December 2020

It seems a fan-favorite, god-slaying dad may be heading to Fortnite based on a tease from PlayStation official Twitter page.

Since the end of Chapter 2 Season 4 yesterday, the Fortnite Twitter page has been ablaze with “audio transmissions” teasing upcoming characters as part of next season’s content which is known as Zero Point.

The clip, voiced by Troy Baker as Agent Jones, teases that his latest recruit has “literally vanquished multiple gods… with his bare hands in a fit of uncontrollable rage.” Well, that could certainly be considered an apt description of Kratos from the God of War series.

The goal apparently is to recruit the “greatest hunters across all Realities.” So far, The Mandalorian and The Child from the popular Disney+ TV series were revealed as the latest crossover characters for the new season.

No official announcement has been made by Fortnite or PlayStation just yet, but it’s definitely worth keeping an eye out for.

Looking for more on all the recent Fortnite updates? Check out what went down with yesterday’s world shattering Galactus event to mark the end of Chapter 2 Season 4.

Microsoft just hosted its Annual Shareholders Meeting, and the company’s executives had interesting comments to share about the Xbox and gaming business.

Firstly, CEO Satya Nadella was asked by a shareholder what Xbox is doing to set itself apart and to win the console war against PS5, and to provide a overview of Microsoft’s gaming strategy.

Nadella talked about the new console launch and pledged focus on gaming.

“Sure. First thing, we’re very excited about the new console launches in the market. We always have sort of focused on ensuring that our gamer community, that counts on us to produce the best consoles, has a new generation of consoles, which are powerful and, you know, really great for gameplay. And we are supporting it with the best content and with the best community.

But the broader vision we have is to ensure that the 3 billion gamers out there are able to play their games anywhere they want with all the content they want and with whom they want tom and that’s really what we are building our strategy around. You’ve seen us double our content portfolio with the ZeniMax acquisition. You see us make advances in our community efforts and our subscription offers with Game Pass. And that’s what you can expect from us. We are absolutely very, very much focused on gaming, and ensuring that all the 3 billion gamers around the world get the best content, best community, and the best cloud services to power their gaming experiences going forward.”

We also heard from CFO Amy Hood, who talked about the overall results in the past fiscal year and the ZeniMax acquisition.

Go! Go! 5D Game: Neptunia reVerse's new "Arrange Mode" will add plenty of changes to keep things fresh.

The post Go! Go! 5D Game: Neptunia reVerse Arrange Mode Adds Big Gameplay Changes to Re;Birth1 appeared first on Siliconera.

I've been fixated on the story campaign in Respawn's VR-only Medal of Honor: Above and Beyond, but the more I see of the multiplayer, the more I think that's going to be the main draw for a lot of players.

Respawn is putting a surprising amount of care into Above and Beyond, and based on this trailer – and prior experience with competitive VR games in general – the multiplayer should be pretty nuts. After decades of better-looking but familiar-feeling gaming, you start to take things for granted. With the extra immersion of virtual reality, even the simplest player interactions can feel fresh and exciting. 

There are going to be five multiplayer modes in Medal of Honor, including the familiar Domination, Deathmatch, and Team Deathmatch, a rocket-launcher-toting king-of-the-hill gametype (Blast Radius), and a scenario focused on planting and defusing bombs (Mad Bomber). It's a focused spread.

This footage shows what it looks like, but playing it – feeling surrounded – will be way more thrilling.

Liquid Swords released in 1995, a solo album side project from Wu-Tang Clan founding member GZA. This was the route most of them went after the success of the group's first album 36 Chambers. No one missed. RZA, Ol' Dirty Bastard, Raekwon, Ghostface Killah -- they all released solo albums in the years following 36 Chambers, and they're all regarded anywhere from great to incredible.

None rub elbows with the praise of "masterpiece" and "all-time classic" and "one of the most influential hip-hop records ever" like Liquid Swords, though. GZA described the flow and feel of the album by saying "I'm trying to make it more visual. Liquid Swords is a concept of being lyrically sharp, flowing like liquid metal -- mercury, y'know? It comes from this flick, Legend of the Liquid Sword, where people would get their head cut off but it would still be on their shoulders. No one else would notice, because the sword was so sharp. Wu-Tang is a sword style, and this here is the sharpest. I'd rather slip on the pavement than slip on my tongue."

A former Avalanche Studios head either named his new studio after an iconic Wu-Tang album or after a mid-90s Hong Kong comedy. As announced on Facebook, Avalanche founder and Just Cause creator Christofer Sundberg has opened Liquid Swords in Stockholm. He's sticking with what he knows, as Sundberg says Liquid Swords will focus on "open-world action and explosions." It's rare that explosions play a key role in a company's mission statement.

While over-the-top spectacle and player freedom are pillars, Sundberg wants everyone to know that "Liquid Swords is a business, not a playground for aimless ideas. Our swords are sharpened, our mission is set and we could not be more excited about what the future holds."

How's "gold-winged Fenyx" for a Homeric epithet?

The post Review: Immortals Fenyx Rising Is Another Homeric Epic From Ubisoft appeared first on Siliconera.

Ares killed his family, so now he's going to kill 99 of you guys while flossing. 

On the heels of yesterday's Galactus-vanquishing event, Epic has new theatrics lined up for Fortnite. God-killer Kratos has leaked as the next crossover.

It started with this extremely not-subtle teaser from PlayStation:

Time to go catch a Chespin, Fennekin, and Froakie! Pokemon GO has Pokemon from Kalos in it now. There's even a special event to celebrate.

The post Pokemon GO Kalos Pokemon Are Now in the Wild appeared first on Siliconera.

You might not be emotionally invested in which games win which awards at The Game Awards this year, but the Player's Voice category opened today and it's kind of a fun exercise to whittle the 30 nominees down to ten potential winners. To vote, you'll need to sign in with Google, Twitter, or Facebook.

Even if you don't want to participate, it's interesting to see the tentative results. So far, Ghost of Tsushima is leading the pack with eight percent of the votes, followed closely by Hades, Spider-Man: Miles Morales, and The Last of Us Part II. If I were a betting man, I'd bet big on Hades rising the ranks.

Personally, the surprisingly great Legends mode really helps cement Ghost of Tsushima's status (but I adore Hades). As for Free Fire – yeah, I had to Google it too – it's at zero percent, just below Fortnite.

This is only the first leg of three. In the second round on December 4, the community will vote again, bringing the Player's Voice nominees from ten games down to just five hopeful contenders. Then, on December 6, players will pledge their support for their number-one can't-be-beat game of 2020.

Here's the full list of Player's Voice nominees:

Worms is a franchise that certainly holds many memories of my formative years. A bunch of friends squeezed around a 486, blasting each other to kingdom come with pixel-perfect long-distance shots, devastating shrapnel grenades, or a Street Fighter-style Dragon Punch when the conflict got up close and personal.

Legendary British developer Team 17 is hoping to capture that same feeling of friendly rivalry with Worms Rumble, the latest release in the long-running strategy franchise, now available to purchase on PS4, PS5, and PC via Steam. While the expansive maps, huge array of weapons, and explosive action are all present and correct, Worms Rumble reinvents the battle entirely by going real-time.

In case a Godzilla costume wasn't intimidating enough, a Fall Guys DOOM Slayer costume is on the way. Cacodemons have nothing on Big Yeetus.

The post Fall Guys DOOM Slayer Costume Is on the Way appeared first on Siliconera.

Grab the first batch of Kalos Pokémon

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Play as the God of War soon

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You need a date for this new Failbetter Games adventure

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Stop right there, criminal scum

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Hot off the heels of Galactus’ somewhat epic defeat (pun intended) kicking off Fortnite Chapter 2, Season 5, it looks like everyone’s favorite God-slaying papa will eventually join the fray. A series of leaks and teasers suggests Kratos, or more accurately his skin, is coming to Fortnite. He'll join the likes of The Mandalorian’s Mando, Baby Yoda, and other hunters across multiple realities. 

The hubbub began when PlayStation users (including Hypex, a prominent Fortnite leaker) in multiple countries shared screenshots of a PlayStation Store ad promoting the god of war’s Fortnite debut. The ad has reportedly been pulled down from the store, but not before the below image made the rounds on social media: 

It’s called a backlog—that long list of games you’ll “get to someday” but ignore in favor of re-running roguelike dungeon crawler Hades yet again. Maybe you’re planning for your backlog to swell soon amid the bombardment of new releases. Maybe it tripled in size thanks to a recent Steam sale. Whatever the case, a…

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Wednesday’s Best Deals | Kinja Deals

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“Retinas are fried after cranking up brightness to see enemies.” That is the headline of a Reddit post submitted one month ago to the Call of Duty: Cold War subreddit. His plight is achingly familiar. “It’s literally so difficult to see enemies in this game,” they write. So they delved under the hood and obliterated…

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The Freelance Police are back on the case once again in a remastered version of Sam & Max Save The World, which you may remember as Sam & Max Season One from back when Telltale Games released it in 2006. Some former Telltalers got back together to shine up their old work, which you can now get your mitts on in today’s release.

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Players do the darndest things—especially when they’re also game developers—and this sure is a thing that I feel silly for not seeing from miles off. Rami Ismail of former Vlambeer fame decided to really test out the accuracy of Microsoft Flight Simulator by piloting a flight in game while sitting on the same flight in real life. The future sure has arrived.

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We are looking for a Game Designer designing game features and balancing a complex in-game economy. ...

Microsoft has officially acquired the online esports organization platform Smash.gg, an acquisition that has been made official after news broke via a small website update earlier today. ...

Today Aerosoft revealed the pricing of the much-anticipated Bombardier CRJ add-ons coming for Microsoft Flight Simulator.

Project Manager Mathijs Kok posted on the official forum that the package will have a main download and a further add-on, each including two models of the popular regional jet.

You can find the details below.

• The CRJ 550/700 will cost €42 (plus your local vat when applicable).
• The CRJ 900/100 will cost €16.75 (plus your local vat when applicable).
• The CRJ 900/1000 will require the CRJ 550/700 to be installed on the system.

The CRJ package is quite relevant, as it has been developed in close collaboration with Microsoft Flight Simulator’s developers at Asobo, and is the first aircraft add-on with this kind of complexity and detail to be released for the sim.

It will serve pretty much as a primer for future add-ons, and will likely push what can be done with the sim forward in quite a few ways.

Incidentally, the pricing may seem high for those who are not used to the flight simulation hobby, but this is actually slightly more affordable than what you’d usually expect for an add-on package of this scope and complexity.

Speaking of Microsoft Flight Simulator in general, during a livestreamed event earlier this week, the developers shared a lot of details about the future of the sim, including the next world update focusing on the United Kingdom.

You may know Rami Ismail mostly for his previous work as Vlambeer‘s co-founder or as the Executive Director of Gamedev.World, but apparently, he’s also a fan of Microsoft Flight Simulator.

Yesterday, he decided to conduct a rather interesting experiment while on a flight across the Atlantic Ocean.

Normally, people watch movies, read books, play with their Nintendo Switch, or simply sleep on long flights. Ismail played Microsoft Flight Simulator, reproducing the same route.

In the meanwhile, he posted several updates on Twitter, displaying interesting and rather impressive similarities between the real flight and the simulated one.

Today Rare and Microsoft published a video in which the developers of Sea of Thieves discussed several aspects of the game.

We learn that over 11 million players enjoyed the game in 2020 and the community is roughly split in half between PC and Xbox platforms.

The community is also seeing consistent growth also thanks to the Steam launch and the influx of gamers from various parts of the world, including China and Korea.

The developers also explained that, while they’re proud of what was achieved with the Arena feature, it won’t be developed further, and most of the focus will be on the adventure-related part of the game.

Instead of monthly content updates, from now on Sea of Thieves will have seasons lasting three months.

Each season will start with new content and new ways to play the game, and will continue with regular live events featuring “hundreds of new rewards,” regular quality of life patches, Emporium updates, and Twitch Drops.

The introduction of a seasonal progression system including 100 levels of Pirate Renown and a series of Pirate Trials.

This will allow players to unlock new rewards for their pirate and ship, and “some exclusives for Pirate Legends.”

A Plunder Pass will also be implemented as a premium tier, providing unique rewards and “some exclusives” in the Pirate Emporium.

Season 1 will launch in January.

There’s plenty more to hear in the video below.

The heated battle begins with The Game Awards 2020 Player's Voice! Voting is live now and we've got the full list of nominees and how to vote.

The post The Game Awards 2020 Player’s Voice Voting Now Open appeared first on Siliconera.

It's time. The PSO2 Episode 6 release is set for next week. Ready for the Phantasy Star Online 2 Etoile and Phantom Classes?

The post PSO2 Episode 6 Will Begin Next Week appeared first on Siliconera.

Knull has finally arrived on Earth, but is Marvel’s latest crossover worthy of him?

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Artist Dave Rapoza's take on Castlevania is one of my favorite outside interpretations I've seen.

Simon Belmont - Castlevania -

(link to limited print from Cook and Becker below!) pic.twitter.com/12rmOlA7F5

— Dave Rapoza (@DaveRapoza) December 1, 2020

In his new art piece – available as a print from Cook and Becker – Rapoza surrounds Simon Belmont with the ghoulish bosses and foes from the original Castlevania. I absolutely love the ornate detailing.

"I didn't look at the original video game for my research – for me today, a two-tone purple monster will feel silly, right? Like how's that scary at all? Yet when you dive into your nostalgic memory, the magic is still there, your interpretation of this world that was merely implied to you by the game makers," he said. "The pixels only imply certain shapes, and you fill in the blanks with your imagination."

You know a tribute piece is good when it makes you want to fire up an entire series of games. I wish Konami would do a lot of things, but at the top of the list, I wish it would do right by Castlevania.

You probably know that BFG stands for "Big Fucking Gun." Did you know that the 2005 Doom movie retconned the acronym to mean "Bio Force Gun?" Other than that slight misstep, the movie is perfect.

Anyway, Fall Guys is about to get some Bio Force Beans.

Like Half-Life's Alyx, Portal's Chell, and Sonic's Sonic, Doom's demon-slaughtering protagonist seems set to join the Fall Guys roster of costumes:

Now that it's December, I'm taking one last look at my backlog in hopes of wrapping up more games and rolling into the new year with a relatively clean plate (only to immediately fill it up again). It's a futile exercise – there's always going to be more to play – but it's become an end-of-year tradition for me.

The big one will be Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity, which I'm happily chipping away at during most evenings. It's just mindless enough that I can half play it while watching TV, make a bit of progress, and feel like I accomplished something in spite of the jam-packed world map. I've heard the postgame isn't as stuffed as the first Hyrule Warriors – and well, that's probably for the best. I adored those absurdly long adventure maps, but I don't need to go through that again after Hyrule Warriors: Definitive Edition.

At the same time, I'll put the finishing touches on Spider-Man: Miles Morales. I'm more than halfway through the story and I find myself cramming in as many side-activities as I can between each main mission. It's a hard habit to break. I'm now at the point where I feel confident in Spider-Man's swinging, stealthing, and acrobatic attacks – it took a while to shake off the rust and perfect the flow. I can also safely call this ahead of time: I'm going to roll straight into New Game+ for those final skill unlocks.

At that point – and this is why I'm glad I got Demon's Souls and Bugsnax out of my literal and figurative system – we're getting dangerously close to Cyberpunk 2077. That's going to complicate my schedule. On the other hand, it's such a (reportedly) big game that I likely won't feel obligated to finish it in 2020.

There's a band in Cyberpunk 2077 called Samurai. In the game's world, Samurai is fronted by Johnny Silverhand. In the real world, however, that band is Refused, who lends their talents to Cyberpunk by writing and performing all of Samurai's in-game songs.

Refused is one of the most influential punk/hardcore bands of all time. Their 1998 album The Shape of Punk To Come is a cross-genre experimentation of what hardcore and punk rock truly is and what it can be. It combines those typically harsh genres with the more palatable sounds of techno, jazz, and swing. Naming an album something as declarative as The Shape of Punk To Come might seem a bit arrogant (it's a nod to Ornette Coleman's 1959 album The Shape of Jazz to Come, and also a “f--- you” to punk and hardcore scenes of the ‘90s, as they tell it now), but luckily for Refused, their prophecy was correct. The Shape of Punk to Come was the shape of punk to come, setting the groundwork for pretty much every punk, hardcore, etc. album that came after. Bands like Paramore and Linkin Park cite the album as an influence. Tom Morello said that when Zack de la Rocha quit Rage Against The Machine, he considered asking Refused's singer Dennis Lyxzén take his place.

UPDATE 4/12/20: Oh boy. Kratos is now available in Fortnite on all platforms as part of today's in-game item shop.

To be clear, Kratos is available on all Fortnite platforms - including Xbox One and Series X/S - though anyone playing on PlayStation 5 gets a second golden armour style.

As well as the god himself (with decapitated Mimir back bling) you can also get a Guardian Shield glider and Leviathan Axe pickaxe, which comes with a frosty built-in emote.

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It's all change on the Sea of Thieves starting in January next year, as Rare's piratical multiplayer experience goes the way of countless other online games, adopting a new battle-pass-style progression system and new Seasons content release model.

Before all that, though, there's some disappointing news for fans of the PvP-based Arena mode; Rare has announced that all future Sea of Thieves updates will focus on expanding the game's more popular Adventure mode, meaning that while Arena mode will still be available, all development will cease - a sad fate for what started out as a brilliantly chaotic, rapid-fire alternative to the core game, but one that struggled to overcome myriad technical issues and, later, an unfavourably streamlined reworking robbed of the original's adventuring spirit.

That, then, firmly places the focus back on Adventure mode, and the debut of Rare's new Seasons model in January. As explained in its latest video update below, each season will last approximately three months (previously, Rare aimed for monthly content updates), and each will begin with the introduction of "a new experience or way of play".

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There once was a time—around when Bethesda had the idea to sell armour for a horse back in 2006—that the prospect of buying a video game then paying more money for stuff in the same game would prompt outrage.

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