January 2021

Following widespread customer backlash, Microsoft released a statement walking back its Friday morning announcement of sweeping price increases for the Xbox Live Gold subscription service.

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In a statement released late Friday night, Microsoft has announced that it will not in fact be increasing the price of Xbox Live Gold as it was reported earlier today. The 3-month, 6-month, and 12-month prices will remain the same.

Additionally, Microsoft has decided to reshape its approach to free to play games: players will no longer need a paid subscription in order to play these games. This follows suit with Sony and Nintendo, who do not require paid subscriptions for free to play games such as Fortnite.

Here’s the full statement that Microsoft shared on its website:

We messed up today and you were right to let us know. Connecting and playing with friends is a vital part of gaming and we failed to meet the expectations of players who count on it every day. As a result, we have decided not to change Xbox Live Gold pricing.

We’re turning this moment into an opportunity to bring Xbox Live more in line with how we see the player at the center of their experience. For free-to-play games, you will no longer need an Xbox Live Gold membership to play those games on Xbox. We are working hard to deliver this change as soon as possible in the coming months.

If you are an Xbox Live Gold member already, you stay at your current price for renewal. New and existing members can continue to enjoy Xbox Live Gold for the same prices they pay today. In the US, $9.99 for 1-month, $24.99 for 3-months, $39.99 for 6-months and $59.99 for retail 12-months.

Thank you.

Hang on, is Super Mario 64's movement still the best in gaming?

Load up the game and you're dropped back at Peach's Castle entrance, with the shush of that distant waterfall. The flitter of birds between trees. That green hillock and that blue sky and a specific, familiar sense of calm. Then you wind up your first triple jump - wah! HOOHoo! - and release it - YAhoo! And now it's all :o and mouth agape and I seriously think this one move alone might be the best, most rewarding thing in my Switch library. The best thing in gaming? Certainly the best thing you can do with a bipedal avatar and a pad in hand, as Mario shoots so high and so fast the camera cranes to keep up. Then he spins and tucks - arms out, arms in, too quick to count - cleaving the air with the sound of two swooshes before landing with a gymnast finish. With triumph and joy. Of course. Super Mario 64. Still perfectly animated and weighted and timed and you've not even tried the Long Jump yet. You've not even heard the Dire Dire Docks theme yet! What are other games even for?

I think many players have worked through the 3D All-Stars Collection one game at a time. But I've been enjoying a four-course - I include Odyssey - game of Uber-Mario: yes please all served at once, thank you. Like Triple Jump Tapas! Flicking between games, their differences clearer in relief. And played like this they alter each other a little, like album tracks in sequence. And pound for pound and jump for jump, to me 64 still feels like the G.O.A.T.

Vicarious Visions is working on the Diablo 2 remake at Blizzard, according to a new report.

Activision confirmed this week that Vicarious Visions, the studio behind the superb Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy and, most recently, the well-received Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 1 + 2, had been merged into Blizzard after collaborating together "for some time".

Bloomberg (paywall) reports Vicarious Visions has been working with Blizzard since 2020 on the Diablo franchise, including a planned remake of Diablo 2 potentially called Diablo 2: Resurrected.

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Microsoft has issued a shock U-turn on its Xbox Live Gold price hike following a backlash.

On Friday, 22nd January, Microsoft announced a significant price rise for Xbox Live Gold. One month would go up from £6.99 to £7.99, three months up from £17.99 to £21.99, and six months up from £29.99 to £42.99.

The announcement was heavily criticised, coming as it did amid a pandemic and a global financial crisis.

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The start of the year is always a quiet one, with devs just getting back to work after the holiday, but stuff is beginning to happen again. That’s good. I say as if, y’know, I didn’t already have more games I want to play than I do time to play them.

What are you playing this weekend? Here’s what we’re clicking on!

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As with Resident Evil 7 before it, Capcom has provided fans with a short, intense look at Resident Evil Village in the form of a standalone demo. That demo, dubbed "Maiden," is available now on the PlayStation Network store for PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5. It's not quite as puzzling as the demo for RE7, but it's definitely possible to get hung up and miss important clues that will show you the way to work your way through this short, frightening slice of the castle. That's where we can help. If you've been struggling to complete it, struggle no more!

Below, you'll find a quick, spoiler-free walkthrough that will lead you through the demo and help you if you find yourself stuck. We won't spoil any scares or story elements, although we do highlight a few notes that can give you a little extra insight into what's going on. You can check out the video below for a full runthrough of the entire demo, as well.

The Dungeon

Upon waking up, you'll find yourself in a dark dungeon cell. Look to one side to find a crumpled-up note hidden in the wall. Reading it provides you several clues you'll need to escape the dungeon, but they're a bit obtuse. First, you need to get out of the cell--crouch down and look under your wooden bed for a hole through which you can crawl.

Hitman 3 caps off the journey with a mission that's quite out of the ordinary for the series. Carpathian Mountains (Untouchable) takes on a more linear design, leaving you little room to work with and fewer options for clever methods--think of it more as an epilogue mission to tie up the story's loose ends. While it may be straightforward, it can still be challenging, so we'll walk you through it in case you need some pointers.

For your first time in this mission, you'll start with Agent 47's flashbacks and visions followed by walking up in a secluded test lab. You won't have any items to start with and you have no guidance since there are no Missions Stories to follow, similar to how Berlin, Apex Predator started. But fret not, this one's not as complex or free-roaming as Berlin. Take note that every NPC is fair game in this mission and you will actually be rewarded with XP for every kill.

If you need help with any previous missions in case you want to complete leftover Mission Stories or knock out every assassination challenge, be sure to check out our full Hitman 3 guides and walkthroughs hub.

Mass Effect 2's Jack was originally supposed to be pansexual, but her romance arc was changed after BioWare looked at the media reception to romances in the original game, as reported by The Gamer.

Since Mass Effect 2's release 11 years ago, fans have wondered why Jack was could only be romanced by a male Commander Shepard, since she makes references to being with partners of different genders in some of her voice lines. After the original game's launch in 2007, Fox News held a panel about the game's depictions of sex and sexuality. The panel criticized both Mass Effect 1's sex scenes and the ability to romance Liara T'Soni as either a male or female Shepard.

Talking about the development of Jack's romance in an interview with The Gamer, writer Brian Kindregan said: "She was essentially pansexual for most of the development of that romance." But the Fox News panel created a domino effect that changed things.

EA has announced the hotly-anticipated FIFA 21 Team of the Year - and there are already question marks over the lineup.

Here's the final Team of the Year 11:

It's hard to disagree with the majority of these picks. Sergio Ramos hasn't had a great time of it lately, but he did win La Liga in 2020. Manchester United fans will back Bruno Fernandes in midfield, although there are plenty of alternatives who had a more successful 2020 and perhaps deserve the slot. Liverpool fans may argue the case for Alisson Becker and Andy Robertson getting in ahead of Manuel Neur and Alphonso Davies, but it's six of one and half a dozen of the other in those positions.

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Klei Entertainment has insisted it "retains full autonomy" after Tencent bought a majority stake in the company.

Klei, best-known for its enormously popular gothic survival adventure Don't Starve, said it remains in control of creative and operations across all aspects of the studio, including projects, talent and more.

The Tencent purchases means "there are some boring accounting changes that we will need to adjust to", Klei founder Jamie Cheng said in a post on the studio's forum, but other than that, "I will continue running the studio as before, with no changes to staffing, projects or other operations."

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The long road to recovery for Cyberpunk 2077 continues with the release of the game's first major patch.

This update, which brings Cyberpunk 2077 up to version 1.1, focuses on stability improvements as opposed to quality-of-life, balance or AI reworks. It's under 10GB on PC, and just under 17GB on console.

The patch improves the game's memory usage within its various systems (characters, interactions, navigation, in-game videos, foliage, laser effects, minimap, devices, AI, street traffic, environmental damage system, GPU-related, and more), and makes various crash fixes related to loading saves, game opening and closing and the Point of No Return, among other aspects.

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It's Saturday morning, all y'all! And you know what that means. That's right, it's time for us to gather here once again to put the planet to rights and chat about the video games that have (hopefully) kept us all happy and safe and sane in these continuing difficult times. Video games shouldn't always be used purely as an escape from the troubles of the world at large, but the distraction sure is a blessing, giving us a chance to step away from our individual and collective dramas and take an outta sight trip into endless worlds of awesomeness.

This week, your boy Chris Moyse went back through time and space - in a fashion - as I revisited classic '90s platformer/shooter series Turrican, courtesy of ININ Games' upcoming retro release Turrican Flashback, which compiles several titles from the legendary series for the pleasure of fans old and new. I'm afraid I can't offer you a word on how the package holds up just yet - them's the rules - but be sure to keep an eye out for my full review at the start of the coming week.

And that'll be all from me for this week. All that remains is for all of you, our dear community, to jump into the comments and let us know what fun times you've been having this week/weekend. Despite having written this feature every Saturday - bar none - for two years, it still remains one of the most popular and most commented articles of each and every week. Thank you for that. I never, ever take any of you for granted.

Have a safe and pleasant weekend, from all of us at Destructoid.

Hitman 3 arrived this week in what became the series' biggest digital launch of all-time - and rightly so. As a culmination of the existing trilogy, Hitman 3 caps off the generation with the most impressive iteration of the Glacier Engine to date, with all existing current-gen Hitman content retrofitted into the latest game, while being essentially 'remastered' for next-gen consoles. PC owners can rejoice too - the game does everything that PS5 and Series X can and more besides, thanks to some nice upgrades and further scalability.

In delivering this article, IO interactive has furnished us with the exact PC settings for every console the game is running on. So, by using these settings on PC at the proper resolution, it is possible to see how a PC GPU fares in comparison to the consoles, with some interesting observations. First of all though, I'd like to give IO some kudos for a more fully featured PC options menu. The lack of granularity in settings was a real issue I had with Hitman 2, but this was improved over time and those efforts are ported over directly into Hitman 3, allowing high-end PC users to increase fidelity over console quality.

A new report suggests that the as-yet-unannounced remake of Capcom's Resident Evil 4 is currently undergoing something of a restructure. While it was previously reported that Japanese studio M-Two was heading up the project, new whispers from development are claiming that Capcom is taking the wheel after alleged disagreements over the project's direction.

The report, obtained by VGC, suggests that M-Two had expressed a desire to keep its remake of the 2005 horror classic relatively faithful, concerned over the backlash toward changes in 2020's Resident Evil 3. Capcom supposedly see otherwise, wishing to take chances, pointing the well-renowned adventure of Leon and Ashley in a new direction.

As a result, it is being rumored that M-Two's role in the development of Resident Evil 4 is now "significantly reduced", which Capcom allegedly bringing in its Division 1 team, (of Devil May Cry V fame) to perform the majority of the remake's design and development. This team restructure is expected to cause a significant delay to Resident Evil 4, with sources suggesting it will not see the light of day before 2023.

2021 is a new year, which means a new chance to experience all-new gaming tales! For those that love the feeling of abject terror and the threat of peeing one's pants, we've got just the thing! While there are many horror games coming out in 2021, here are some of the ones I'm looking forward to the most — even if most of my time playing games like these consists of one eye closed, the other eye squinting, and watching a Disney movie after as a palette cleanser. 

From Resident Evil Village to The Medium and some indie adventures peppered in, here are the horror games that I can't wait to play later this year! 

Activision Blizzard recently made the surprising decision to merge Vicarious Visions--the studio behind Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 1 + 2--into Blizzard to support other projects. One of those projects is, at least reportedly, a Diablo 2 remake while others at Blizzard continue working on Diablo 4.

According to Bloomberg, issues with the development of Warcraft III: Reforged made Blizzard reconsider the teams it had developing games moving forward, with its classic games "Team 1" being pulled off the project and replaced by a division that is also handling Diablo 4. Among the developers also working on that project includes the Vicarious Visions team. It's the second time a Tony Hawk developer has been absorbed into another studio, with Neversoft joining Infinity Ward in 2014.

[UPDATE] Microsoft pulled a 180 overnight and announced that it is reversing its planned Xbox Live Gold price increase. The subscription will NOT get more expensive, and free-to-play games are getting unlocked for everyone to play for free without a subscription. In the end, things are actually cheaper overall than before. Sometimes customers' feedback is heeded!

According to industry analyst Daniel Ahmad, the decision to make free-to-play multiplayer truly free was "in the works for months," and the response to the news of the price increase was just a catalyst for announcing it. But this doesn't change the focus Microsoft is going to continue putting on Game Pass.

Here is Microsoft's statement:

It’s Amplitude Studios’ 10th anniversary, and they’re celebrating by making a bunch of their games free for the weekend. That includes fantasy 4X Endless Legend, space 4X Endless Space 2, and dungeon crawler Dungeon Of The Endless. All of their games are also deeply discounted on Steam.

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John Kreese was just happy to serve

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Last Friday, CD Projekt Red dropped the first major update for its troubled open-world shooter, Cyberpunk 2077. “Major” is a relative term. While larger than previous updates, last week’s patch 1.1 focuses more on stability fixes rather than a wide-ranging overhaul. In fact, it may have even made the game worse—by…

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This week we figure out how tall the very big lady from Resident Evil Village is, flip out a Bernie chair, learn what games will be free for Xbox Live Gold subscribers this month, buy 900lbs of PlayStation consoles and check in on chess YouTube in 2021.

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I’ve been driven over the Forth Road Bridge more times than I count, sat in the back of my dad’s car as we went to visit family. I’ve peered down upon the Deep Sea World, and watched the railway bridge be painted and re-painted and painted again. It’s unreasonably exciting to me, then, to see it in Microsoft Flight Simulator above. It’s one of many UK and Ireland landmarks being added to the game, alongside five new photogrammetry cities including London, in World Update 3.

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Cygames, in association with developer Arc System Works, has announced that Anre, the next DLC character headed to Granblue Fantasy: Versus, will be joining the roster of the gorgeous fighting title next week - January 26 to be exact.

An introspective and impossibly wise being, Anre (or "Uno") actually dislikes war, combat and the unhappiness and pain that it brings. To this end, Anre has entered the fray in the hopes of attaining such power that he will become a deterrent to those who wish harm on mankind. In battle Anre retains his stoic and peaceful demeanor, while fending off assault with expert use of his "Spear of the Eternals", a legendary artifact of devastating faculty.

Granblue Fantasy: Versus is available now on PS4 and PC.

Jump to: Tech | Gaming | Home | Lifestyle | Media

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With Xiao coming soon, it's a sure thing that you're going to want coffers filled with resources to take advantage of the new banners in patch 1.3 We'll be hanging out and enjoying the sights, the sounds, and the smells of freshly cooked food in the streets of Liyue as we experiment with a new tower defense offering and get to do more quests with our masked companion Xiao. I have a feeling that prior to the big drop of a next region, Xiao is going to quickly rise to the top ranks of Genshin popularity.

Xiao strikes me as a kind of Boba Fett character, where he makes a few awesome but minor appearances early and then becomes a character worthy of his own series later. Anyway, gift codes! Genshin Impact regularly releases codes that can give you gold, primogems, books, and more. Obviously, our big issue of concern is the primogems right now, we'll be pulling hard on the Xiao banner. What's a banner? What are primogems? Check out our gacha beginner's guide to find out.

On Friday, January 22, Microsoft announced a steep price increase for its Xbox Live membership service, a service that online play is reliant upon as well as the other freebie perks that the subscription allows. The announcement was immediately met with backlash from the community, both industry and consumer side, en masse and it was due to that feedback that the company has rescinded its initial decision to up the pricing. In addition to the decision to reverse the price hike, Microsoft is also removing the Xbox Live requirement for playing free-to-play online titles such as Apex Legends and Fortnite. 

Team Green took to its initial announcement to share the company's regret for the move, citing that they are going to use what was learned from the misstep to help make the Xbox experience more gamer and consumer-friendly. 

"We messed up today, and you were right to let us know," reads the official statement. "Connecting and playing with friends is a vital part of gaming and we failed to meet the expectations of players who count on it every day. As a result, we have decided not to change Xbox Live Gold Pricing."

I’ve exhausted Spelunky 2 of everything it can give me (because I’ve no interest in pursuing its remaining secret endings). I’ve therefore turned to mods to help extend the experience. There’s not much available so far, but there is Overlunky, a mod framework that lets you teleport to any level, spawn items including explosions, and zoom the camera out way far. It’s cool to play around with, and hopefully a platform for more to come.

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Genshin Impact's 1.3 update comes out on 3rd February.

As part of the update, MiHoYo's hugely popular free-to-play open world game gets a new seasonal event, Lantern Rite. The teaser trailer is below:

You get to assist Liyue's locals with preparations for the festival, and can attend the grand ceremony on the night of the first full moon of the year. Expect to see plenty of lanterns light up the night sky.

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Microsoft changed its tune regarding the Xbox Live Gold cost increase. The company admitted it "messed up" in an official blog post.

The post Xbox Live Gold Price Will Not Increase After All appeared first on Siliconera.

Today third-party add-on developer and publisher Orbx had a few interesting treats for Microsoft Flight Simulator users.

First and foremost, the Landmarks Paris package has been released.

It’s currently available on Orbx’s own store for $11.57.

Below you can check out lots of screenshots from the accompanying press release and an official feature list.

• 15 high-detail custom landmarks including Notre Dame, Panthéon, The Centre Pompidou, École Militaire, and Église Saint-Sulpice
• 200 medium-detail custom landmarks, balancing quality and performance
• External night lighting for all default landmark objects, including Tour Eiffel, Arc de Triomphe, Louvre, Sacre Coeur, and Grand Palais
• Extensive terraforming across the coverage area, enhancing how our custom landmarks sit within the simulator’s terrain
• Flattening of the Seine River and correcting riverbank heights
• Custom orthoimagery patches across the city to cover the blurred-out military areas in the default simulator

Secondly, we get new screenshots of another relevant city, Singapore, which is “getting very close to release candidate testing.”

Sega is continuing to provide even more details and assets about its upcoming online RPG Phantasy Star Online 2: New Genesis.

We get to see new enemies from the official community Twitter account Rappy.Commu (sources: 1, 2, 3, 4).

You can check them out below.

Today Sega hosted a livestream from Japan showcasing new content coming to Phantasy Star Online 2.

Do keep in mind that all you’ll see here is for the Japanese version of the game, but it’s likely to come to the west soon enough.

First of all, we get to see the new graphics coming to the older game with Phantasy Star Online 2: New Genesis. This includes upgraded textures, models, and even lobby actions with finger movement.

We also see the new graphics options and the SS Photo Studio, where you can take plenty of pictures of your characters with a variety of backdrops and poses.

Earlier in the stream, we also saw a trailer of the update, which is scheduled for late February in Japan, also showing the character creation and much more.

Quarth is a title that I haven't thought about in eons, but the unique space shooter is making a grand return on PS4 and Nintendo Switch, as this week's entry in Hamster's Arcade Archives range. Oh, but it's releasing under its original title of Block Hole...

...BLOCK HOLE.

Far from having anything to do with the cricket green, (look it up, Yank), Block Hole is a 1989 release from Konami that smartly attempts to combine the gameplay of Space Invaders and Tetris. Players guide a small ship that is tasked with blasting away at an endless cascade of falling blocks, with the aim of creating squares and rectangles at the foot of the screen. Much like Tetris before it, should the player fail to keep the ever-growing brick stack under control, the wall will topple, crushing - or "Quarthing" - the plucky ship. Game Over.

 You can check out the puzzle-blastin' action for yourself in the video below, courtesy of YouTuber nick666101.

Well, we can’t do box office numbers. So we’re doing this now.

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While Ethan Winters may be the new face of the Resident Evil series, we still haven’t seen his actual face. And it doesn’t look like that’s going to change when Resident Evil Village launches on May 7.

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Tadpole Treble Encore has a great motif and is a natural fit on the Switch.

The post Tadpole Treble Encore Scores Big on the Switch appeared first on Siliconera.

Half-Life: Alyx

‘s gravity gloves ruined a lot of other virtual reality games for me, because being able to point and flip objects into my hands solved a lot of awkward manoeuvring problems common in other games. It’s hard, after the elegance of Half-Life’s system, to go back to bending, sidestepping, and grasping at the air to pick up items – or worse, having your hands lack any and all collision with the world around you.

Enter the modders. Specifically, enter modder FlyingParticle, who has released HIGGS VR for Skyrim VR. It’s a mod that adds gravity glove-style interaction to Skyrim, and it looks like it works beautifully.

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