January 2021

A rapidly-moving action-RPG like Nioh 2 needs to be as crisp, fluid, and legible as possible, and I'd say Team Ninja is in a good place with next month's Nioh 2 Remastered for PlayStation 5. The studio shared 14 minutes of uninterrupted footage – the entirety of the first main-story mission, The Village of Cursed Blossoms – and I'll never turn down a chance to see someone pummel Gozuki. Especially a dev!

The Nioh series isn't known for its visuals, but I'm enjoying this 4K60 footage all the same. There's also the matter of faster load times, particularly for respawns after death. Those seconds will add up. After recently trying a preview build of Nioh 2 PC, I felt the ripple effect on the pacing – and my overall mood.

With free upgrades being expected but not always delivered, it's worth noting that Nioh 2 Remastered is a free upgrade for Nioh 2 PS4 players, and that goes for any of the DLC packs you might own, too.

If I'm ever going to finish Dream of the Nioh difficulty, it'll be on PS5, for sure.

It's going to feel bizarre to dig into Cyberpunk 2077 at the end of the year, if not later. For those of you who already bought the game – or are on the fence about getting the PC version – there's a notable patch out today. CD Projekt Red recently shared a roadmap, and this patch, 1.1, was next on the docket.

The highlights include crash fixes, "memory usage improvements," steps toward addressing bloated save files, the ability to unlock achievements in Steam's offline mode, and lots of specific questing fixes.

Patch 1.1

Stability

Various stability improvements including:

• Memory usage improvements in various systems within the game: characters, interactions, navigation, in-game videos (news, tv, etc.), foliage, laser effects, minimap, devices, AI, street traffic, environmental damage system, GPU-related, and more.
• Various crash fixes (related to, among others, loading saves, game opening/closing and Point of No Return).

Quests/Open World

A new Cyberpunk 2077 update is now available for PC and console players alike, as well as Google Stadia. The latest patch is one of many on the horizon following a chaotic launch and this update tackles major areas of improvement including open-world issues, commonly reported bugs, and overall stability concerns. 

CD Projekt Red took to the game's blog to share with players what the latest update has in store, saying "In this update, we focused on various stability improvements, which you can find outlined in the patch notes below. We will continue this work in patch 1.2 and other upcoming updates. At the same time, we will keep fixing the bugs you encounter and listening to your feedback on how to improve the overall game experience."

While new DLC and new-gen updates are still on the horizon, the main priority for the Polish studio currently is to get the issues that contributed to the messy launch under control. This especially became an important focus when Poland's Office of Competition and Consumer Protection began its investigation into the company concerning the game's launch on the heels of two class-action lawsuits from investors. 

Robert Kirkman is best known for his comic series The Walking Dead and its subsequent television adaption. Soon, another one of Kirkman's comics will be hitting your screen, this time as an exclusive to Amazon Prime. The new show is called Invincible, and Kirkman has announced that it will debut on March 26.

Between all of the games and movies that revolve around superpowers these days, you may have reached your saturation point when it comes to heroes in tights with special abilities. Even so, Invincible might be worth giving a chance. It's about a young man named Mark who discovers he has superpowers, but he also happens to be the son of Omni-Man – a Superman-like figure who is the world's most powerful hero. Check out the clip above for a sneak peek at the dynamic between the two characters, and get a broader look at the show with the teaser trailer.

The Trials of Osiris in Destiny 2 is already extremely tough, and that's before players learn how to exploit certain maps to make it extremely difficult to kill them. Such an exploit exists on this weekend's Trials map, Fragment, and as a result, Bungie is changing the map for the duration of the weekend.

Bungie made the announcement on Twitter, although it didn't provide too many details about what to expect for Trials for the rest of the weekend.

So we know when to expect a new map-- 9 AM PT on Saturday--but not what that map will be. In the meantime, you can still play Trials on Fragment if you so choose, although it sounds like it's risky, since players utilizing the exploit to get out of the map are likely to have a distinct advantage over those who do.

Developer CD Projekt Red has released Patch 1.1 for Cyberpunk 2077 on PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Stadia, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X|S. According to the developer, this update "lays the groundwork for the upcoming patches." The patch notes are outlined below. However, be aware that it could also cause some of its own problems.

The two biggest things addressed in Cyberpunk 2077 with this update are memory usage and crashes. According to the patch notes, the update makes some "memory improvements in various systems within the game" to stabilize performance. Additionally, the patch addresses the myriad crash issues, particularly related to loading game saves and the Point of No Return, that part where players are told they can't go back once the final mission starts.

Patch 1.1 makes a number of important changes to questing as well, such as circumstances where players couldn't finish certain missions due to game hiccups. One example is in Delamain's questline, Epistrophy, in which players sometimes couldn't pick up or receive his calls to progress the quest. Another is in Takemura's quest Down on the Street, where players occasionally wouldn't receive a call from him. CD Projekt Red says these issues and others like them have been fixed in Patch 1.1. However, it appears it could have added a bug of its own. Players say a mission "fixed" in the patch can actually still be game-breaking.

One of the best things about Destiny 2's Beyond Light expansion is how much concrete story it has delivered. Destiny's story has always been unwieldy, largely because there's a lot of it--but most of it took place in the distant past, somewhere outside of what's actually in the game. In Beyond Light, Bungie tied together a host of dangling lore threads, filling in gaps we've been wondering about for a long, long time. Names like Clovis Bray finally have faces, and characters we've been wondering about from Destiny 1, like the Exo Stranger, have finally explained their actions.

Every so often, Bungie collects some of those lore entries together into book form, as Destiny Grimoire Anthologies. The books center on specific themes, like the influence of the Darkness or the history of the Fallen, and each one has been relevant to whatever stories Destiny 2 was telling at the time of their release. Grimoire Anthology Vol. 3, which was released right around the launch of Beyond Light, includes lore relevant to the Exos, Rasputin, and Clovis Bray--and gives some clues about what we might still learn on Europa.

Phoenotopia: Awakening--previously a Switch exclusive--is now available on PC via Steam. This action-adventure puzzle platformer is a full-blown remake of 2014's Phoenotopia, a popular Flash game.

In Phoenotopia: Awakening, you play as Gale, a simple villager. When mysterious invaders appear from the sky and abduct all the adults, you suddenly become the oldest person in the village. Despite your lack of combat training and knowledge about the outside world, you take responsibility for the situation and set out on an adventure to save the grown-ups.

Gameplay-wise, Phoenotopia: Awakening features top-down, open-world exploration when you're wandering through the landscape and transitions into a side-scrolling action-platformer when you enter towns, dungeons, and other key areas. Combat is difficult, relying on stamina.

With the ICA exposed, Hitman 3's next stop is the vineyards of a known Providence member who may be brewing more than just a fine wine behind the scenes.

Here are all of Mendoza's assassination challenges and everything you need to do to complete them. For more tips and secrets, be sure to read our Hitman 3 walkthrough and guide hub. Otherwise, check out our other assassination guides below.

Coming off the success of last year's Tony Hawk Pro's Skater 1 + 2, developer Vicarious Visions is undergoing a major adjustment. Activision Blizzard has confirmed that the company will be moved from Activision's umbrella into Blizzard, pivoting the studio to be "fully dedicated" to Blizzard games going forward.

According to GamesIndustry.biz, the transition is effective immediately, with Vicarious Visions remaining in Albany, New York. The 200-team studio will now be "fully dedicated to existing Blizzard games and initiatives." Starting today, Vicarious Visions, which has led development on a majority of the Tony Hawk's Pro Skater franchise, will no longer work on the famed IP.

A spokesperson told the publication that Vicarious Visions would be a great fit to offer Blizzard Entertainment's development studios "long-term support" going forward.

Five destinations and a trail of dead bodies later, Agent 47's journey has finally come to an end. There's only a single target to focus on in Hitman 3's final level, but a small army of Providence elite agents stand between 47 and the elusive Arthur Edwards.

Here are all of the Carpathian Mountain train's assassination challenges and everything you need to do to complete them. For more tips and secrets, be sure to read our Hitman 3 walkthrough and guide hub. Otherwise, check out our other assassination guides below.

The classic SNK fighter SNK vs. Capcom: Match of the Millennium has apparently received a rating for Nintendo Switch by the Gaming Rating and Administration Committee of Korea.

According to the rating, the game is set for everyone 12 years old and up, with the reason being SNK vs. Capcom: Match of the Millennium contains some minor violent expressions. Gematsu notes that the rating suggests the 2D fighter could be the next entry in SNK's Neo Geo Pocket Color Selection on Nintendo Switch, though there's no confirmation of this yet.

SNK vs. Capcom: Match of the Millennium launched in November 1999 for the Neo Geo. It's a crossover 2D fighter featuring 26 characters from various Capcom and SNK games, including the Art of Fighting, Fatal Fury, King of Fighters, Samurai Shodown, and Street Fighter. Eight of the 26 characters are hidden and come from titles such as Darkstalkers and The Last Blade.

After a massive year of acquisitions and investments in 2020, the Chinese internet company Tencent has bought another prominent game studio.

It was confirmed on Friday that Tencent has acquired Klei, the developers of Shank and Don't Starve. Klei confirmed the buyout in a post on its forums.

"I want to take a moment to announce that we have agreed to deal for Tencent to purchase a majority stake in Klei Entertainment," the studio said. "As part of this agreement, Klei retains full autonomy of creative and operations across all aspects of the studio, including projects, talent, and more."

This week's episode of GameSpot After Dark is all about Hitman 3 and Resident Evil. The former is the big release for January and both Jake and Jean-Luc are playing it. IO Interactives third, and supposedly final, entry in the World of Assassination story has been received well and the gang discuss why it's so good.

Of course, the big news for the week comes from Capcom's Resident Evil Showcase, which offered us an in-depth look at Resident Evil Village gameplay, as well as other upcoming Resident Evil experiences such as the new multiplayer game called RE:Verse and a crossover with The Division 2. Jake, Kallie, Tamoor, and Jean-Luc recap all the biggest news from the event and offer their opinions on everything.

Below you'll find all the necessary links to find the show on iTunes, Spotify, SoundCloud, and Google Play. We've also included an RSS link so you can put that into your podcast app of choice.

The developers of the popular Euro Truck Simulator series have apologized for comments the studio made in a press release about the COVID-19 vaccine.

The Czech studio issued a press release on Friday about its "Hauling Hope" in-game campaign that is raising awareness for COVID-19 vaccine distribution. So it took some by surprise to see a line in the release that stated, "We do not take a stand neither for or against vaccines."

The studio has now explained what happened. This was a "f**k up," according to a developer at SCS Software; it was a mistake driven by a language and translation barrier, the studio explained to The Gamer.

Entei is making an encore appearance in Pokemon Go very soon. To coincide with the Johto Celebration event, the Legendary Fire Pokemon is returning to five-star Raids beginning January 26. If you're looking to add the Legendary to your collection, here are some tips to help you beat and catch Entei before it leaves the game again.

Entei Raid Schedule

Entei will return to five-star Raid Battles starting at 10 AM local time on January 26, and it'll be available until the same time on January 31, giving you only a few days to catch it. Since Raids don't follow a set schedule, these battles can occur at any point during the day, but you'll receive a notification within the game before a Raid begins at a nearby Gym.

To participate in an Entei Raid, you'll need to have either a Raid Pass (to join in-person) or a Remote Raid Pass (to join remotely). Both can be purchased through Pokemon Go's in-game shop. You can also receive one free Raid Pass by spinning the Photo Disc at a Gym, but you can only hold one of these free passes at a time.

Hitman 3's second mission, set in Dartmoor, has the usual objective: Find a way to assassinate a particular target without anyone knowing. But it also carries a secondary requirement for Agent 47, asking you to locate a case file about Arthur Edwards, Hitman 3's primary antagonist. Getting that file requires as intricate a solution as taking out an assassination target, but you can't complete Dartmoor without it.

Luckily, there are multiple ways to snag the Case File in Dartmoor, so you have plenty of options. Here's a rundown of all the ways you can find the Case File in Dartmoor and what you'll need to do to get it.

Be sure to check out the rest of our Hitman 3 coverage, including our Hitman 3 review, complete guides on finding all the Dartmoor murdery mystery clues and murder mystery solutions, and guides for the rest of Hitman 3's missions, as well.

GameStop's first Pro Day sale of 2021 is kicking off this Saturday, January 23, offering PowerUp Rewards Pro members the chance to save on games, accessories, and collectibles. As usual, the sale will run for a full 24 hours, and only Pro members who are signed into their account will be able to take advantage of the online deals. The Pro Day deals will also be available in stores.

The new Pro Day sale brings discounts on games for Nintendo Switch, PS5, Xbox Series X|S, PS4, and Xbox One. There are some nice deals, but for many of these games, it's worth noting we've seen them cheaper in recent months than they are in the Pro Day sale. That includes Cyberpunk 2077, which will be $40 for Pro members on Saturday but was $30 as recently as this week. (We don't recommend buying Cyberpunk 2077 for last-gen consoles anyway unless you're holding out for the next-gen upgrade.) Persona 5 Royal sees a drop to $40 as well, and while we highly recommend the acclaimed JRPG, you'll likely find it cheaper in other sales if you're willing to wait--it was just $20 during Black Friday.

The Utawarerumono: Mask of Deception and Mask of Truth PS4 and Vita games were abruptly delisted from the PlayStation Store.

The post Utawarerumono PS4 and Vita Games Delisted appeared first on Siliconera.

Fans have been waiting well over a month for a new update to Cyberpunk 2077, as console and PC versions of the game alike still face numerous issues, ranging from fatal bugs to its overall general quality of life. That wait is finally over, as CD Projekt Red revealed earlier today that patch 1.1 is officially live for Cyberpunk 2077 on Stadia, consoles, and PC.

The focus of this patch aims to resolve a number of pressing issues. Most importantly, the update will improve the game’s overall stability by improving memory usage and fixing various crashes.

Alongside improved stability, patch 1.1 solves a lot of Cyberpunk 2077’s quest and open-world systems issues. These include multiple instances where players wouldn’t be able to progress due to in-game bugs.

We’ve got the full patch breakdown listed for you here below:

Stability

• Memory usage improvements in various systems within the game: characters, interactions, navigation, in-game videos (news, tv, etc.), foliage, laser effects, minimap, devices, AI, street traffic, environmental damage system, GPU-related, and more.
• Various crash fixes (related to, among others, loading saves, game opening/closing and Point of No Return).

Quests/Open World

Earlier today, Activision announced Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1+2 developer Vicarious Visions had been absorbed by Blizzard to provide support on future projects. A few hours later, we now know that one of those projects is a Diablo II remake.

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In my push to finish Final Fantasy XV before it leaves Xbox Game Pass I had hoped to make up for lost time. Doing the math, I figured I’ll need to cover an average of five hours a day. But after Day Two I only have a grand total of seven hours clocked on my save file; I’m still three hours behind.

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Since its release last month, Fortnite Chapter 2 Season 5 has focused on uniting the multiverse's best hunters. Fans of Epic Games' popular battle royale game have been graced by the presence of the Mandalorian and Baby Yoda, Kratos, Master Chief, and now the bane of aliens across space and time, The Predator. To further fuel our unhealthy desire for Fortnite skins, Senior Editor Jeff Cork and I set out for an adventure to unlock the Predator cosmetic set, which features the Yautja's deadly wrist blade harvesting tool, Hunter's Trophy back bling, a 90s-as-heck gun wrap, and finally, the menacing Bio-Helmet Online emote.

Watch the featured video above to see exactly how we unlocked the Predator in Fortnite. Please know that you'll need to own Chapter 2 Season 5's Battle Pass in order to obtain the skin. With a little luck and the help of this video, you should be able to unlock this special cosmetic set in about an hour.