, asked when we’ll hear about the 20th anniversary game for the series, Suzuki-san revealed that there is more than one game coming to celebrate the occasion, and he’d like to announce them in the near future.

He concluded by mentioning that the franchise is celebrating its 20th anniversary due to the support of the fans and the whole development team is thankful for that.

While recently news about Dynasty Warriors have been thin, the announcement of the 20th-anniversary games is planned for the near future, and he’d like to create even more exciting games for the 25th and 30th anniversaries.

According to Suzuki-san, the 20th-anniversary milestone is not the goal, but he intends to work feeling like it’s a starting point.

If you’re interested in the history of the series, you can check out the 20th-anniversary trailer.

Wargroove, the Advance Wars-styled turn-based strategy game, has launched its free Double Trouble expansion for PlayStation 4 alongside full cross-platform play.

The free expansion was released earlier this year for PC, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch and was scheduled to come to PlayStation 4 sometime after.

The Double Trouble expansion features:

• Brand new Co-Op Story Campaign (can be played couch co-op, online co-op or even solo)
• Three New Roguish Commanders
• Two New Units – Thieves & Riflemen!
• New Arcade missions
• Competitive online Quick Play maps
• Public and Private Multiplayer Lobbies
• New Volcano map theme and more updates to the custom Editor tools
• Outlaw music tracks, composed by PhoneticHero
• And more!

Developer Chucklefish also announced that Wargroove now has full cross-platform play between PlayStation 4 and the other platforms. That includes competitive and cooperative multiplayer games and sharing community-made maps between platforms.

“From the very early stages of development, we knew that playing Wargroove multiplayer was not only incredibly fun, but also a huge part of the game’s experience, which made supporting crossplay between all platforms a no-brainer for us,” studio Chucklefish said in the announcement.

The Double Trouble expansion is now available for free on PlayStation 4 as a separate download, while the base game is currently 50% in the PlayStation Store.

Today’s issue of Weekly Famitsu included a spread on the upcoming JRPG Atelier Ryza 2: Lost Legends & the Secret Fairy.

First of all, we get to see two returning characters, Tao Mongarten (who was already a party member in the original game) and Bos Brunnen.

Tao has grown so much that Ryza is surprised when they are finally reunited in the capital. While he still reads a lot, the city atmosphere has inspired him to go out more. He and Bos have traveled to the capital to study following the events of the original game.

We also meet a brand new character. Serri Claus is an Oren like Lila. She is traveling around to collect a variety of seeds. She has a gentle personality and she tends to treat everyone with fairness.

We then see two exploration tools. A bracelet lets Ryza swing over chasms, while another item called “Air Drop” lets her breathe underwater. Incidentally, her hair and clothes will appear wet after a swim.

The Sims 4 allows for some crazy customization when it comes to creating your Sims, and the traits make up a big part of that. There are various attributes to associate with your Sim so that they are as unique as possible. Have you ever wondered which of those personality traits fit into your own personality? I know I’ve made many Sims after myself!

We all love picking our Sims’ traits in Create-A-Sim mode, but which one of those would we best resemble? If you were a Sim, which of those traits would apply to you? Take this quiz to find out which personality trait from The Sims 4 you most closely resemble!

Black Mirror is one of the most gripping and immersive TV shows you can watch right now, and it’s all on Netflix, which makes it all the better. Charlie Brooker’s dark sci-fi TV is an anthology of tales that are all based around how technology can impact our lives in the future. Some are slightly more positive than others, but for the most part, it’s pretty bleak viewing.

While we know that Brooker and Co. are hard at work on more Black Mirror episodes, we don’t know how long we’ll have to wait until we finally get to watch them.

So what better way to whittle away the time than to test your Black Mirror trivia knowledge. Down below, you’ll find 15 questions asking you very specific bits of trivia based on the entire five seasons. You’ll need to know the plots and fine details inside and out if you want to get full marks, so best brush up before you begin!

If you had fun with this one, be sure to check out our Quiz section for even more trivia and personality quizzes. For example, wondering how well you know The Office trivia or Futurama trivia? You can check out our quizzes by clicking the links.

This figure includes sales on both PC and PlayStation 4, though it's not mentioned if numbers from the game†™s stint as a PlayStation Plus freebie are included in the 5 million milestone. ...

QA is a vital part of the game development process, but, as Private Division executive producer Kari Toyama explains in her GDC Summer talk, QA†™s contributions and even presence is often underappreciated. ...

If beauty really is in the eye of the beholder, then landing on the right art direction for a game that could be played by thousands or even millions of people must be something of a nightmare. ...

Continuing with our Modern C# for Unity Game Development series, today I'm going to show you how to reduce the verbosity of your code with C# Expression-Bodied Members. ...

Another month means another selection of Game Pass additions for PC and Xbox One stampeding over the horizon, and August's newly revealed offerings include Final Fantasy 7 HD, The Dark Pictures Anthology: Man of Medan, and Darksiders: Genesis.

Starting with August's console-only additions, Darksiders: Genesis and Man of Medan both arrive tomorrow, 6th August. The former offers a top-down, dungeon-crawler-inspired spin on the long-running action-RPG franchise, this time featuring War and Strife as playable characters, and is supposedly pretty entertaining. Eurogamer's Christian Donlan reckoned it offered "the same old pleasures for this entirely pleasurable series," in his review, "albeit with the odd new trick and delivered from a new perspective."

The spookily enjoyable Man of Medan, meanwhile, is developer Supermassive Games' first entry in its Dark Pictures horror anthology series - a sort of smaller-scale extension of the team's Until Dawn. Like that game, it's a heavily cinematic narrative yarn, in which players are able to direct the action - and determine who lives or dies - to some degree, based on their choices. Man of Medan's nautical tale of teen horror doesn't quite stick the landing, but it's still a decent couple of hours entertainment, particularly with friends.

Five years after Nintendo confirmed the development of Pikmin 4, Nintendo has announced Pikmin 3 Deluxe for Nintendo Switch.

This expanded version of the Wii U original now features an additional set of missions starring Olimar and Louie as an introduction and epilogue to the main campaign. (Hopefully Pikmin 4 still survives somewhere, and didn't just get turned into these?)

There's also two-player local campaign co-op, various quality of life improvements and - my personal favourite - the return of the Piklopedia to track all of your creature findings.

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Having launched in 2016, Street Fighter V is approaching its fifth year of content, and with that, Capcom is readying the next wave of DLC for its continually growing fighter. During today's Street Fighter V: Champion Edition Summer Update stream, Capcom announced the next wave of downloadable fighters coming to Street Fighter V.

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Nintendo Switch has experienced success as a home for new first-party smash hits since day one, but Nintendo has further bolstered the library with games from the past, particularly from Nintendo's most recent console, the Wii U. Today, Nintendo announced the next Wii U game coming forward to Switch: Pikmin 3.

Pikmin 3 Deluxe brings the fan-favorite adventure to Nintendo's latest system, adding new content and features along the way. Pikmin 3 puts you in the shoes of three explorers as you command a squad of Pikmin. You explore various environments full of puzzles and battles in a quest for survival.

This upgraded version of Pikmin 3 features the original game and all downloadable content, plus a few other bonuses. You can now play the entire story in two-player co-op, or even complete side-story missions featuring Olimar and Louie exploring planet PNF-404. Pikmin 3 Deluxe also features new difficulty options, lock-on targeting, optional hints, and the ability to play at a more relaxed pace if you want. 

Pikmin 3 originally launched in August 2013 for Wii U. For our review of the original version, head here. Pikmin 3 Deluxe comes to Switch on October 30.

Harry’s got a new home

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Play with small teams by house rules in a fast-paced game

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Publisher Take-Two Interactive has released its financial report for the first quarter of the fiscal year, revealing blockbuster figures thanks to major catalogue contributors such as Red Dead Redemption 2, NBA 2K20, Borderlands 3, and The Outer Worlds.

But the crown jewel in Take-Two's vault remains Rockstar's 2013 magnum opus, Grand Theft Auto V. To date, the open-world crime sim has sold close to 135 million copies across the PS3, PS4, Xbox 360, Xbox One, and PC platforms. Amazingly, giving away GTA V for free on Epic Games Store in May 2020 only further increased base sales, as June would see the controversial title enjoy its most successful sales month since launch.

Through sales and resales, in addition to the incredibly lucrative GTA Online multiplayer component, Grand Theft Auto V continues its reign as one of the most successful and best-selling video games of all-time. And it's not over yet. Given that Rockstar has already announced its intention to port this epic release to next-gen PS5 platform, GTA V looks set to print money for years to come.

Grand Theft Auto V is available now on PS4, PC and Xbox One. It will launch on PS5 in late 2021.

Amid a very hectic and unpredictable schedule, Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night has been getting updates periodically.

Zangetsu was added as a playable character a few months ago, on top of the previously-promised Boss Revenge (playable bosses) and Chroma Wheel (protagonist customization) modes. But the latter two were not fated for Switch, it seems, as that version has its own timeline (along with a few other wacky platforms like EA Origin, which has its own patch pipeline).

While the development team isn't quite ready to nail down a date yet, we do have a window: "later this month." Taking to Facebook, they noted that "Boss Revenge Mode and Chroma Wheel debut on Game Pass and EA Origin this week then later this month for Nintendo Switch." Crash fixes for other platforms are coming soon: crashes that the last patch introduced, mind.

As a reminder, a new landing page is open now that breaks down the status of each platform.

Bloodstained [Facebook]

Capcom - with an assist from AEW star Kenny Omega - has revealed a brand new batch of content headed to Street Fighter V: Champion Edition, in what will be the competitive fighting game's fifth - and reportedly final - season.

In announcements made during today's Summer Update live stream, Season V will see SFV's 40-strong roster joined by Street Fighter III's bizarre hermit Oro, Street Fighter Zero doofus Dan Hibiki and, my long-time "main," the glamourous fortune-teller Rose. Rounding out this quartet, from the awesome Rival Schools, is badass biker gal Akira Kazama. A fifth and final character will be revealed at a later date.

Courtesy of PlayStation Blog, here's some work-in-progress footage of Dan in action.

The console versions of DanMachi Infinite Combate will release outside Japan on schedule, but the PC version will be slightly delayed.

The post DanMachi Infinite Combate PC Delayed appeared first on Siliconera.

Thanks to the Steam release, the list of PSO2 countries shows exactly where the MMORPG is playable.

The post PSO2 Regions Revealed With the Steam Version’s Launch appeared first on Siliconera.

Street Fighter V Rose, Oro, and Akira Kazama DLC fighters were all announced during the game's August 2020 update.

The post Street Fighter V Rose, Oro, and Akira Kazama Add-ons on the Way in 2021 appeared first on Siliconera.

It turns out the first Street Fighter V Season Pass 5 DLC fighter will be Dan.

The post Dan Will Join Street Fighter V in Season Pass V appeared first on Siliconera.

Ogre Tale is a 2D platformer from the Phantom Breaker: Battle Grounds developer that flips the script on Momotarou.

The post Ogre Tale Will Reverses Classic Roles When It Comes to Steam on August 21, 2020 appeared first on Siliconera.

I threw a spear at the first person to harm an ant. They were warned. But the lag meant I kept missing and it just got a bit embarassing, so we retrieved the spears and went back to scouting for dewdrops.

Grounded‘s multiplayer has captured something special. Even after several hours (which flew by for all of us), we found it hard to pin down exactly what about it was so… likeable. In its current state of development, I can’t quite recommend it as wholeheartedly as I want to. We had too many technical problems. But if it can overcome those during its early access period, it may well be game of the year material.

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Western Digital 8TB easystore External Hard Drive | $130 | Best Buy

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Today Cloud Imperium Games released the new version of Star Citizen to all backers, numbered Alpha 3.10.

The new alpha (titled “Flight & Fight”) brings a lot of new content and improvements to the fans of the game, including new flight mechanics, the ability to trade in-game currency, and more.

The accompanying press release included a statement from CEO and Creative Director Chris Roberts.

“Today’s launch of the Alpha 3.10: Flight & Fight Update marks a significant step towards our final vision for Star Citizen.

The enhancements to flight and combat systems are just the beginning of the continued overhaul we intend to iterate over time with the help of our community and represents our continued commitment to deliver meaningful updates that improve the Star Citizen experience.”

You can check out a couple of trailers below and screenshots at the bottom of the post. 

Mediatonic and Devolver Digital have finally released their nonsensical Battle Royale party game, Fall Guys, on PS4 and PC and there are a lot of people playing at the moment –over 1.5 million to be exact.

Fall Guys is an absolute success so far, and now that it’s free to download for PS Plus subscribers, there’s no better time than now to jump into all of the multiplayer madness.

And if you’re still not convinced, here a couple of reasons you should be playing it right now.