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Blizzard has announced that World of Warcraft's Shadowlands expansion, which was originally due to launch on 27th October, will be delayed until some time "later this year".
Announcing the news in a statement on the World of Warcraft website, Blizzard explained that while it had made "significant progress iterating and polishing the core gameplay and features" of Shadowlands - the zones, campaign, level-up questing, and story are all "ready to share", it says - it felt additional work was still needed in other areas.
"As everything started coming together," the developer wrote, "and we've been listening to and building upon your feedback, it's become clear we need a little more time for additional polish, and to balance and iterate on some interlocking pieces - particularly those related to the endgame". It calls Shadowlands "one of the most intricate expansions we've yet created", and says the challenge of tuning the endgame "was compounded by the team having to work from home".
Airborne Kingdom, the beautiful exploratory city builder that looks like it spilled out onto Game of Thrones' intro sequence map, will be drifting onto the Epic Store on 17th December.
Developed by The Wandering Band, the studio behind noir murder mystery A Case of Distrust, Airborne Kingdom is, to a certain degree at least, much like any other city builder.
You start small (in this case, as nothing but a hovering platform attached to a propeller) and steadily expand outward and upward, using resources to build houses and amenities that attract new civilians, granting further options to expand even outier and upwarder as a result. Obviously, the not insignificant twist here is that your city happens to be a flying one.
Hades is perhaps one of 2020’s games of the year. It’s an excellent roguelite, with an amazing story and addictive gameplay. But there’s another big reason why Hades is seeing such a massively positive response: Everyone is so friggin’ hot! Take main character Prince Zagreus, for example. I knew I was in trouble the…
World of Warcraft: Shadowlands has been delayed. Announced in a blog post, World of Warcraft executive producer John Hight cites the need for “additional polish,” and the strain of working from home during the covid-19 crisis, as the reasons for delay.
Image: Charlie Hall/Polygon
‘Most of these mods are being uploaded by cowards with sock puppet accounts’
Image: The Pokémon Company/Niantic
Other autumn-related Pokémon will be spawning, too
Image: Jenny Frison/Image Comics
The Department of Truth dares to walk the line between escapism and dread
Add-on developer SamScene3D released two packages for Microsoft Flight simulator, Shanghai and Tokyo Enhanced.
Shanghai is priced at $12.95 and adds several landmarks to the otherwise slightly drab default version of the largest city of China.
Here’s what it includes, alongside a few screenshots.
Tokyo is priced at $5.95 and may appear a harder sell considering that Microsoft itself just released a giant Japan world update for free.
Today Blizzard announced that the release of World of Warcraft’s upcoming expansion Shadowlands has been delayed.
According to the announcement, the delay won’t be that long. The expansion is still coming “later this year” and there are only three months left in the year.
We hear that feedback from beta testing helped the developers realize that the expansion needed some more time in the oven for additional polishing, balancing, and iteration, particularly on the endgame.
At the moment, no new release date has been shared, but the Shadowlands pre-patch will launch on October 13 in World of Warcraft, laying the groundwork for the expansion.
You can check out the full announcement below.
If you’re unfamiliar with World of Warcraft: Shadowlands, below you can read an official description from Blizzard.
Earlier today, Niantic revealed the details for the Autumn-themed event in Pokemon GO. It’ll be a week filled with new Pokemon, tons of delicious berries, and even some Timed Research tasks.
Just to be clear, this is not their annual Halloween event. That event usually focuses on Ghost-types. Details on that will be coming later this month. This Autumn event is all about plants and Pokemon that are designed after small to medium-sized mammals
Then mons you’ll see appearing more often in the wild are Oddish, Vulpix, Bayleef, Hoothoot, Sudowoodo, Yanma, Pineco, Zigzagoon, Seedot, Shroomish, Plant Cloak Burmy, and Foongus. You’ll also have a chance to find a shiny Kantonian Vulpix during the event.
Besides the change in wild Pokemon, there will also be a change in the mons hatching from 5 km eggs. There will be Autumn-themed Pokemon in these eggs, but Niantic has not yet announced what that means.
But the biggest addition in the Pokemon GO Autumn event is the debut of Deerling. This deer-looking Pokemon has four different forms that match the seasons and it can evolve into Sawsbuck. Of course, the Autumn form will be debuting during this event.
On top of that, Berries will all be getting a huge boost during this time. Any that you feed to your buddy will fill them up twice as much as they normally do, Pinap Berries will yield four times the amount of Candy you normally get from catching a Pokemon, and Berries will become a more common drop at all Pokestops.
Today ProbablyMonsters reached out with a press release to announce the creation of a third studio within its portfolio.
The third studio, which still doesn’t have an officially announced name, joins the original two teams, Cauldron Studios, and Firewalk Studios.
According to the press release, the studio will focus on “next-gen co-op RPG” and it’s led by a quarted of industry veterans.
“The new ProbablyMonsters studio is led by four key developers with a storied history of collaborating on successful original RPG projects. The founders and their growing new team have a passion for advancing their craft through mutual support and knowledge sharing, which is informed by their experience and strengthened by the resources available at ProbablyMonsters.
College gaming friends John Dunbar and Marsh Lefler worked together on the creation of Mythos at Flagship Studios before leaving to co-found Runic Games in 2008. Patrick Blank, original Lead Level Designer on Borderlands, later joined, and Allen Fong, then with Perfect World, soon began working with the team before officially joining Runic in 2016. Their team created Torchlight, a seminal RPG released in 2009, leading to the studio being named as a “Top 5 Developer” by Gamasutra.
They followed this with Torchlight II in 2012. Since joining forces, the quartet have worked closely together for over a decade in an atmosphere of cooperation that goes beyond their formal disciplines and roles.”
We also get a comment from Harold Ryan, CEO and founder of ProbablyMonsters.
“People-first game developers with a passion for their craft, who foster trust, respect, and approachability, belong at ProbablyMonsters.
Stardew Valley is such a watershed game, that absolutely any small addition can get fans to salivate.
Banana trees? The internet goes wild. Moving your bed? I need to carve out time in my schedule when 1.5 hits just for this. It's crazy how developer Eric "ConcernedApe" Barone can get nearly 60,000 likes when tweeting out something as simple as rearranging furniture. But then again, I perked up when I saw this fan-made birthday mechanic mock-up.
Held at The Stardrop Saloon, Redditor hoethegrandma (what a name) imagines what it would look like, adorned with banners, balloons, gifts and good company. I'm just thinking of all of the gifts the townsfolk could possibly give: make sure that it's that one thing I need to finish the Community Center. It's also adorable to see the Mayor and Marnie hanging out together in public.
As they point out, there is an actual mod for birthdays in Stardew Valley. It's been downloaded 120,000 times. If ConcernedApe wanted, they could probably keep working on this game forever.
Imagine the gifts! [Reddit]
People who frequent this blog probably already know how they feel about Cyberpunk 2077. Many of you have been excited for years. Some of you likely aren't on-board with the recent revelation that CD Projekt employees are subjected to "mandatory crunch" until the game ships. Regardless where you fall, you probably have an opinion.
But for people who have no idea about Cyberpunk 2077, this new Keanu Reeves-led advertisement is going to sell a lot more copies. This commercial aired during the NBA Finals last night, and it just feels cool, flashy, and badass in all the right ways. It has mass appeal, and that's even before you consider the inclusion of global sweetheart Keanu Reeves.
This game is gonna sell so many goddamn copies it's gonna be stupid.
"Shadowlands will arrive in the fall, even if we have to ship it from our homes." That take hasn't aged well! One a few months ago, World of Warcraft executive producer John Hight insisted that nothing is going to stop Shadowlands from launching on time. As it turns out, something -- a whole entire pandemic, to be clear -- has stopped Shadowlands from launching on time.
Once set to release on October 27, Blizzard has been forced to delay World of Warcraft: Shadowlands to sometime "later this year." There's no new date given, but it'll have to be in November or December if Blizzard wants to make good on this new window. At this point, it wouldn't be unreasonable if Shadowlands fell back into 2021.
The reason for the delay is that Blizzard is having some trouble tuning the balance of the endgame. The content (story, zones, quests) is complete, but there's need for polish and balancing.
Even though there's no firm date on when Shadowlands will arrive, Blizzard's releasing the pre-patch relatively soon. That will go live on October 13, and it includes "level squishing" which revamps how character leveling works. (Read all about the pre-expansion patch here.) You'll have more time than expected to get used to the changes in the patch.
An Update on Shadowlands [World of Warcraft]
Perpetually frustrated by Epic's strategy of securing a bunch of high-profile exclusives? Over the fact that the Epic Games Store still doesn't have a shopping cart? There's something of a workaround in the pipeline.
GOG has revealed that it's revamping its store so that people can purchase games from other storefronts through GOG:
In a message posted on the official World of Warcraft forums today (and Twitter, see below!) executive producer John Hight announced that World of Warcraft: Shadowlands is delayed. When is the upcoming expansion delayed to? No exact date has been given, but the expected release is still this year according to the post.
— World of Warcraft (@Warcraft) October 1, 2020
If you're despairing about the delay, there's a little bit of light at the end of the tunnel, as the "pre-patch" that comes with a ton of expansion changes arrives on October 13. Generally, the pre-patch experience leads an expansion launch by approximately a month, but with a situation like this it's best to not make any assumptions.
Last week, the different editions and preorder bonuses for Godfall were revealed, and with that reveal came the revelation that this game was one of the latest to have that $70 next-gen price tag. It seems that many gamers are only recently noticing the price difference, and the ongoing conversation about price tags has popped up once more.
Price deviation between PC and console is nothing new, but the topic of the raised price point to $70 has been a hot topic as of late. The divisive change has some angry at the rising price, especially with added mechanics like microtransactions, while others feel that $10 is worth it for what next gen has to offer.
Godfall is only one of several next gen games coming with the higher price tag attached, and it won't be the last. For those looking to spend the usual $59.99, you're going to want to go the PC route through the Epic Games Store.
Click here to watch embedded mediaDemon's Souls Remaster, NBA 2K21, Destruction: All Stars, and Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War are among other games that will have the price increase as well for the generation ahead.
Click to watch embedded media The tragic death of the Jedi from Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith takes on a new look and meaning within the colorful but violent world of Among Us. Animator Nicholas Damiani has already released several animated shorts that meld Star Wars with Among Us, including one called Anakin Kills the Younglings. His latest video about Order 66 (which you can view above) shows the Empire hunting for the imposters. We get to see Ki-Adi-Mundi in Among Us form, as well as Plo Koon and Obi-Wan Kenobi.
Among Us released years ago, but is just now booming in popularity thanks to streaming culture and games like Fall Guys. We even wrote a late review since most of Game Informer's staff is currently playing the game. Liana Ruppert gave it a score of 8.5 out of 10, and said "I see the charm despite its simplicity, and I can't help but to love the way this game makes me look at everyone as if they are super sus. Among Us is what it is, and unapologetically so. This year may be bad, but having fun experiences definitely isn't; Among Us provides a much-needed reprieve from reality without taking itself too seriously."
It's been long enough that Animal Crossing: New Horizons players should know by now not to get too attached to any hacks seen in-game, unless of course it involves time traveling. With the new Fall update now live, and hacked items have been removed with one popular trick also effectively nixxed and some players are on the fence (see what we did there) about Nintendo taking it out.
The Fall update is here and for those that are particularly fond of hacked items, you might want to hold off on downloading it. Is that hacked piece of furniture worth missing out on the Halloween festivities? That's for you to decide, we're not your mom, but it looks like it's just a removal, not any sort of official account reprimand for these in-game item workarounds.
Do all the hack items just disappear or turn into something else? My island is covered in Harv’s fence 😅
Gametech is releasing a playable keychain-console called the Tetris mini, licensed by The Tetris Company.
The post Officially Licensed Tetris Mini Will Release in Japan on October 8, 2020 appeared first on Siliconera.
Muster the mod-makers! Official modding tools have finally arrived in Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord with bespoke editors and toolsets for the feudal romp entering open beta today. While the lack of these tools hasn’t stopped stubborn modders from taking a crack at Bannerlord, it should now be easier than ever to bash together your own weird twist on TaleWorld’s sword-swinging sequel.
Roblox, the company behind the massive game creation platform of the same name, is reportedly planning to go public early next year, though the exact form that action will take is still up for debate. ...
Hyper Scape, Ubisoft's reasonably entertaining entry in the already well-represented free-to-play battle royale genre, has only been out three months but already the publisher is looking to overhaul the experience in order to reach its "full potential".
Writing in a new blog post on the Hyper Scape website, Ubisoft explained that while it considered the game's open beta and launch on PC a success, "we were not able to achieve the high expectations we set for ourselves with our full release on console".
Ubisoft says that in order for the game to reach its "full potential", it has identified five key pillars Hyper Scape's team will now focus on so it can become an experience "everyone can play and enjoy". These areas cover combat comfort, onboarding, game modes, player goals, and cross-play, with the broad aim being to get more people playing Hyper Scape and to find ways to ensure they continue playing for longer.
Back in 2018, I wrote about a cute little Fire Emblem board game that had been made by a fan. Two years later, I’m now writing about that game’s successor, which is so good it’s wild that Nintendo hasn’t reached out and made it official merchandise.
Mods come in all shapes and sizes. Some turn you into Shrek. Others turn your enemies into Shrek. A few add Donkey, but they’re (sadly) rarer. There are also political mods. Or at least, on top mod site Nexus Mods, there were. Now they’re banned until at least early next year.
Team-based online multiplayer shooter Rogue Company is now free-to-play in open beta, developer Hi-Rez Studios announced today.
The game originally launched in closed beta earlier this year with access granted either by using a free code or buying one of the various founder’s packs.
Rogue Company is a team-based shooter that pits two teams of four in team deathmatch and objective-based modes. Players start each round by buying weapons, gear, and perks before gliding down on to the battlefield with a wingsuit.
It is now free-to-play for everyone through PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, and PC via the Epic Games Store with full cross-play and cross-save support. The company said in a press release that any downloadable content would be cosmetic and not “pay-to-win.”
A new playable character was also added with Dahlia, “an uncompromising former military officer and one of the most decorated squad leaders in the world.”
She can wield a submachine gun or designated marksman rifle, and her special ability can “link” with a teammate and immediately begin reviving them if downed within 30 meters. She is included in the Standard and Ultimate Founders Packs or can be bought separately with in-game credits or premium currency.
Today Microsoft released two new trailers of its new sim Microsoft Flight Simulator.
The first trailer is the next in the “Around the World Tour” series featuring Europe.
We get to see cities like Florence or Madrid alongside the natural beauty of the European countryside. You may have seen some of those gorgeous vistas in my recent flight around the world.
The second video focuses on the partnership with Gaya Simulation, a well-known scenery design studio that largely contributed to creating the first World Update focusing on Japan and will continue to help Microsoft delivering upcoming similar packages. We already know that the next features the United States.
You can watch both videos below and marvel at the beauty of Europe.
I like to start Overcooked 2 levels with a "practice run" – a chance to see where the ingredients are, how we're meant to flow around the room and navigate obstacles, and who should be on top of each duty.
I can already tell the very temporary (and very narrow) lily pad walkways in the Moon Harvest update are going to be trouble for me. The free Overcooked 2 update went out earlier today on all platforms. On the bright side, mooncakes. We'll be whipping up cute fruit-filled treats for the ravenous crowd.
Like other recent updates, this one can be accessed from the Seasonal Updates option in Extras.
With the PS5 and Xbox Series X getting Overcooked: All You Can Eat, this might be one of the final updates for Overcooked 2. It's been wonderful! (Aside from all the times I pissed off my girlfriend.)
This morning Nintendo announced the newest DLC character joining the Super Smash Bros. Ultimate roster, and it’s none other than Minecraft Steve (and friends). Coincidentally, Twitter suffered a brief outage right after Minecraft Steve was announced, and while Twitter wouldn’t confirm the reason for the outage fans believe the two are related.
At 7 am PT, Nintendo revealed the newest character joining the Super Smash Bros. Ultimate fighters list. According to Down Detector, Twitter experienced an outage two minutes later. When IGN reached out to Twitter to inquire about the cause of the outage, Twitter declined to confirm the cause of the outage. Although Twitter did confirm there was a short outage.
This hasn’t stopped Twitter users from claiming that the two events are related. After all, a lot of people were online to see the new character for Smash Bros. Ultimate, and Minecraft Steve has been a long-rumored, though unconventional, character. When Steve was finally revealed as the next character, the reaction online was swift and immediate.
twitter the exact moment minecraft steve got announced for smash pic.twitter.com/CAR6riDrcP
2007 PS3 game Warhawk, one of the real pioneers of modern multiplayer console gaming, sadly lost its PlayStation Network support a couple of years ago. Well, it lost its official support; thanks to the hard work of some fans, it’s now back online.
Image: Blizzard Entertainment
Image: Motive Studios, Lucasfilm/Electronic Arts via Polygon
