It's the second sizable sum the company has raked in this year, following $1 million in seed funding raised back in March. ...
Casey Hudson and Mark Darrah announce their retirements
Party like it’s 2015
The second — well, technically seventh — coming of Neo
That big ol' 'simulator' in Flight Simulator's name certainly suggests a grasp for authenticity, but just how accurate is it really? That's what one enterprising soul attempted to discover by playing the game while on a passenger plane, and piloting the exact same route they were travelling in real-life. Turns out it's pretty damn accurate indeed.
The (admittedly wholly unscientific) experiment was conducted by Rami Ismail - formerly one half of celebrated indie studio Vlambeer - on a recent journey from Montreal, Canada, to Amsterdam, with Ismail documenting Flight Simulator's progress versus the real thing over on Twitter as the journey continued.
Following a minor directional mishap on the runway during a drizzly evening takeoff, Ismail excitedly reported in to confirm that cloud entry had been mere seconds apart between the game and real-life once airborne, with a slighter larger window of difference, of approximately 30 seconds, when leaving the clouds.
There are three very good Epic freebies on the horizon. One you can grab this week, the other two you can grab next week.
Let's start with the here and now. This week's free game on the Epic Games Store is Cave Story+. It's quite possibly the most influential and quintessential indie game ever. You owe it to yourself to play Cave Story, as it's a piece of gaming history.
Next week's freebies are going to eat up a lot of your time. Epic has lined up two of Obsidian's recent CRPGs to give away at the same time. Kickstarter mega-success Pillars of Eternity and 2016's Tyranny are free starting on December 10.
If free games are your thing -- and they probably are by virtue of the fact that you're even reading this article -- you might want to keep your eye on December 10. That's when The Game Awards airs, and it's always ripe for promos and free stuff. But even if it isn't, Obsidian's got about 100 hours worth of RPG lined up for you.
Cave Story+ [Epic Games Store]
Supergiant Games revisited 10 of its songs from Hades, Bastion, Transistor, and Pyre for a special 10th anniversary orchestral album recorded at Abbey Road Studios with a guiding hand from Austin Wintory.
In a behind-the-scenes video, Wintory said the collaboration with Supergiant was "such a privilege."
"These songs are like opera. They're so dramatic, and tell such incredible stories. I love that. They don't just lay down a bunch of random words, but they actually really tell you something meaningful."
You can buy a digital copy of The Songs of Supergiant Games: 10th Anniversary Orchestral Collection directly from the studio for $10, and there are pre-orders for $35 and $50 vinyl sets shipping in Q1 2021 if that's more your style. Graciously, the entire album was also officially uploaded to YouTube.
Here's the track list and timestamps:
If your Nintendo Switch copy of Borderlands 2 has been broken for weeks, it's finally time for an update.
When players claimed the Commander Lilith & the Fight for Sanctuary DLC for free and installed it, many of them were unable to access the content and some couldn't even play the game in general due to persistent crashing. It got to the point where people had to use a workaround to delete the DLC and manually prevent it from re-materializing when they installed Borderlands 2 again on their Switch.
As of this week, the recurring crash should no longer be an issue. An update went out.
A patch for Borderlands 2 on Nintendo Switch has been pushed live to address reported stability issues some players experienced. Thank you for your patience as we worked on the fix.
— Borderlands 3 (@Borderlands) December 2, 2020
According to users on the BorderlandsSwitch subreddit, Borderlands 2 is all-clear.
The most fascinating part of this story is that players recently stumbled on (now-disabled) developer commands for Borderlands 2 that let them max out their Badass Rank, kill all nearby enemies, instantly level-up, earn a stockpile of Eridium, and use other mad-with-power cheat codes. What a saga.
Kickoff came a day early. The PS5 and Xbox Series X versions of Madden NFL 21 and FIFA 21 are scheduled to launch tomorrow, December 4. However, anyone who owns last-gen versions of those games can upgrade today.
EA Sports pulled the trigger on pushing upgrades out the door, which is a nice little surprise for anyone who's playing Madden or FIFA and making use of backward compatibility. Of course, PS4 versions can only be upgraded to PS5, and Xbox One versions can only be upgraded to Xbox Series S/X.
There are a few different scenarios at play here with EA's Dual Entitlement program. Anyone with a digital copy of either game can simply go to the PlayStation Store or Microsoft Store and grab the next-gen version for free. Those who have discs will be able to pop it into their new console and download a digital upgraded version. However, anyone with a disc but a disc-less console has to hit up EA support to validate the purchase.
Those who waited to buy Madden or FIFA can't take advantage of this early next-gen arrival. They have to wait until December 4 which is when it was supposed to go live in the first place.
In a surprising turn of events today at BioWare, two long-time staffers – Casey Hudson, the studio's general manager, and Mark Darrah, the executive producer of Dragon Age – announced they're retiring.
"Arriving at this point has been an opportunity for me to reflect on my own future, and 2020 has been a year that forced all of us to re-imagine how we think about work and life," said Casey. "For me, it's been the realization that I still have tremendous energy to create, but also that I need to try something different." With his retirement, he's opening the door "for the next generation of studio leaders."
"BioWare has always been about telling emotional stories through characters," said Darrah. "We have wandered away from this central guiding pillar at times, but I am confident that the next Dragon Age will show that we remain committed to this kind of game. We will have a lot to show you."
"Mass Effect too has an exciting future," he added. "I won't say too much but I am impressed by the growth of Mike Gamble and I am looking forward to all that franchise will do under his leadership."
EA's chief studios officer Laura Miele shared her own high-level update in a public statement.
Dauntless lets you roam around islands hunting down behemoths and using parts of them to craft new and exciting weaponry. The free-to-play game has been around for quite some time (we reviewed it all the way back in early access, much has changed since then) and today Dauntless adds an open world experience to the game with the launch of Dauntless Reforged. 18 different open world islands are added to the mix where players can hunt a plethora of different beasts, find treasures, and more.
Previously, island hunts would task players with hunting down a behemoth and completing a mission in a task structure of sorts. Today, players can engage with The Hunting Grounds in order to explore, hunt, and collect in a variety of environments that are designed to offer variance, replayability, and surprise. Along the way you can find treasure, take on multiple behemoths, and uncover other interesting discoveries. Want to wander around the Hunting Grounds in style? Gliders are now available for use, giving you a highly efficient and fun way to zip around the new areas.
In addition to the Hunting Grounds, the Dauntless Reforged update also adds new progression systems via the Slayer's Path, a giant tree of unlocks that a player can branch out in many directions to gain new skills, bonuses, and abilities. There are also new ways to reforge and enhance weapons for permanent power boosts, letting you specialize in your favorites with big improvements.
NVC is available on your preferred platform!
Today Sega released a cinematic trailer for the western version of the popular MMORPG Phantasy Star Online 2.
The trailer is the cinematic intro of Episode 6, the large-scale update (you could basically consider it an expansion) that will launch on Dec. 9 on Xbox and PC, bringing the western servers ever-closer to the Japanese ones.
You can check it out below.
Here’s what you can expect from the update
The Next Chapter
In the battle at Alternate Dimension, Omega was victorious and the gigantic black hole that appeared in Oracle and Earth’s universe was extinguished. However, the one who calls herself the “Goddess of Annihilation Shiva” has appeared at the ARKS ship. The ARKS fought valiantly but attacks using Photon Arts were not effective against her. After showing her superior powers and declaring war against the universe and ARKS, she left. But not for long. Eventually, the “Final Armada” appeared in front of the Oracle fleet, with the aim of annihilating the Oracle and destroying the universe. Changing the battlefield to space, the most massive battle for ARKS begins.
New Classes
While I’ve already bemoaned the lack of real technological advances in the past console generation, not every innovation of the PS4/Xbox One era had to do with visuals or framerate. One of the quieter revelations, and one of the most forward-thinking, has been the slow adoption of cross-platform gaming, aka crossplay.
Per Aspera is a new PC game out this week that has you playing as an AI responsible for terraforming Mars. You’re tasked transforming it from a big cold rock into somewhere humans can walk their dogs outside in a grassy green park.
Today, Rocksteady Games announced that two obscure skins will finally be obtainable again in its five-year-old superhero adventure Batman: Arkham Knight. The suits in question are the Anime Batman suit and the Zur En Arrh suit, and starting today, after you update Arkham Knight, the suits will be unlocked and playable…
The Game Design department is responsible for providing our users with the best game experience and further optimizing our games. ...
But an update in Season 4 will unlock the frame rate on PS5 and Xbox Series X
The latest Final Fantasy XIV Patch 5.4 screenshots show new items, new features, and adjustments for the major update.
The post Final Fantasy XIV Patch 5.4 Screenshots Show New Tomestone Gear, Mount, and Minions appeared first on Siliconera.
Two of the biggest names at BioWare are leaving.
The post BioWare Luminaries Casey Hudson, Mark Darrah Leaving Studio appeared first on Siliconera.
BioWare general manager Casey Hudson and Dragon Age executive producer Mark Darrah have announced their departure from the studio.
Hudson began his tenure at BioWare back in 1998, eventually serving as project director on the likes of Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic and Mass Effect. He parted way with the company for the first time in 2014, but returned, after a brief spell at Microsoft, in 2017.
In a new post announcing his retirement from the position of general manager at BioWare in order to "make way for the next generation of studio leaders", Casey wrote, "It's not an easy decision to make, and big changes like this always come with a certain degree of sadness."
Earlier today, Niantic announced that Community Day Weekend will be returning in Pokemon GO for the final Community Day event of the year. Just like the past two years, Pokemon from all previous Community Day events will be featured with the ones from this year being featured most prominently.
This time around, Community Day Weekend will run nonstop from Dec. 12 at 6 AM local time until Dec. 13 at 10 PM local time. During that time, you’ll be able to find Charmander, Weedle, Abra, Gastly, Rhyhorn, Electabuzz, Magmar, Magikarp, Porygon, Seedot, and Piplup more often in the wild.
Totodile, Swinub, Treecko, Torchic, Mudkip, Ralts, Slakoth, Trapinch, Bagon, Turtwig, and Chimchar will be showing up more often in raids. Totodile, Swinub, Treecko, Torchic, Mudkip, Ralts, Slakoth, Trapinch, Bagon, Turtwig, and Chimchar will be hatching from 2 km Eggs.
And just like last time, every Pokemon featured in Community Day events from this year and the last year will be able to get their exclusive attacks when evolved. However, ‘mons featured in 2018 will be excluded this time but Niantic promised that their Community Day moves will be available again in the future.
On top of all of that, the store will be getting a December Community Day Box. For 1280 PokeCoins you’ll be able to get 30 Ultra Balls, five Lucky Eggs, one Elite Fast TM, and one Elite Charged TM. Also, for $1, you’ll be able to buy a ticket that will give you access to the December Community Day Special Research.
If you don’t feel like forking over your hard-earned money and PokeCoins, then there will also be a free Timed Research available to everyone. Completing all of the Research Tasks will net you an Elite Charged TM among other rewards.
Today Sega released a new trailer of its upcoming Sakura Wars mobile game Sakura Revolution: Blooming Maidens.
The trailer starts with another look at the story, then moving on to many of the character we’ll meet (and for some of them, collect).
We also get to see some gameplay to top it all off.
You can check it out below.
If you’re unfamiliar with Sakura Revolution: Blooming Maidens, it’s set in the 100th year of the Taishou era (71 years after the latest Sakura Wars game). Japan has been devastated by the Imperial Capital’s Great Disaster 16 years before, and it was rebuilt thanks to the energy based on spiritual power named “Mirai.”
Yet, following the building of the New Tower of the Imperial Capital, cherry blossoms have stopped blooming and attacks from demons have intensified.
As people all over the country are endangered, the government approves the formation of the Great Imperial Revue B.L.A.C.K, with the goal of both protecting the people and mesmerizing them with their live performances.
Bandai Namco revealed a new trailer showing one of the characters who will be added to its recent Musou-style game One Piece: Pirate Warriors 4.
The character is the recently-revealed Kin’emon, who will come as DLC alongside Okiku and another yet unknown warrior before the end of the year.
You can check him out below and see how he fights.
Here’s how Kin’emon is described officially by Bandai Namco.
“Kin’emon is a samurai from Wano Country who fights fire with fire using his Foxfire techniques. He can also create clothing at will using his Devil Fruit powers, though he calls it “sorcery.” He originally sailed to Punk Hazard to find his son Momonosuke; there, he met the Straw Hat Pirates and decided to accompany them. For some reason, he has an intense hatred of pirates and dragons.
Action
Action type：Technique
Kin’emon is a foxfire samurai who can control fire.
He can cloak his sword in fierce flames to burn all enemies within range.”
Rogue Games shared a brand new gameplay trailer of the upcoming fighting game Coreupt.
This time around, we get to see several member of the game’s rather colorful cast in action as they beat the crap out of each other.
You can check it out below.
We also get the reveal of a new character named W11Z-R (Pronounced “Weezer”).
Today Npixel revealed a brand new MMORPG titled Chrono Odyssey with the first trailer, art, and screenshots.
If you’re not familiar with the company, they’re also known for Gran Saga.
Previously known as “Project S,” Chrono Odyssey is an epic fantasy MMORPG focusing on the theme of time and space. The protagonists are members of an organization fighting a massive war against the gods.
Among the features we’ll find a new job system, various worlds transcending time and space, randomized dungeons, large-scale RvR, highly-tactical battle action with intuitive controls.
If you’re unfamiliar with the concept of realm versus realm, it’s basically faction-based PvP that fans of games like Dark Age of Camelot or Warhammer Online will know very well. As a big DAOC fan, seeing it used by a developer today brings up a big smile to my face.
Development started in 2019 and the goal is to have a beta in 2021. User interface and experience will be optimized for all three platform categories targeted by the developers, consoles, PC, and mobile.
It’ll be certainly interesting to see where this MMORPG is headed, but for now, you can check out the first trailer, screenshots, and concept art below.
It certainly look promising, so we’ll definitely keep an eye on it going forward.
Today South Korean game developer Shift Up released a few new screenshots and a gameplay trailer of its upcoming mobile game NIKKE: The Goddess of Victory.
If you’re unfamiliar with the game, it was originally revealed at an event last year alongside Project EVE (which is being developed for PC and consoles).
On top of that, while the name Shift Up may not ring a bell, it’s the studio behind the popular mobile game Destiny Child and its CEO is the famous artist Hyung-tae Kim, also known for his gorgeous character design in the Magna Carta series and in Blade & Souls.
The studio is currently staffing up, hring a variety of developers to complete the project.
In the meanwhile, you can check out the trailer below, alongside new screenshots.
Today we learn that Persona 5 Scramble: The Phantom Strikers is finally coming west as Persona 5 Strikers.
An unlisted trailer on Atlus West’s official channel was unearthed by Twitter user Jackson (thanks for the tip: Michio) apparently before the official reveal.
The trailer has since been taken down but I had a chance to see it with my own eyes and take the screencap of the announcement that you can see below.
We’ll finally get the localization on February 23, 2021, for PS4, Nintendo Switch, and PC via Steam. The Japanese version came exclusively for PS4 and Switch, so the PC version is brand new for the west.
The official announcement is likely to come soon, and we’ll update this post with all the details as soon as Atlus West and Sega make them public.
let’s you travel the cosmos beating up enemies with names like Lunk, Web Jock and Pool Beast in an effort to rescue your mate Big Barry from The Thing Below. You’ll do so with items such as the Vortex Bin Lid, Satnav Teatowel and Space Shorts.
Take back Japan in the latest trailer for Sakura Revolution.
The post Sakura Revolution Trailer Starts A Journey to Take Back Japan appeared first on Siliconera.
[Update: Looks like we won't have to wait long for the trailer to officially be reposted. Following this morning's leak, Altus posted to Twitter that all will be revealed on December 8.]
A funny thing happened on the official Atlus YouTube channel tonight. A trailer confirming the western release for Persona 5 Strikers, the highly anticipated Musou spin-off of the best-selling JRPG, was put up with the title "ANNOUNCE." Less than ten minutes later, it was gone but not before the most important details leaked out. Persona 5 Strikers will launch on February 23, 2021, on Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, and Steam.
Developer King has confirmed that the endless runner Crash Bandicoot: On The Run will get a brand-new Time Trials game mode when it officially launches on Android and iOS next year.
Time Trials lets players select any level to complete in the fastest time possible. There are three different times to compete against, with special relics unlocked after each clearing.
King is also added Team Runs to Crash Bandicoot: On The Run's asynchronous online multiplayer. After securing five power gems, which are rewarded after defeating bosses, players can go online with a team of up to 30 members to challenge other global teams. Once a Team Run has been selected, three members from three different teams will race together to see who gets the furthest. The longer players run, the more Crash Points their teams earn.
Continue Reading at GameSpotDestiny 2's toughest multiplayer challenge, the Trials of Osiris, has been disabled for more than a month. Bungie says it has found the issue that led it to cancel Trials soon after the release of the Beyond Light expansion, and we now have a date for when we can expect Trials to return: December 18.
Bungie released the date on Twitter alongside its This Week at Bungie blog post. The fix for the issue is coming in a future update--but since Bungie didn't identify it as part of a hotfix coming to the game on December 8, we can probably expect the patch with the weekly reset on December 15.
The team has identified the issue and is currently developing a future Hotfix. Trials of Osiris is currently planned to return on 12/18. https://t.co/tfGUvyG2lL
— Bungie Help (@BungieHelp) December 3, 2020
Trials of Osiris is the peak player-vs.-player challenge that Destiny 2 offers, with loot rewards to match. Available only on weekends, it requires players in teams of three to take on other teams in a series of elimination matches. The goal is to win seven matches in a row without losing any, which is known as "flawless." Starting with Beyond Light, teams that can manage a flawless Trials run can win special Adept weapons, which offer stat boosts that aren't available anywhere else in the game.
Pokemon Go is closing out the year with a variety of December events, including another Community Day weekend celebration. The two-day event takes place on December 12 and 13, and it brings back all the previous featured Pokemon not only from this past year, but from 2019 as well. To get you up to speed on the big event, we've rounded up everything you need to know about December's Community Day weekend below.
As has become tradition at this point, December's Community Day brings back all the featured Pokemon from every Community Day this past year. Throughout both days of the event, the following Pokemon--and their Shiny forms--will appear in the wild much more often than normal:
Continue Reading at GameSpotWith everyone spending more time at home lately, it's not a bad idea to invest in a quality desk chair. And if you also happen to game rather extensively, a dedicated gaming chair is the ideal choice. Secretlab is arguably the most well-known gaming chair manufacturer, but its chairs can also be quite pricey. Right now, you can save a decent chunk of change on Secretlab's 2020 lineup of chairs during its Christmas sale.
The vast majority of Secretlab's Prime 2.0 PU leather and SoftWeave fabric models are on sale for $40 off. If you opt for the more expensive NAPA leather, you'll save $100 on your order. You'll want to double-check the shipping date if you are in fact buying the chair as a Christmas gift. Most of the chairs, including standard Omega and Titan models, won't ship until after the holidays--Secretlab is experiencing understandable delays due to the pandemic.
We've rounded up some of our favorite Secretlab gaming chairs featured in the sale. It's worth noting that Secretlab has two different sizes when it comes to chairs: Omega and Titan. Omega chairs are designed for people 5'11" tall and under 240 pounds, while Titan chairs are designed for taller people thanks to a larger backrest. Secretlab's Christmas sale runs all the way up to December 25, so you have some time to take advantage of these discounts.
Continue Reading at GameSpot
