January 2021

Playdead’s anticipated next game will feature a markedly different design from the critically acclaimed puzzle-platformers it’s best known for. This is according to a job listing over on the developer’s website, which was spotlighted today by enthusiast video game analyst @mauroNL.

The page lists several different full-time opportunities, from programming opportunities to technical director and systems administrator positions. But it’s actually the updated blurb that is the most interesting takeaway, which now reads in part

“Our current project is a 3rd-person science fiction adventure set in a remote corner of the universe.”

While we’ve long known that Playdead’s next project was a science fiction game following some tidbits from an older version of this particular job listing page and a brief teaser, it’s only now that we’ve discovered its design.

Speaking of concept art, there’s more on that front today, too, with two new and interesting images:

That’s right folks, today kicks off the Clear Skies event for Arms Race in Borderlands 3. Clear Skies will last until January 28. Today’s changes to the game are in an actual update, so you will need to do some downloading as opposed to the usual wait at the main menu for the hotfixes to apply.

For those unfamiliar with Arms Race, it is a game mode new to the Borderlands series that drops the player into a large map with zero gear or player skills and they must work within the confines of the encroaching Murdercane (pretty much the same way circles work in every Battle Royale). The player must scrounge up enough loot to guarantee survival (shields are required) while working to collect the best loot they can to then beat the mode’s boss and win.

The first mini-event, Clear Skies, begins with today’s hotfixes. During the Clear Skies mini-event, all enemies will have a chance to drop better loot and the Murdercane’s circle will take longer to close in so you have precious extra time to scavenge and explore.

The list of changes to the game are:

Aerosoft just released Greater Moncton Roméo LeBlanc International Airport (CYQM) for Microsoft Flight Simulator, developed by Stairport Sceneries.

As the busiest airport in the Canadian province of New Brunswick, CYQM offers a great mix of activities for flight simulation enthusiasts.

It hosts airliner traffic, a lot of cargo hauling. and one of the most well-known flight schools in the country for general aviation, the Moncton Flight College.

Available on Aerosoft’s own store for about €18 including VAT, it comes with its own installer as is the publisher’s standard, which means that installation is relatively painless. The package even includes a complement of relevant charts.

If you’d like to see what the airport looks like in detail in Microsoft Flight Simulator, you can check out the in-depth flyover video below, showing the airfield from every angle, every weather condition, and at night.

On the other hand, the second video below showcases an ILS approach to runway 29.

Today Firaxis and 2K Games revealed a new video of the upcoming DLC package for Sid Meier’s Civilization VI.

We get to take a deeper look at the new civilization, Vietnam, and its leader, fiery 3rd-century national heroine Bà Triệu.

You can check the video out below.

We also hear about Vietnam’s features, its Voi Chién unique unit, and its unique district, the Thàn, and Bà Triệu’s own ability “Drive Out The Aggressors.”

More information about the DLC can also be found in yesterday’s video.

A Stories From the Outlands video was released earlier this week to introduce Fuse — the newest Legend that’ll be joining the Apex Games on Feb. 2. Today’s launch trailer teases his abilities while giving a quick preview of what to expect in Apex Legends Season 8, Mayhem.

Walter “Fuse” Fitzroy makes his cinematic debut in front of the other Legends in this trailer when everything goes wrong. The ship he descends on starts to fire cannon in every direction, threatening the surrounding spectators.

Thanks to some quick thinking, Fuse is able to bring it down with the help of his golden grenade from his Story From the Outlands, which seemed to have an EMP effect.

Soon after, multiple sections of King’s Canyon start to literally explode, changing the terrain in preparation for Season 8 of Apex Legends.

Check out the chaotic Season 8 launch trailer below for yourself below to get a quick look at what’s to come next month:

Today Bandai Namco revealed a new gallery of screenshots showcasing the upcoming Legendary Pack 1 DLC.

We get to see another new character included in the DLC on top of Paikuhan/Pikkon, and it’s God of Destruction Toppo.

At the same time as the DLC (which is now slated for a Spring 2021 release), a free update will bring Janemba’s CC mascot and five new Hero Colosseum figurines as follows:

• Toppo (God of Destruction)
• Pikkon
• Janemba
• Gogeta (Super Saiyan 1)
• Vegeta (SSGSS)

You can find the screenshots below. Incidentally yes, the DLC is titled “Legendary Pack 1” which likely means that it’s not the last. That’s pretty impressive for a game that is over four years old.

Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2 is currently available for PS4, Xbox One, Switch, and PC. If you want to read more about the game, you can check out our review.

The day has come for Yacht Club Games to further test their mettle with publishing, as Cyber Shadow is right on the horizon. It's due out on January 26 on Switch, and will focus on retro-centric combat and platforming through the lens of a cyber ninja.

But before that happens, Hitman 3 - Cloud Version is out now, allowing Switch users to experience the end of the modern Hitman trilogy. A bunch of other games are out in the next week or so too, as the Nintendo eShop is hitting its stride again after a low key holiday break.

We're back on that "20-30 weekly eShop" decree again, as there's over 40 games flooding the marketplace just this week alone.

One continuing headache for video game buyers remains the ready shortage of next-gen platforms PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S. Both Sony and Microsoft's highly sought-after consoles continue to pop up at online retailers, only to sell out in scant minutes, inevitably leaving customers disappointed and frustrated.

Adding fury to mix, however, is the addition of "scalpers," individuals or groups who purchase multiple consoles en masse, before immediately offering them for re-sale, often at hugely inflated prices. While scalping has been prevalent in retail for decades, modern technology has made the practice more difficult to combat than ever before, due to the creation of bot software that carries out the sales process automatically.

Early this week, UK retailer GAME took stock of its latest batch of PS5 consoles, all of which – naturally – sold out in double-quick time. Soon afterward, a scalper firm took to Twitter to claim that it had successfully acquired over 2000 consoles from the sale, via the use of its bot software. Other Twitter users also claimed of having bagged multiple PS5 units, most with a flammable, antagonistic attitude that makes the claims harder to believe.

"My uncle works for Nintendo" is one of the funniest things I heard growing up, alongside of "my significant other lives in Canada/is somewhere else." But in this video, someone's uncle might show up!

Shared recently by the YouTube channel btm0815ma, the 20 minutes of raw footage provides a walkthrough of the Nintendo of America headquarters in Redmond, Washington in June of 1990. Note: it is raw, free of edits and flashy visuals most documentaries are known for.

Refreshingly, it shows the rottenness of a typical workday, along with some of the flashes of fun found in working for Nintendo. The part pretty much everyone wants to see is 14:00 in, where it centers on the playtester room. It's just a giant place full of guys and gals playing NES games: a wild sight! You also get some insight into the hardware manufacturing process with a look at Nintendo's assembly lines.

For me, the best part is near the beginning; when a presenter says their lines and flourishes the button of the script, then continues to stare blankly into the camera waiting for a cut.

As we enter 2021, the 10th anniversary celebrations for Kazutaka Kodaka's bizarre series Danganronpa look set to continue. The latest festivities seeing the arrival of a "mystery maze," which is scheduled to open in Shibuya, Japan from January 22.

As reported by Famitsu, Super Danganronpa 2 The Mystery Maze will offer Danganronpa fans the opportunity to dash through a real-life labyrinth of sorts, gathering clues and solving puzzles whilst staying one step ahead of the evil machinations of killer plushie Monokuma. For an entrance fee of ¥2,750 ($25 USD), each attendee will receive a selection of exclusive merchandise, along with the priceless life experience of having survived one of Monokuma's death traps.

Speaking of which, I don't want to be a party pooper, but I'm not entirely sure a public maze event is quite the "day out" in these legitimately frightening COVID-19 times. It seems that the organizers are aware of this – at least to some degree – as they are restricting ticket sales, and will decide on the participants by lottery should there be too many applicants.

Tellingly, the organizers have also reserved the right to postpone or outright cancel Super Danganronpa 2 The Mystery Maze at a moment's notice... Maybe make that moment "right now"? It's honestly pretty baffling that they're holding this event in the first place.

I understand companies not wanting to flood packaging with physical instruction manuals a lot of people will never use or read.

But...I want them, and frequently seek them out. Nosey Tengu and a team of creatives heeded that call for Fire Emblem: Three Houses, and made their own "Garreg Mach Monastery-approved" booklet. Yep, I want it. As folks who have played Three Houses know, the intricacies run deep both mechanically and thematically, which is why these themed books (one for each house) fit so well.

Nosey Tengu says that the booklets are "meant to serve as an introduction to the game's setting and characters," and are "very light on spoilers." It even has commissioned art! A reminder: a bunch of people worked on this, and you can find the thread to the credits below. You can also support Nosey Tengu's efforts here.

Nosey Tengu [Twitter]

If you’ve visited the AMD subreddit, the Linus Tech Tips forums, or elsewhere over the last several months, you might have come across a conspiracy theory that Intel and Nvidia struck a secret deal with one another to keep higher-end GPUs out of AMD Ryzen 4000-series laptops. If you looked at the slate of AMD laptops…

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BioWare art director Matt Rhodes spent the holidays uploading some interesting concept art from Revolver, a project that never saw the light of day.

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After a month and a half of conquering quests, leveling alt characters, and exploring every inch of World of Warcraft’s afterlife, my whirlwind romance with the Shadowlands expansion is starting to fizzle out. Now that my main dwarf Stu has completed his covenant story campaign I’m not finding much motivation to keep…

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A lottery for prized graphics cards and processors went up briefly on PC part seller Newegg’s site yesterday. It’s a testament to the ongoing shortage of all things gaming during the ongoing covid-19 pandemic.

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In this 2015 GDC session, Ubisoft's Francois Cournoyer discusses the processes for creating the massive AI crowds that populate the world of Assassin's Creed Unity. ...

Valve engineer Ken Birdwell walks us through the "cabal" procedures that helped turn the company's initial, less than impressive version of Half-Life into a groundbreaking success ...

Susan O'Connor returns with another GDC Masterclass session for narrative designers! Register now before seats are all gone. ...

Here's a quick breakdown of what kind of talks and sessions you can expect at GDC Showcase in March. ...

Roguelikes might be enjoying their moment in the sun in recent years (just ask Hades, our Game of the Year for 2020), but Everspace 2 shows that procedural generation isn’t the only way forward. The original Everspace is a cool space fighter roguelike, but the sequel has changed course toward a more traditional action-RPG style, and its series of missions across an open region of space feel a lot more in the vein of Freelancer or Rebel Galaxy Outlaw as a result. But it holds onto its free movement system, which makes its combat stand out from other space shooters in style. There’s already a fair amount of it to explore at its early access launch, and it keeps things interesting by mixing in some puzzle-solving to break up the flashy dogfights.

Kenny Omega is one of the co-founders of All Elite Wrestling, and current AEW World Champion. He's @KennyOmegaManX on Twitter.

Austin Creed (AKA Xavier Woods) is a member of the 10-time Tag Team Championship-winning crew known as The New Day, and the host of gaming YouTube channel UpUpDownDown. He's @austincreedwins on Twitter.

As the sun began to shine on a bright morning day, two kings were awakened...

Kenny: Ooo, I like this! So who's the other king? The suspense is killing me. Me ANNND?

Austin: Well, I was trying to imply that we were both kings...

Scott Benson is an animator and game developer, best known for co-creating Night in the Woods. He's @bombsfall on Twitter.

God, this year. I feel like every time I do one of these I’m talking about how I’m tired and it’s been a long year and so forth. But I gotta say I’m tired and it’s been a long year and that is a part of this list, I guess. This is so far word for word the same intro I wrote to last year’s column and if I’m doing another one of these next year I am really hoping I’ll be able to say “remember when things were bad? Glad that’s over!”. But things are bad, and now it’s time to talk about video games!

Samantha Kalman is a Seattle-based game developer currently working at Respawn on Apex Legends. You can find her on Twitter @SamanthaZero.

Friends, it's been a hell of a year. I had approximately three months of normalcy in 2020, if you count studying for a Bachelor's degree in a foreign country "normal". When the lockdown hit in March I was settled in SE London, trying to keep up with my studies and wondering how long to watch the pandemic unfold before I needed to move back home. Lemme tell ya, London is a really cool place to live when you can be out in it! But when you're stuck in a single room it's a different story, even when you have time to make some awful experimental music.

Casey Malone is a professional comedian and game designer. You can follow him on Twitter.

Good riddance! Right? I don’t have anything profound or inspiring to say about 2020 here, but that seems ok. We’re all sick of talking about it. I consider myself exceptionally lucky, in that I’m safe and stable during an age of pure catastrophe, and even I’m drained thinking about the past 12 months. I mean, remember when Josh Gad became completely inescapable as soon as we went into lockdown? God knows that’s been taxing for us all.

But let’s focus on the good stuff. Did the chance of a hot person seeing the inside of my apartment this year drop to 0%? Sure, I could dwell on that. But did that free me up to finally get a gamer chair? You bet my sweet ass it did. So, for a few hundred words, here’s a list of things that brought me joy last year. Who knows, you might even be on it.

BAKOON is Bay Area artist Oliver Leach. When he's not creating his art, he's being a good boy on Twitter and Twitch.

Hello again Giant Bomb readers.

A real stinkhole of a year, but it left a lot of time to stay inside and game. I found myself wanting to go back and finish things and series I hadn’t had time to get to yet, so apologies if this list isn’t all newer titles. My gamer's fancy goes where it likes and I have no choice but to follow it.

Colin Spacetwinks is a writer of fiction, non-fiction, and criticism, but still probably most known for posting a bunch of shit online. They publish a bunch of their original work over on their itch.io page ranging from things like a collection of their personal tips and tricks to living and working with ADHD to a body horror story about coming to work on your day off. They also wrote that article about Christian Sonic the Hedgehog fandom that Alex shouted out on one of his drumming streams. Thanks, Alex.

Ron Funches is a comedian, actor, and periodic Giant Beastcast guest. You can follow him on Twitter.

What a year. I got married, I had my own TV show for Quibi, we all got to experience a terrifying life experience together. I want to thank the entire medium of video games for helping me stay sane and stay connected to friends at a time where it has been easy to feel isolated. These are my favorite games of the year at the time I needed them the most.

Please follow me on twitch https://www.twitch.tv/ron_funches and check out my TV show TSV Thursday 10:30/9:30c on Tru TV.

Grace Bruxner is the creative director at Worm Club, the indie studio behind the Frog Detective series. She's @gracebruxner on Twitter.

SWERY is a game director best known for his work on games like Deadly Premonition, D4: Dark Dreams Don't Die, and The Missing: J.J. MacField and the Island of Memories. He's @Swery65 on Twitter.

I think it should go without saying that 2020 was an unusual year for everyone around the world. Amidst everything that's happened, I'm overjoyed from the bottom of my heart that Giant Bomb, who I love, has given me another chance to look back on my own year.

Just like last year, it seems like more and more games are being released every year. This year, we also saw the next generation of consoles (PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series S/X) along with a big update to the PC world with the Geforce RTX 3000 Series and the Ryzen 5000 Series.

Greg Kasavin is the writer and creative director at Supergiant Games, the small independent studio behind Hades, Pyre, Transistor, and Bastion. Prior to Supergiant, Greg worked at 2K Games, Electronic Arts, and GameSpot. He’s @kasavin on Twitter.

Danny O'Dwyer is an expert in European sport and he makes video game documentaries at Noclip. You can follow him on Twitter.

Hey duders. In recent years I’ve struggled to put together five appropriate games for my Giant Bomb list, but it turns out a global health crisis is the type of thing that gives you a thirst for escapism. So here are my top ten ways to keep my mind occupied in 2020, with a few bonus adventures listed at the bottom. Let’s get into it…

Abby Russell is a comedian and former Content Producer with Giant Bomb. Like everyone else, she is currently riding out the pandemic and streaming regularly to twitch. You can also follow her on twitter, instagram, and YouTube.

Wow! I’m finally writing a top ten list, no longer as an employee of Giant Bomb! Somehow things feel so different and yet... exactly the fucking same. It’s probably because I get paid one million dollars a word, like usual. Wait. They AREN’T paying me to write my list this year?? Fuck!

I’m not saying anything new here, but this was such a strange year for so many reasons. And my gameplay choices were no exception. Spoiler alert! Pretty much everything listed below will have some form of multiplayer interaction in it. I think that is partially due to me not being particularly enthralled by the big-name, single player games that came out this year, and partially just because I think we all had to learn new ways to socialize.

A new Puzzle Quest game is on the way. Puzzle Quest 3 will appear this year as a free-to-play multiplatform game.

The post Puzzle Quest 3 Will Be Free-to-Play When It Debuts appeared first on Siliconera.

An Immortals Fenyx Rising Blood of Zeus crossover will involve a quest that will appear for one week and two cosmetic packs.

The post Next Immortals Fenyx Rising Crossover Involves Blood of Zeus appeared first on Siliconera.

Animal Crossing Chara-Magnets will head to Japan and give people a chance to collect magnets and cards inspired by villagers and stationary.

The post Animal Crossing: New Horizon Magnets Will Appear in May appeared first on Siliconera.

Kowloon Highschool Chronicle will finally appear outside of Japan in February 2021, and people with a Switch can search for its treasures.

The post Express Yourself in Kowloon Highschool Chronicle Next Month appeared first on Siliconera.

People will once again be able to trade items they find while exploring for Boxes O' Marvels in Genshin Impact's Marvelous Merchandise event.

The post Genshin Impact Marvelous Merchandise Boxes Return This Weekend appeared first on Siliconera.

Firaxis has released a deep dive video revealing Vietnam for Civilization 6.

Vietnam, which is part of the New Frontier Pass due out 28th January, is led by Bà Triệu, also known as Triệu Thị Trinh or Lady Triệu. Bà Triệu fought against the occupation of northern Vietnam by the Wu Kingdom in the early 200s AD.

Vietnam's unique ability is Nine Dragon River Delta, which makes all land speciality districts only buildable on rainforest, marsh or woods tiles. Buildings on each type of tile receive either additional science, production or culture. This ability also allows woods to be planted with the Medieval Faires civic.

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