September 2020

You can find a cover of a Zelda song on pretty much any instrument, or anything that will allow it. Here, let's try a little experiment.

I randomly Googled "Mario Maker Lost Woods." Yep, there's an app for that.

"Epona's Song on a flute." Yep.

"Zelda's Lullaby on a fiddle." Well, close!

"Ballad of the Wind Fish on drums." Close again!

You get the picture. If you didn't know that Stardew Valley was capable of this kind of musical wizardry, you do now! YouTuber NetWarrior FM managed to recreate the classic Gerudo Valley theme in-game, and the fruits of their labor are below.

I guess you could call it..."The Ballad of Stardew Gerudo Valley?"

In a new blog post that was put up today by the community director for Insomniac Games on the official PlayStation Blog, the company went over several details pertaining to Marvel’s Spider-Man Remastered for the PS5, such as the new features coming to the next-gen port and some new spidey suits that look awesome.

The post first goes into the graphical updates that will be coming to the suped-up remaster. The environments in the city have been updated to take advantage of the power of the PS5 and of course, ray-tracing will come into play to improve shadows and reflections and such.

Character models have also been improved with higher fidelity skin, eyes, teeth, and even strands of hair. And speaking of the character models, it turns out that Insomniac Games has recast the face of Peter Parker.

Instead of John Bubniak’s face model being used, they’ve gone with a model named Ben Jordan, who suspiciously looks similar to Tom Holland, the real-life actor for Spider-Man in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Was this done on purpose? Who knows, but the resemblance is certainly uncanny.

Here’s a scene from the game so you can see the new face model in action:

A few words from me on today’s news... pic.twitter.com/PpdWVuw4Mm

Need for Speed: Payback and Vampyr are your PS Plus games for October: https://t.co/kKNMxUDkCL pic.twitter.com/K1Kutlws67

From Assassin’s Creed Odyssey to Gods & Monsters to Immortals Fenyx Rising

Inside the Vaults of Tartaros

Call Of Duty: Black Ops Cold War

has revealed the new version of Treyarch’s signature zombies mode. The reveal goes over new weapon upgrade systems, the first map you’ll be surviving in, and how Cold War will continue the story of zombies mode which has its own actual lore separate from the rest of COD.

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Digispace game festivals continue to be all the rage this year and heck you won’t hear me complaining. Steam will host the first Steam Digital Tabletop Fest, an online festival of panels, lets plays, and other activities for “games that run across the lines between digital and physical games” at the end of October. The definition seems quite flexible, based on the games involved, so you may well hear about something you’re interested in even if, like me, you don’t often game ’round a proper table.

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Although Diablo 4 doesn’t have so much as a planned release window, Blizzard are continuing to lay out bits of development on the table for players to get a gander at while the studio iterate on the game. In the latest quarterly update, Blizzard are responding to player feedback on earlier updates with some proposed changes to skills, gear, and legendary items. They’re also showing off a bit of the Sorceress class’s special enchanting skill system.

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See Marvel's Spider-Man Remastered new Peter Parker model and Performance Mode running on a PS5 in new footage.

The post Marvel’s Spider-Man Remastered PS5 Gameplay and Performance Mode Shared appeared first on Siliconera.

The two PlayStation Plus October 2020 games have been revealed. One of them is Dontnod's Vampyr, which seems appropriate for the season.

The post PlayStation Plus October 2020 Lineup Prepares for Halloween With Vampyr appeared first on Siliconera.

Limited Run games will have Brigandine PS4 standard and collector's editions available to pre-order starting in October 2020.

The post Brigandine PS4 Collector’s Edition Includes Its Soundtrack appeared first on Siliconera.

There are now three kinds of My Hero One’s Justice 2 Intruder Events in the game, which were added as part of the September update.

The post My Hero One’s Justice 2 Intruder Events Introduced appeared first on Siliconera.

Every month, Sony offers two free games for those that have an active PlayStation Plus membership. As September wanes down into its final days, the free PS Plus October 2020 games lineup has been revealed and includes a nice little horror treat ahead of Halloween. 

PS Plus October 2020

The two games that are being offered for October includes Need for Speed: Payback and Vampyr; one will have those cars racing while the other aims to get that blood pumping. Literally, it's a game about vampires. 

As a personal recommendation, I can't recommend Vampyr enough. Created by the studio that gave us Life is Strange, Dontnod crafts an intriguing and dangerous tale set in 1918. This action RPG has resounding narrative choices that can result in hefty consequences.

Though the game itself was met with mixed reviews due to pacing perceptions and less than stellar mechanics, the story itself more than makes up for any technical issues that players experience. At least as a personal recommendation. 

Need for Speed is also a great grab for those that care less about horror and just want to dominate behind the wheel. Both will be available from October 6 until November 2. 

Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War embraces the full multiplayer experience with a suite of traditional offerings, Warzone for battle royale, and a tentpole of Treyarch, Zombies. Today, Treyarch unveiled details regarding the upcoming 4-player co-op experience. You'll play as part of Requiem, a CIA-backed international response team helmed by Grigori Weaver (you may remember this charcter from Black Ops!) to check out a WWII bunker. It sounds a little like the 2008 British horror film Outpost so far, but let's keep digging in...

As is often the case when going back to examine the Third Reich in Call of Duty Zombie fare, occult machinations are part of the horrible discoveries that players are set to make. Requiem also encounters The Omega Group, a rival team of Russians that are looking to uncover the same surreal secrets for their own purposes. What will these conflicting bands of soldiers and scientists find when they start poking around where they don't belong? I don't need to spell it out for you, but yeah. It's zombies. It's always zombies!

Even as the popularity of both tabletop and digital gaming continues to rise, the links between the two grow ever stronger. With every year, we see more board games adopting app-aided designs and other features from the digital world, while the video game milieu has had a long practice of borrowing tactical elements, storytelling concepts, and leveling from the board game and tabletop role-playing sphere. The two mediums are inextricably linked.

A new event is coming this October 21st through 26th, a joint venture between Valve and Auroch Digital, aiming to curate and celebrate this crossover between physical and digital gaming. Announced today, the event aims to highlight several big-name designers, including the likes of Steve Jackson (Munchkin, Ogre), Elizabeth Hargrave (Wingspan), Ian Livingstone (Games Workshop co-founder), and Sandy Petersen (Call of Cthulhu RPG).

Events include a livestream highlighting the next big update coming to the Gloomhaven early access release on Steam, a panel on games about Mars, a panel on Cthulhu games, and a comparative look at the physical and digital design of Plague Inc., hosted by the designer of both versions.

Tabletop and video gamers who wish to learn more about the live-streamed and VOD event can check out Steam’s official page for the event. For more on Game Informer’s coverage of the tabletop gaming world, check out our Top of the Table hub.  

A voucher code for Marvel's Spider-Man Remastered is included with the upcoming Marvel's Spider-Man: Miles Morales: Ultimate Edition on PlayStation 5. This next-gen remaster takes advantage of all that next-gen has to offer and also brings with it some additional cosmetic bonuses like three new suits.

One of the biggest changes is that for some reason, they've recast the face of Peter Parker. From the PlayStation Blog: "We loved working with John Bubniak on the original game; however, to get a better match to Peter Parker/Spider-Man actor Yuri Lowenthal’s facial capture, we have cast Ben Jordan to be the face model for Peter Parker on the PS5 console. He looks incredible in-game, and Yuri’s moving performances take on a new life."

The PlayStation 5 offers a targeted 60 FPS performance mode, which you can check out in a clip below! There's also much faster loading and a new photo mode. You can read more about Marvel's Spider-Man: Miles Morales: Ultimate Edition on the official PlayStation blog. 

Learn about the various ways to obtain Acquaint and Intertwined Fate in Genshin Impact inside.

The post How to Obtain Intertwined and Acquaint Fate in Genshin Impact appeared first on Siliconera.

Valve has announced its latest digital event: a week-long celebration of digital tabletop games and the developers that make them. ...

In this 2020 GDC Summer session, Riot Games' Weszt Hart breaks down how "fair play" can be a useful measuring stick for how effective a Player Dynamics team is performing at a studio. ...

Alienware m15 R1 Gaming Laptop | $1,176 | Dell

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Chalk it up to a terrible 2020, but the typical signs that autumn is upon us feel especially welcome this year: The leaves are changing, pumpkin-spiced items are lining the grocery shelves, and Saturday Night Live is gearing up for a new season. Now heading into his fourth year with the show, Chris Redd is eager to…

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Despite some controversy following its unveiling, excitement is still high for Insomniac's PlayStation 5 Spider-Man remaster - and the developer has now given a more thorough look at the enhancements coming to Sony's new console - including a rather Tom-Holland-esque makeover for its web-slinging lead - in November.

Peter Parker's youthful new looks, which you can see in the remastered cut-scene below, come as part of a "huge upgrade" for characters in the remaster. Insomniac claims it has cast Ben Jordan to be the new face model for Peter Parker on PS5 in order to "better match" actor Yuri Lowenthal's facial capture (and not, you know, to bring it more in line with Marvel's massively bankable movies), but other characters have received visual upgrades too.

Insomniac says to expect "higher fidelity skin, eye, and teeth shaders" as well as "individually-rendered strands of hair", all of which it hopes will bring "new life" to familiar characters.

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Celebrate the scariest time of the year with some pumpkin decor

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During October, you’ve got to look the part

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Check the Nook Stop in October for new stuff

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Plant Pumpkins around your island for a Halloween look and use them for crafting

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The week’s best deals include Switch accessories and a Batman Blu-ray collection

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A room holding the game’s final cutscene

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Flying Wild Hog, the studio behind the Shadow Warrior series, has entered into a partnership with publisher Focus Home Interactive to develop a title that the studio claims is its most ambitious project to date.

While no details were offered regarding the mysterious new title, Flying Wild Hog spoke of its excitement for the project, as well as its partnership with Focus Home, who were recently responsible for solid AA releases such as Greedfall, A Plague Tale: Innocence, and Vampyr.

"Focus Home Interactive is the perfect partner for Flying Wild Hog," said Flying Wild Hog CEO Michal Szustak. "We both share a love for creating unique, exciting worlds filled with crazy gameplay. We also deeply care for quality and creativity. Focus’s team supports us not only with great trust for our vision, but also helps us to forge that vision into an outstanding game. We are sure that our partnership will bloom into an amazing experience for players around the world. Fans of original action games can expect quite a surprise!"

Focus Home Interactive responded with equal praise and enthusiasm. "We at Focus have a directive to bring exciting and innovative games to the market, and with their upcoming title we know that Flying Wild Hog will reach the objectives we have on all of our projects, in terms of both quality and originality," said Focus COO John Bert. "We’re enthusiastic to be working with this professional team, who are masters in the art of creating spectacular, action-packed games."

We'll be sure to keep you informed once either party is ready to announce this exciting new project.

Focus Home Interactive and Flying Wild Hog announce partnership [MCV]

If the newest Xbox sale were a movie, it'd probably by Deep Blue Sea. Or Open Water. Or maybe the best name would be Ocean's 48.

Xbox is unwavering in its commitment to the theme of the Deep Sea Discounts sale. It's 48 games that are purely aquatic one way or another. For some, it's the nightmares that lurk below the water. For others, it's just a whole lot of fishing. Maybe you'll catch a nightmare!

This one runs through October 5. Here's everything included in the Deep Sea Discounts sale:

Years ago, Naoki "Yoshi-P" Yoshida quietly changed the perception of Final Fantasy XIV.

I was there at E3 when XIV debuted. I saw the grimacing faces of press and players alike, and witnessed the rocky launch. I was also there when it was quite literally "reborn," and experienced the drastic upgrade myself. Years later I would come to learn that Yoshi-P's light touch (alongside of his team) was responsible for the revival, and it seems like Square Enix noticed him too; as he's one of the developers heading up Final Fantasy XVI.

But before we shift some of our focus to XVI, I sat down with Yoshi-P to talk XIV: which still has plenty of life left in it.

Bandai Namco has announced a free update headed to Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot this fall that will add a new card-fighting mini-game to the open-world anime RPG. The "Dragon Ball Card Warriors" mode will allow players to build a deck of notable DBZ characters and abilities, before challenging each other in casual and ranked online battles and monthly Budokai tournaments.

Earlier today, Niantic revealed all the missing pieces of the Charmander Community Day puzzle. It’s Charmander’s second time being featured in a Community Day. The original one was back in May or 2018. But this time around there’ll be some mega bonuses and a new Community Day move.

First off, this is the first time that a Fire-type starter Pokemon will not be getting Blast Burn. This time around, you’ll be able to get Charizard with the fast attack, Dragon Breath. As long as you evolve a Charmeleon into Charizard during the event, then it’ll get the event-exclusive attack.

There’ll also be Timed Research, paid ($1) Special Research, and Field Research that will reward you with Charizard Mega Energy when completed.

And just like all past Community Day events, you will have a chance to catch a shiny version of Charmander, which is one of the most popular shinies in the game. Your best bet to get one will be by tapping on every Charmander you see.

You’ll also be able to find Charmanders photobombing pictures you take of your Pokemon. Usually, Smeargle shows up in photobombs, but Community Day events usually change that up so you can find even more of the featured mon.

And continuing with recent Community Day tradition, there’ll be a special October Community Day Box available for 1,280 PokeCoins. This time around the special box will contain an Elite Charged TM, three Super Incubators, three Star Pieces, and 30 Ultra Balls.

Besides those features, there will also be the basic Community Day bonuses for catching Pokemon and the extended duration of another item. One bonus will give you triple stardust for catching Pokemon and the other will extend the life of your Incense from one hour to three hours.

Put your two eyes on step two.#ThisIsntOK pic.twitter.com/IA6HRv2Elf