As many year-end articles will remind you—not that you needed reminding—2020's been rough. That made it harder than usual to pick specific people for our annual list of influential game-players. Anyone who brought a smile to a friend, a loved one, or even a stranger this year by playing a game with them did a…
Every Wednesday, I travel to my local comic book shop to pick up nearly a dozen books, most coming from Marvel and DC. I'm a big fan of the classic superhero formula, and have been reading about capes and masks every week since I was eight years old. My first ongoing series was Captain America, which was soon followed by Batman, and then I got my hands on everything. I wanted to read as much as I could, and I haven't stopped doing that in the decades that followed.
Like most things happening in 2020, the comic book industry had a strange year. When the pandemic took hold, comics ceased to be. New release racks had nothing on them. For a few months, physical comic books were no longer being released, and digital distribution hardly had a footprint. The industry just shut down, and there was a fear that it wouldn't come back the same.
Not getting my weekly fix of stories was one of the hardest things for me to adapt to during the pandemic. I can shelter in place with the best of them, but not having a book on hand to read during lunch or any time gap was a habit I struggled to alter. I didn't realize how huge of a role comics played in my life until they were stripped from me.
When the wheels of most entertainment industries started spinning again, comic stores reopened, and new books slowly trickled back onto shelves, making Wednesdays important and fun again.
A shadow has been cast over the PlayStation Plus January 2021 game lineup. Shadow of the Tomb Raider will be among the free games.
The post PlayStation Plus January 2021 Update Includes a Tomb Raider Game appeared first on Siliconera.
Take a visit to a mountain in to bathe away the winter blues!
The post Fate/Grand Order Rings in 2021 With a Trip to a Hellish Hot Spring appeared first on Siliconera.
Today Azur Lane publisher Yostar released two more videos about the popular shipgirl-focused mobile game.
The first video is a new TV commercial of the brand new event “Inverted Orthant” that focuses on the Iron Blood, bringing plenty of new shipgirls to the fleet.
It’s currently going on in the game and it will end in roughly two weeks.
The second video is a making-of for the new commercial starring Japanese superstar musician Takanori Nishikawa, which you may know as T.M.Revolution.
We get to see how Nishikawa-san was turned into popular shipgirl Enterprise, including quite a lot of eyecandy for those who are into that.
You can check both videos out below.
With the most matter-of-fact teases, Devolver has told us that it has a lot up its sleeve next year. That's it. That's the post, there's not really any more information.
Okay, there's a bit more. Devolver plans to launch five games in 2021 that aren't yet announced:
There is a lot about 2020 that I can't wait to forget. The stupidity of it all, the never-ending election, Artemis Fowl, that thing on Twitter where everything was a cake, it can all go from my mind the minute the clock strikes midnight on December 31.
But one thing I hope I won't forget from this year are all the great new characters video games gave us. Because despite all the crap mankind has been through in 2020, it was a phenomenal year for games and the NPCs and playable characters who populate them. Here now are the best new characters of 2020 according to the Destructoid staff.
This wasn’t the type of year any of us could have anticipated and we were all forced to make changes in our lives due to COVID-19. We had to get creative about how we worked, socialized, and met other daily needs. The quarantine is necessary to stop the spread of the virus, but that doesn’t mean feeling confined to the walls of our home isn’t difficult to deal with day in and day out. I’ve often turned to video games as a way to unwind and socialize, but this year, they became essential in battling the isolation of not being able to interact with others on a daily basis. It wasn’t a normal year, and therefore I wanted to end 2020 by sharing a special appreciation for the games that got me and many others through these past few months of quarantine.
When the quarantine first started, I really didn’t want to deal with what was going on around me. The world suddenly became frightening; COVID-19’s reach was growing, killing more and more people and we still didn’t know much about it. As someone with a chronic illness, I had to strictly quarantine, and this meant that I couldn’t even do simple things like go to the grocery store. It was all too risky, and my anxiety was growing. I hated just sitting in the uncertainty of it all.
Get a better look at all of the Story of Seasons: Pioneers of Olive Town bachelors and bachelorettes' events in XSEED's latest video clips.
The post Story of Seasons: Pioneers of Olive Town Bachelors and Bachelorettes Star in New Videos appeared first on Siliconera.
In today's contest you can win classic beat 'em up 9 Monkeys of Shaolin for PS4 or Steam!
It's almost the New Year! In most of the world, anyway. I think Chinese New Year is still a few months away, so there goes my good segue for this one. Oh well, just pretend my idea was clever and timely.
We've got some copies of classic beat 'em up title 9 Monkeys of Shaolin to give away, just in time for the [not] Chinese New Year!
Ready to turn your Stardew Valley farm into a Digimon ranch? A new mod by DonValleyParkway makes it possible.
The post Stardew Valley Digimon Ranch Mod Transforms Your Livestock appeared first on Siliconera.
The "Charging Wyvern" was officially revealed in a new Japanese commercial.
The post Monster Hunter Rise Khezu Revealed in a New Commercial appeared first on Siliconera.
One thing the gaming industry is somewhat notorious for is the secrecy surrounding its different practices. Most studios don't reveal the intricacies of their day-to-day operations or contracts, keeping gamers and industry workers alike in the dark. For smaller, independent companies, however, there is more flexibility. Raw Fury has made a bold move in opposition to this standard, releasing several templates used in its business dealings, including the details of their standard contract with game studios publicly in a statement on December 22. It could help to push others in the same direction.
Raw Fury has developed a reputation as a developer-friendly publisher over the years, even supporting one of its indie teams for a full-year past release despite small profits, and this move seems to be another step in line with that ethos. According to its statement, the reasoning for this decision was based in empathy for developers trying to navigate the confusing landscape of the industry.
The founder of Yoozoo Games, Lin Qi, passed away on Christmas Day after eight days in hospital suffering "acute symptoms of illness." Now the Shanghai police have revealed that poison may have played a part in Lin's death, and this may have involved a colleague, the Guardian reports.
Yoozoo Games is a Shanghai studio best known for Game of Thrones strategy game Winter is Coming. Yoozoo is also set to produce the upcoming Netflix adaptation of the Three-Body Problem, which has Game of Thrones showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss attached.
According to reports from the Shanghai police, the hospital determined that Lin had been poisoned. The police have detained a suspect with the surname Xu, who allegedly worked with Lin at Yoozoo Games. The police statement only said that Xu was a suspect, who was being detained "in accordance with the law while the relevant investigative work is carried out."
Continue Reading at GameSpot
Hello! And welcome to a special article where a bunch of us sit down to talk about our game of the year. And for 2020, that game is Hades. We hope you enjoy this conversation, and we hope you're leaving such an unusual year with some good memories of the games you've played.
Chris Donlan: There are a lot of Roguelikes and Roguelites - what makes Hades stand above the rest? Is that even the right lens to be viewing it through?
Malindy Hetfeld: I have a counter question if I may. Just to clarify. I'm not sure what the roguelike lens entails, because that means we all have a fixed idea of what that genre is about.
[cms-block]
Q: How do vets in dystopian future London diagnose skin conditions in poorly hounds?
December has provided a bounty of games at the long-awaited death of a hideous year, but its greatest and most unexpected treasure is already clear to me.
Suzerain is the modern successor to Hidden Agenda, an ancient political simulator I once described as “possibly the greatest political simulator ever made”. A fictional nation still bleeding from civil war has just overthrown a dictator, and elected you to lead it into whatever future you think is right, just as the world begins to light up with the countless devastating proxy wars of the 1950s. It is superb. The game, I mean. Not the wars. Those are very bad.
Developers Yoko Taro and Yosuke Saito, best known for their work on the dramatic adventure franchise NieR, have announced that they are currently in the process of creating two brand new titles, one of which Saito appears to have serious regret about adding to his resume.
Speaking during Famitsu's "Games Industry Chit-Chat 2020 Year-End Party" live stream, the pair told a tale of how the two mystery projects came about, with Taro forcing Saito to sit through an hour-long presentation in order to agree to making one of the titles in particular. While Saito eventually came on board, he still displays open reluctance, suggesting during the stream that he'd rather just bail on the project and leave it entirely to Taro. Curious.
No specific details were revealed about either game, with no clues offered to titles, branding, genre, platforms, or release date. But it must be said that convincing a colleague to work on something they adamantly don't want to work on sure makes for a teasing and interesting way to announce your new wares. Should these two titles come to fruition, we'll no doubt be hearing more about them soon. For now, it's all over bar the guesswork.
Yoko Taro and Yosuke Saito working on two new titles [Gematsu / Games Talk]
Wow, what’s a year it’s been. I memorized the pattern of tiny paint bubbles on the wall behind my computer monitor. I also re-watched the same three TV shows one thousand times. I’ve become convinced that the outside world is a hologram, and I’m about to embark on a lucrative YouTube career persuading flat earthers to…
Today Black Desert developer Pearl Abyss released a new trailer dedicated to upcoming features for the popular MMORPG.
We get to take a look at the succession and awakening for the newly-released character Nova.
The awakening replaces the massive shield and mace with a definitely more offensive and agile weapon.
You can check the trailer out below.
Incidentally, we recently heard that Pearl Abyss will take over the game’s service on PC as well starting on Feb. 24, 2021. The developer has already been taking care of the console and mobile versions.
If you’d like to see more, you can check out her original reveal trailer and the dedicated song by Mika Nakashima.
Today, during a livestream from Japan, Type-Moon revealed a new trailer and of Fate/EXTRA Record, the remake of Fate/EXTRA.
The trailer reveals popular Caster-class servant Tamamo no Mae, providing a glimpse at her new look.
You can check it out below.
Fate/EXTRA Record is the working title of a remake for current platforms of the PSP classic Fate/EXTRA, which launched in Japan on July 22, 2010 for PSP and celebrates its 10th anniversary today. It was then released in North America and Europe respectively in 2011 and 2012.
If you’d like to see more, you can check out the original reveal and the first gameplay.
If you’re unfamiliar with the original game, here’s an official description from the PlayStation store.
When Inti Creates speaks, I listen.
They've proven themselves time and time again; not just with their own company, but with their work on countless Capcom classics, like the Mega Man Zero and ZX series. They're a force to be reckoned with in the platforming space, and they're still pumping out hits like the Blaster Master revival and two Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon games.
Speaking to 4Gamer, company president Takuya Aizu explains that in addition to Azure Striker Gunvolt 3 (which looks enticing in its own right) there are "three new titles in development." It's entirely possible that we'll see the announcement of these three in 2021.
So what's next for the company? Well, they could sequelize a lot of their games until the cows come home. I'd take another Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon, as well as another Blaster Master Zero. Gunvolt seems to be their bread and butter though so a spinoff could be tucked away in one of those three reveals; and they're also perfectly capable of making an original title.
I also want to see them collaborate directly with Capcom again on Mega Man. Now that the franchise is back from the dead, I'm sure they can work something out.
End of Year Creator Interviews [4Gamer via Gematsu]
At this point in the studio's history, the Hitman series has been with IO Interactive longer than anyone working in its office; no one at the company has worked on every single entry in the franchise. For 20 years, the name IO has been synonymous with Hitman and its protagonist Agent 47. While the developer has made other games, such as the Kane & Lynch, Freedom Fighters, and Mini Ninjas games, the vast majority of its releases have been Hitman games. But Hitman 3 is the end of an era. Capping off the World of Assassination trilogy it started in 2016 with its episodic Hitman reboot, IO is walking away from its most iconic franchise – at least for the time being. And there are a lot of emotions tied up in that fact.
In a lot of ways, the story of Hitman is the story of IO Interactive – especially considering the company's last few years. Always a niche, cult series, when 2016's Hitman didn't make the return IO's then-publisher and parent company Square Enix wanted, as CEO and co-owner Hakan Abrak puts it, the company "lost faith" in the franchise – though, admittedly, he seems to understand Square's decision.
"It was called a Trojan Horse strategy, just get people in and if they like it, they will upgrade," Abrak says. "Maybe we’ll get a whole lot bigger volumes in the start and hopefully we can convert these people if they like the game. That was the strategy. The skepticism and, ‘What is this?’ and ‘Is this early access from a big publisher?’ and whatnot, it ended up being historically low sales – a historically low start."
It was a disappointing year! In so many ways. Yikes. Games were no exception. Siliconera's Most Disappointing Game of 2020 rose (or fell?) past the rest!
The post Siliconera’s Most Disappointing Game of 2020 appeared first on Siliconera.
Today, during the Countdown Alternative year-end livestream dedicated to the Muv-Luv series, publisher aNCHOR revealed new gameplay and the early access release window of the upcoming game Project Mikhail.
First of all, we learn that the game is going into early access in April 2021. perhaps surprisingly, the official title remains “Project Mikhail.”
We get to see a brand new and spectacular video in which the Muv-Luv series’ iconic TSF mecha tear a bunch of BETA aliens to shreds.
You can check out the trailer below, alongside the slides revealing the early access and the title.
Today Type-Moon announced a remake of the legendary visual novel Tsukihime, with the official title Tsukihime: A Piece of Blue Glass Moon.
It’s coming to Japan in summer 2021 for PS4 and Nintendo Switch. It will also feature a theme song by popular Japanese singer ReoNa.
You can check out a trailer below.
If you’re unfamiliar with Tsikihime, it was originally an eroge released for Windows in December 2000 by Type-Moon, the creators of the Fate series.
It was then adapted in 2003 into an anime series titled Shingetsutan Tsukihime.
Written by the extremely prolific Kinoko Nasu, it’s considered the predecessor of that Fate/stay night that spawned the super-popular Fate franchise.
It has never been officially localized in English, so we’ll have to wait and see whether the remake will make it to the west.
If you’d like to know more, you can read a blurb from VNdb.
Today, during the Countdown Alternative year-end livestream dedicated to the Muv-Luv series, aNCHOR had some goodies to share about Muv-Luv Unlimited The Day After.
First of all, we meet the new director for Episode 04, Kuninaga-san. He previously worked on the Smash Bros. and Sword Art Online series.
We then learned the official title, which will be “Muv-Luv Resonative.”
You can check out the new logo below.
We also learn that the Steam release of chapters 00-03 should come by the end of January pending approval by Valve’s platform. This will include a brand-new English localization.
After the past year’s wall-to-wall cavalcade of death and dreck, it’s not a surprise to see a lot of folks stepping into 2021 with what can best be described as “modest expectations” for the world writ large and their Capacity To Deal with whatever it throws their way. This is the year that we’ve seen people finally…
We are six years into The Sims 4, and with 2021 around the corner, it will be exciting to see what’s next from this franchise. But before we enter a new year, I want to reflect on the best and worst aspects of Sims 4 content this year. The main game has improved in some subtle yet excellent ways, but the numerous…
The Tsukihime remake is now officially titled "Tsukihime: A Piece of Blue Glass Moon."
The post Tsukihime Remake Will Launch in Japan in Summer 2021 appeared first on Siliconera.
Today, during the Countdown Alternative year-end livestream dedicated to the Muv-Luv series, aNCHOR had some goodies to share about Muv-Luv Alternative: The Animation.
We get to see four 3D models, showcasing the Type-004, 00F, and 00A Takemikazuchi, and the Type-94 Shiranui with the livery of the Japanese Imperial Army.
You can check them out below.
Koei Tecmo has big plans next year for what is effectively the 40th anniversary of the company (their first game debuted in 1982 under Koei).
Speaking to Famitsu, several Koei Tecmo developers laid out their vague plans for 2021 without spoiling much. Junzo Hosoi of Atelier producer (and artist) fame says that the Gust brand will "take on various challenges" next year, including a "cross-media project." They also plan to announce more games that they couldn't this year.
Fumihiko Yasuda, who works on the Nioh series, implies that Nioh is done for now: "At Team Ninja, the seven years-long development of Nioh series will reach a resting point." Kenichi Ogasawara says that there will be a "title suitable for [the milestone of the 40th anniversary]" coming in 2021, which is a pretty big tease.
But the juiciest comment of them all had to come from Keisuke Kikuchi, who has worked on many games at Koei Tecmo; among them, Fatal Frame. Kikuchi notes, "2021 is...the 20th anniversary of the Fatal Frame series, so I’d like to celebrate it in some way if possible."
Well that was unexpected! Kikuchi says that there are some games that will be announced by spring, but Fatal Frame was not mentioned. "In some way" is key here folks: don't get your hopes up for a full game. At least it's something!
End of Year Creator Interviews [Famitsu via Gematsu]
