September 2020

Smash and Grab

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We speak to experts from small, medium, and larger game companies to find out how they handle the oft-under-appreciated discipline of quality assurance. ...

Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment parent company AT& T is reportedly no longer looking to sell off the video game development and publishing division. ...

Big Fish Games laid off a sizable portion of its staff today, a reduction an internal letter obtained by GeekWire says comes from its desire to pivot operations rather than concerns over company funds. ...

Astro Gaming has announced a new generation of wireless A20 headsets along with a new line of USB transmitters. The A20s will be designed to pair with consoles as well as PCs. Console-compatible headsets come with one transmitter, however, if players decide to purchase a second transmitter they will be able to use their headset with any gaming device of their choosing.

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After 10 strong years, indie-studio Vlambeer is closing its doors. Founded by Rami Ismail and Willam Nijman, the company has made a long line of beloved titles like Ridiculous Fishing and Nuclear Throne. While most development studios close for financial reasons, Ismail and Nijman have chosen to end the company of their own volition.

In an interview with Kotaku, Ismail detailed that the decision to close was ultimately about moving on to newer and greater ventures, "Maybe because of that growth it has become really clear that what the two of us want to do with our lives is just different." Ismail says. "After Nuclear Throne, it felt a bit like we had proven everything Vlambeer had to prove, and after a well-earned break, after such a demanding project we realized that we had both found our own separate ways forward."

Despite closing suddenly, Vlambeer has left a lasting impact on the ever-growing indie-game community. In light of that, here are some upcoming indie games that you should keep an eye on.

Sorry, Hawkeye. We’ll be playing as Hawkeye, please and thank you.

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Lamy Safari Fountain Pen | $28 | Amazon

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To date, Microsoft has announced a single next-gen console: the Xbox Series X. Thing is, we all basically know that there’s a second console coming, one that is yet to be announced, despite the fact there are more and more products out there that specifically mention it. Products made by Microsoft!

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Sam is a 20 year-old college student who says he felt deceived by military recruitment efforts at his own high school. Recently, he found a way to push back. He and dozens of others, spread across a couple of Discords, spend chunks of their day trolling the military on Twitch. They harbor no delusions. They do not…

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Kadokawa Games has been teasing its upcoming mecha strategy RPG Project Stella for a long while, but it has kept the character designs under wraps, until now.

Considering that the game will focus on the cute girls + mecha combo, what said “cute girls” will look like is quite a big deal. 

Back in January, I was at the developer’s headquarters in Tokyo and I was allowed to see what the preliminary character designs looked like. 

Unfortunately, I could not show you, and all I could do was providing a vague description.

Today Kadokawa Games president Yoshimi Yasuda finally teased what they look like posting the first partial image.

You can check it out below.

In delightfully weird news from Japan, Nintendo - along with Creatures Inc. and Game Freak - have applied for several new trademarks relating to the design and realisation of Pi!car!, which appears to be an environmentally sound, Pikachu-themed motor vehicle.

The new trademarks are for the "Pi!car!" name in both Japanese and English, as well as two cutesy visual designs based around Pokemon's lead critter (which you can see in the gallery below). The three trademarks fall under the categories of "Vehicle" and "Education," but none of them appear tied to the development of any video games.

As reported by Japanese Nintendo, the Pi!car! project is a joint venture between The Pokemon Company and car manufacturer Toyota Motor Corporation, seemingly with the goal of producing a compact, petrol-free vehicle with a Pikachu theme. Whether this idea is to be realised as a mere concept car, or will actually made available to the public, remains to be seen...

...But boy howdy, do I wanna see people driving Pikachu cars in my neighbourhood.

In today's contest you can win a creepy tale, in form of Creepy Tale, for Nintendo Switch!

Welcome, September! Summer should be about winding down, giving us a much-needed reprieve from the heat and humidity. Shower us in your windy, leafy goodness, fall!

But isn't there always something a little creepy about the changing of summer into autumn? I always thought so. Celebrate that subtle unease with a Switch copy of indie adventure title, Creepy Tale.

If all goes according to plan, Dead by Daylight could have one of the smoother next-gen transitions.

The PS5 and Xbox Series X versions of Dead by Daylight will run at 4K and 60FPS, and current players will be able to upgrade "for free on their new platform of choice" while retaining their progression and unlocks. Behaviour Interactive is aiming for a "holiday 2020" launch window on both consoles.

Even if you're sticking to the existing versions on PC, PS4, Xbox One, or Nintendo Switch, you'll benefit from an upcoming "graphical overhaul" that will be delivered in free updates stretching into fall 2021.

Starting with Springwood and Yamaoka Estate, the team intends to rework "over four years of live content" to "improve the immersion." That means new lighting, textures, models, and animations. The first update will drop on September 8 with those maps and revamped lockers, generators, and palettes.

While ambitious update schedules tend to slip off course, Behaviour hopes to release visual upgrades "every six weeks," and all told, "tens of thousands of assets will be enhanced."

Content-wise, they'll still be releasing new Chapters and Archives too.

The Realm Beyond [Dead by Daylight]

[Editor's Note: This review and score cover only the single-player campaign of Iron Harvest; we'll follow up soon with a dedicated review of the multiplayer component.]

The choking smoke of diesel engines, gunfire plinking off of metal, explosions throwing soldiers to and fro. Through it all, the stomping of a mech's piston-powered feet. That's the landscape of Iron Harvest: stylish alternate-history real-time strategy with modern gameplay and a detailed single-player campaign. It’s bursting at the seams with ambition, as though the developers at King Art Games looked back fondly at the mid-2000s heyday of the RTS and said: "We can do that." While it might not have pinnacle graphics and sound, Iron Harvest represents something that has become all too rare for fans of the RTS, and it’s the best single-player RTS campaign I've played in years.

.@Xbox_JP is heading to Tokyo Game Show!

Back in June, Hassan Bokhari, accounts director of strategic partnerships at Twitch, was accused of sexual abuse and assault by a Twitch streamer named Vio. Now, after an investigation that began months ago, Twitch has banned Bokhari from the platform, and he is no longer an employee at the company.

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Regiments is an upcoming RTS set in the 1980s, in a scenario where the Cold War heats up. It’ll probably be of interest to anyone who played World in Conflict or Wargame.

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We’ve been seeing Witcher 3 mods like this on the PC for years now, and I’ve never written about them because they always looked like they either made no difference to the quality of the game’s visuals, or did in a way that made the game look worse.

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‘You’re a tiny speck of nothing in the universe, and that’s a good thing’

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Today Compile Heart finally announced the western release date and pricing info for the five DLC packages coming for Azur Lane: Crosswave.

The release will be on October 5 on PS4 and PC via Steam and each package will cost $7.99.

You can also save 15% on the pricing by purchasing the Azur Lane: Crosswave Character Bundle, which includes all five DLC for $33.95.

Below you can find links to each DLC’s Steam listing.

Last month, we brought you news that Gunman Clive creator Bertil Hörberg was working on a new solo project through the COVID-19 pandemic. While it wasn't officially announced, gameplay snippets posted to Twitter over the past few months kept the game fresh in the back of my mind. In August, Hörberg was prepping to submit the game to NOA Lot Check. Things must have gone swimmingly as today, the indie dev finally revealed what this brawler is and when we'll be able to play it.

Tim Douglas is an artist who has worked on games like Squad and Beyond the Wire.

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Today Spike Chunsoft reached out with a press release to share brand new key artwork of the upcoming Re:ZERO -Starting Life in Another World- The Prophecy of the Throne.

The key artwork, portraying the familiar protagonists from the light novels and anime, was drawn directly by Shinichirou Otsuka.

You can enjoy it below, alongside a few screenshots of the game localized in English.

The Sims 4 is getting a new Star Wars expansion, Journey to Batuu, which will take your Sims to a galaxy far, far away. We've already seen many of the additions coming with the expansion, including lightsabers, droids, and Stormtroopers, but now a new trailer has shown off how it'll play, and what will make the experience unique beyond the aesthetics.

The trailer below shows off the game's Star Wars-style missions, where you pick a side (there's the resistance, the First Order, and the "scoundrels") and complete tasks. The trailer shows the player meeting an informant at a catina, but compared to, say, The Mandalorian's equivalent scenes, it's pretty light.

The trailer also shows how you can choose and build a droid, and gives us a preview of some remixed versions of various pieces of Star Wars music.

Both Rey and Kylo Ren will feature in the expansion--and, of course, you can make and use your own lightsaber. Your reputation can grow, and you can meet other Star Wars characters along the way.

The Seattle-based mobile and social game developer Big Fish has laid off 250 people just one day after courts ordered the studio to pay $155 million from multiple class-action suits. The two matters are not connected, management says.

Geekwire obtained a memo from Big Fish's co-president Andrew Pedersen and Jason Willig, who said the cuts were part of the company's ambition to "strengthen our business and position Big Fish for long-term success." The executives said they are making the cuts as Big Fish enjoys a "position of financial strength," adding that cost-cutting is "the primary driver behind the changes."

Pedersen and Willig said in their memo to say that succeeding as a multiplatform publisher of mobile games at scale "requires greater agility and different operating and creative capabilities."

A new policy change for the Nintendo Switch Eshop means that players now have the option of cancelling pre-orders. As Vooks points out, the previous rule was that Eshop pre-orders would be charged right away, and there was no way to recover those funds if you changed your mind. Now, pre-orders do not charge until shortly before release.

An update to the Nintendo support page details the change, linking to a guide on how to cancel pre-orders. This can be done through your browser or the Switch itself, and can be done up until the game is available for preload--typically seven days before the game is released.

This seems to be a change made internationally, affecting the Eshop in every country.

Path of Exile's next expansion has been announced, and it's coming very soon. The "Heist" expansion for Grinding Gear's action-RPG will launch September 18 on PC before coming to PlayStation 4 and Xbox One for its console release on September 23.

Path of Exile: Heist allows players to hire thieves to help them steal artifacts that will help fund your crew as you plan an even more elaborate "Grand Heist." So basically, it's Ocean's 11 meets an isometric RPG.

The expansion adds the Heist challenge league and nine more skills and support gems, while curses, steel skills, and spells have been revamped. The Grand Heists, as they're called, give players the ability to earn special weapon and body armor enchantments, trinkets, new gems, and other items.

Marvel's Avengers has found its way into the hands of players who have early access, and many are now working their way through the campaign. The game is coming to PS5 and Xbox Series X, but PC players can already get a massively improved visual performance out of the game--as long as they download the high-resolution texture pack, which is tucked away in the game's Steam properties tab.

As TheGamer notes, to access this resolution pack, which weighs in at 26.7 GB, you'll need to right-click on the game from your Steam library and select "properties". From here, navigate to the DLC tab in the top-right, and click the "install" box.

Of course, you'll need a more powerful PC (and a 4K monitor) to make the most of these textures. Check out the game's recommended specs, which you'll need to make the high-resolution pack worthwhile.

TheGamer reports that these textures "make a huge difference," so if your computer can handle them it's worth the download. If you're interested in a new PC to play Avengers check out this deal, which comes with a copy of the game.

GameSpot is currently working on its review of Marvel's Avengers. The game's first DLC character has been revealed, and it's Kate Bishop.

There are some game developers who can make news happen with a single cryptic sentence, tweeted out to a huge follower base, designed to rile up the imagination. One such developer is Ed Boon, the co-creator of Mortal Kombat and Injustice, who runs fighting game developer NetherRealm Studios.

Following the success of Mortal Kombat 11 and Injustice 2, Boon has promised a tease for something is on the horizon. You can see his tweet below, and start speculating.

Could the studio be gearing up to tease new Mortal Kombat 11 DLC? PS5 and Xbox Series X versions? Perhaps Injustice 3? It's unclear. But the Mortal Kombat Twitter account responded, and with Mortal Kombat 11 proving so popular (and still selling incredibly well) we're leaning more towards one of the first two options.

A new month has begun, and for Animal Crossing: New Horizons players, that means there's a variety of new items to collect and fauna to catch in the game. On top of acorns and pinecones, which have begun appearing in Northern Hemisphere islands, players everywhere can order another new limited-time seasonal item from the Nook Shopping catalog.

This month's new seasonal item is the grape-harvest basket, a wearable basket in celebration of the Grape Harvest Festival. It costs 800 bells and will be available until September 30. You can purchase the item from the Seasonal tab in the Nook Shopping catalog.

Beyond the grape-harvest basket, Northern Hemisphere players can now find acorns and pinecones, which can be used to craft new autumnal DIY recipes. You'll receive one of these--a tree's bounty little tree recipe--from Isabelle during her daily announcement when you boot up the game, while others can be found in balloons.

Rayman is now a bit part player. Like Ubi stablemate Sam Fisher, his days of being the main attraction are over. Despite the quality of 2013’s Rayman Legends, the limbless wonder seems confined to making sporadic appearances in games that just aren’t as good as his own.

Although, it’s not like Ray’s a stranger to a comeback. After many years on the shelf, his act was modernised in 2011 and we were gifted the exceptional Rayman Origins.

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The Xbox Tokyo Game Show Showcase 2020 won't have new announcements on Xbox Series X; it will instead bring new updates for Microsoft Flight Simulator.

The post Xbox Tokyo Game Show Showcase 2020 To Bring Updates on Microsoft Flight Simulator appeared first on Siliconera.