January 2021

Augmented reality mobile game Minecraft Earth is shutting down in June, developer Mojang Studios announced this morning.

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As a low-attention-span indoor kid, I had two great loves growing up. The first was American football—the Bears specifically, even though they sucked. In fact, despite my regular-degular height and Doug-Jones-in-Hellboy physique, I figured that one day I’d become a professional football player. A punt-returning…

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The Always Pan and a RAVPower MagSafe Charger for iPhone 12 lead Tuesday’s best deals.

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Minecraft Earth, the block-building franchise's Pokémon Go-like spin-off, shuts down on 30th June 2021.

Mojang made the announcement this afternoon, and said today's new build of the game is its last.

With the latest update, Mojang has made various changes to make the game easier to play - and specifically easier to play while at home.

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Regularly your recap of the last seven days in PC video gaming, this week’s show is a little different as you’ll hear us mainly chatting about all of the lovely video games we’ll be getting our hands on over the course of the next twelve months.

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About a year and a half after its official launch, Minecraft Earth will shut down. People have until the end of June 2021 to say goodbye.

The post Minecraft Earth Shutting Down in June appeared first on Siliconera.

Time to play Tetris 99 and collect a new theme. This time, people can participate in a Maximus Cup to earn one inspired by Kirby Fighters 2.

The post Tetris 99 Kirby Fighters 2 Event Begins This Week appeared first on Siliconera.

Find out what it's like to investigate a haunted hotel in the real and spirit worlds with new The Medium gameplay.

The post The Medium Gameplay Video Introduces Us to Sadness appeared first on Siliconera.

Curious about how Crash Bandicoot 4's Tawna could have looked? Rob Duenas offered a peek at some concept art.

The post Crash Bandicoot 4 Tawna Concept Art Gives Her a Kaiju Hat appeared first on Siliconera.

Yara Flor’s dazzling first appearance blends Greek and Brazilian myths

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Players have suspected this for years; now they can see themselves in the game

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The popular deck-building roguelike, Slay the Spire, will be getting a board game adaptation later this year. Launching on Kickstarter sometime this spring, the game is being made by Contention Games, who are known for their own card-based board game, Imperium: The Contention.

Concept art for the game’s box can be seen on Contention Games’ website, along with the following game description:

“Slay the Spire is a cooperative deckbuilding adventure. Craft a unique deck, encounter bizarre creatures, discover relics of immense power, and finally become strong enough to Slay the Spire!”

Minecraft Earth will be no more as of June 30 this year, Mojang Studios has announced today. The developer cites stay-at-home measures amid the current COVID-19 pandemic as a primary cause for the decision.

From June 30, all development on the game will cease and it will no longer be available to download.

A blog post over on the game’s official website today reads in part:

“Minecraft Earth was designed around free movement and collaborative play – two things that have become near impossible in the current global situation. As a result, we have made the difficult decision to re-allocate our resources to other areas that provide value to the Minecraft community and to end support for Minecraft Earth in June 2021.”

One final update is set to launch today, which makes the following changes:

• Removing real-money transactions
• Drastically reducing ruby costs
• Including all completed, unreleased content currently in our pipeline
• Reducing time requirements for crafting and smelting
• Replacing unused crafting & smelting boosts with radius boosts of the same level
• Granting a set of Character Creator items to players who sign in between January 5 and June 30 

For those who have invested money into Minecraft Earth’s in-game economy will be granted Minecoins to use on the Minecraft Marketplace to purchase skin and texture packs, maps, and even minigames. And if you don’t own Minecraft, don’t worry — you’ll receive a free copy of the game’s Bedrock Edition as well.

Figure manufacturer Ringtoys isn’t new to working with Koei Tecmo, and it just revealed a new one dedicated to the popular souls-like JRPG Nioh.

The figure portrays Tachibana Ginchiyo from the original game in all her glory, and you can check out what she would like in the tweet below.

At the moment, no further details about the figure have been revealed, including pricing and release window.

If you’re unfamiliar with Nioh, it’s currently available for PS4 and PC, and it’s coming to PS5 later this year alongside its sequel, Nioh 2.

A retro-game lovin' modder has uncovered a secret buried deep within the infrastructure of the SNES port of Capcom's excellent fighting title Street Fighter Alpha 2. The 25-year-old code allows players to gain control of one of the most notoriously difficult boss characters of all-time: Shin Akuma.

Modder Gizaha was in the process of reverse-engineering the 1996 classic in efforts to optimize its gameplay when they stumbled across hidden code buried deep within the cartridge. By following a series of steps, Gizaha was able to unlock Shin Akuma – usually only available to fight as a hidden Arcade Mode boss – as a playable character.

To unlock Shin Akuma, a player must first hit the top of the high score table and insert the initials "KAJ". Once the game returns to the title screen, L, X, Y, and Start must be held down on a second controller, while another set of hands accesses VS. Mode on the first controller. Upon arrival at character select, Shin Akuma is accessible by selecting regular Akuma while holding the Start button, with yer boy's gi turning a grim grey color.

This unlock was never officially released by Capcom, and it is believed that the code only existed for play-testing purposes. Shin Akuma is pretty much a monster in most of his Street Fighter appearances thanks to his speed, high damage, and ridiculous ground and air options. While this recently discovered secret is particularly niche, it's a great little piece of lore to add to Street Fighter's enduring legacy.

Modder discovers Shin Akuma in SNES version on Street Fighter Alpha 2 [EventHubs]

If you're looking to unwind with a few relaxing rounds of simple Solitaire, Nerts! Online won't fit the bill at all – but it sure is chaotic fun. It's a free competitive card game on Steam from Zachtronics, the creator behind brainy puzzle games like Opus Magnum, Exapunks, SpaceChem, and Shenzen I/O.

You might know Nerts as Pounce, Racing Demon, or another variant – it goes way back. The game pits players against each other in a race to clear out cards, Solitaire-style, in their area or the shared space.

As the developers explained today, "we did not invent Nerts. We learned about it from our artist Kyle, who has played it for years, and started playing it after lunch in the Zachtronics office. Over time we added more to it, including house rules [like players being allowed to move cards between their Nerts pile and their tableau after Nerts has been called], longer tournaments, and even a theme song."

Nerts! Online supports six players and it's free free – no strings. As Zachtronics puts it, you'll "unlock card backs by owning our other games, so let's pretend that's a legitimate monetization strategy."

This is a great gift. Check it out the next time you need to bring something new to virtual game night.

[Update: As mysteriously as they vanished, some (but not all) of the removed DSiWare titles have now returned to the eShop. These titles include Shantae: Risky's Revenge, Plants vs. Zombies, Little Red Riding Hood's Zombie BBQ, and Zoo Frenzy. According to Delisted Games, only five titles remain unaccounted for. No official word has been offered by Nintendo regarding the temporary removal.]

A selection of DSiWare titles has been quietly deactivated from the Nintendo eShop. The deletion seems to be affecting titles released before the summer of 2011, which are currently no longer purchasable for the DS and 3DS platforms.

The vanishing titles were first spotted by Twitter user @ComeOutPunching, who noted the disappearance of WayForward platformers Shantae: Risky's Revenge and Mighty Flip Champs!, Bandai Namco's Mr. Driller: Drill Til You Drop, and Nintendo's own Dr. Mario Express, among others.

The news also came as a surprise to Shantae co-creator and WayForward CCO Matt Bozon, who expressed his shock via Twitter. Fortunately, Risky's Revenge remains available for purchase on Nintendo Switch, so that's at least one game accounted for. As of this writing, no reason has been given for the titles' removal – maybe a licensing expiration, maybe simply an error on Nintendo's part – nor is it known whether further games will be removed from the digital storefront.

Not that I was paying much attention to how well Minecraft Earth was or was not faring, but the idea of a Minecraft rendition of Pokémon Go's winning augmented-reality formula seemed like a no-brainer, and it's surprising to hear that Microsoft is calling it quits so soon. Then again, 2020 was a brutal year.

In a to-the-point blog post today, Mojang said that it plans to shut down Minecraft Earth on June 30, 2021. Not only will the game no longer be downloadable on iOS or Android, it will cease to function.

If you've heard about Minecraft Earth but never bothered, now's the time – today's update strips out microtransactions, reduces timers and ruby costs, and adds "all completed, unreleased content currently in [Mojang's] pipeline." You'll also earn a Character Creator item set just for logging in.

For existing fans who have invested time and potentially a fair bit of money into the game, you'll get another currency – Minecoins – which can be used on the still-very-active Minecraft Marketplace. And anyone who's bought anything in Minecraft Earth will get Minecraft Bedrock Edition as a parting gift.

As for the high-level call to pull the plug, Mojang said that "Minecraft Earth was designed around free movement and collaborative play – two things that have become near impossible in the current global situation." The team will now focus on "other areas that provide value to the Minecraft community."

_{Photo credit: TriangleBusinessJournals}

Gazillion-dollar publisher Epic Games has purchased an entire North Carolina shopping mall with the intent of converting it into the company's new headquarters. The Cary Towne Center – located in Cary, North Carolina – will become the new home for Epic Games, which has operated out of the nearby Crossroads Boulevard for the past two decades.

The Cary Towne Center sits on 87 acres of land and has a surface area of roughly 980,000 square feet. Epic has stated its intent to convert the mall into a series of office and development buildings as well as numerous "recreational spaces." Epic Games has noted that it plans to work alongside the Cary council in order to find ways for the new development to benefit those in the local community.

"We're extremely proud that Epic has chosen to call Cary home for their new global headquarters, and we greatly appreciate the company’s recognition of Cary's existing assets as well as the unlimited potential of the area for their growing business," said Cary, NC Mayor Harold Weinbrecht in a press statement. "We look forward to continuing to work closely and collaboratively with the Epic team as they conceptualize their new campus, and we’re honored to partner with them on this exciting new development."

The terms and conditions of the sale were not disclosed by Epic Games nor the Cary Towne Center's previous owners – Texas retail firm Turnbridge Equities and Denali Properties. The development is expected to see completion in 2024.

In this 2017 GDC talk, Rez Graham and Brian Schwab share interviewing insights from a combined 30 years in the industry and dozens of companies, both as job seekers and hiring interviewers. ...

Microsoft-owned Mojang has made the call to close down its Minecraft AR game Minecraft Earth, ending the location-based game's run less than two years after first launch. ...

In May 2017, IO Interactive found itself in a precarious place: For sale. After its 2016 reboot of the Hitman franchise failed to meet publisher expectations, Square Enix, IO's then-parent company, announced it was selling the company as part of a restructuring of "resources and energies on key franchises and studios."

These days, according to IO's co-owner and chief creative officer Christian Elverdam, the latest three Hitman games, which comprise the World of Assassination trilogy, have been played by more than 40 million people, thanks in part to the developer bringing more than 350 weekly and monthly updates to the games. It's an impressive number, sure. But more importantly, it's a far cry from the trilogy's beginnings.

When IO launched Hitman in 2016, one of the biggest talking points around the game was its release structure. Rather than release the entire game at once, the developer opted for the episodic model – not unlike titles by Telltale Games or Life Is Strange developer Dontnod. What differentiated Hitman from the works of those studios, however, was that it was ostensibly a triple-A stealth action game released for $60, should players decide to opt-in for all the future planned content at once (a $34.99 "intro pack" was also offered, with the option to upgrade for $29.99 available). 

Last week, Apex Legends fans got a chance to peer into the tumultuous history of famed robot-servant-turned-battle-royale-champion, Pathfinder. Today, Pathfinder got his own event: The Fight Night Collection Event. Similar to the many legends-based spectacles that came before it, players can find a new Pathfinder-themed point of interest on the Olympus map, buy limited-time cosmetics while playing a new limited-time game mode, and get their hands on the latest heirloom. 

Airdrop Escalation Takeover, the latest LTM, is replacing the normal "Play Apex" mode instead of having its own, separate playlist. With an increase in supply drop frequency and speed (the supply drops are as fast as Lifeline care packages now!), and fully-kitted weapons that can be found inside them, Airdrop Escalation Takeover looks to amplify the chaos and urgency of battles across each map. 

Minecraft Earth is a Pokemon GO-esque experience that brings the blocky world of Minecraft into the real world. It is immersive, but apparently not enough to compete with similar games on the mobile market that have adapted use around COVID-19's quarantine restrictions because the team behind the game has confirmed that it will be shutting down in June of this year. 

"Minecraft Earth was designed around free movement and collaborative play, two things that have become near impossible in the current global situation," begins the statement to players. "As a result, we have made the difficult decision to re-allocate our resources to other areas that provide value to the Minecraft community and to end support for Minecraft Earth in June 2021."

While sad news, the team did say that there is one more update that current players can look forward to: "Today, we are releasing the final build of the game, containing some changes to make your time in Minecraft Earth as fun as possible."

Some changes that players can expect include: 

The Hitman series has always encouraged its players to replay missions, so it's no surprise that one of the brand new features coming to Hitman 3 is the persistent shortcuts system. IO Interactive told us these in-game shortcuts can only be unlocked from one direction, but are designed to "encourage exploration, reward curiosity, and incentivize replayability." Once a player has unlocked a persistent shortcut, they can access it in a future playthrough to open up new and convenient ways to access their targets. As you can see in our Hitman 3 gameplay above, this feature will allow you to approach locations from a new direction and shave those precious seconds off of your mission time.

Please note that this Hitman 3 gameplay was captured on PC by Game Informer.

Click the banner below for more exclusive coverage of Hitman 3, including the 5 Things You Should Know About Hitman 3, the First 5 Minutes of Hitman 3's Opening Dubai Mission, or our full cover story from Issue #332.

Cyberpunk 2077 is an immersive open-world that allows players to be the douchebag of their dreams (I say that not as an insult, sometimes it's fun playing the 'devil may care' protagonist) with V. That being said, V only has four romance options in total, two for Male V and two for Female V. Judy, at present, is a female-only romance option but when modders uncovered that she was still fully voiced throughout the entire romance sequence when they unlocked her story arc for Male Vs, some thought that meant that CD Projekt RED cut the content to further restrict romances. We've got the mod in question as well as the studio's response to cut allegations.

The mod in question is less of a massive change and more of a simple code tweak (which really, that's what mods are at base anyway) that allows for Male Vs to romance our beloved BD (brain dance) expert. With a small tweak to the code already in-game, Male V can enter into a romance with Judy and is completely voiced by both parties as seen with the Female V relationship. 

You can see the voiced scene in the footage below from the modder, just please be aware that it is very NSFW and sexual in nature for those under 18: 

The Medium’s dual-world premise has intrigued us for some time, and a new 14-minute slice of gameplay provides another look at it in action. The video gives us a look at protagonist Marianne as she explores the haunted Niwa resort, using her psychic abilities as a medium to explore the spirit realm and interact with entities of both the helpful and terrifying variety. 

The clip opens with Marianne exploring the hotel in the physical realm, inspecting clues to find echoes of past events. Things quickly take a turn for the spooky when she encounters a spirit named Sadness, who resembles a young, one-armed girl in a mask. The screen splits and we get a look at the game’s parallel world mechanic in action, with the real-world view of the conversation showing Marianne conversing with herself, which in itself is unnerving.  

Top Pick: Mr. Monopoly in Jail | $11 | Amazon

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The video game discographies of Spotify and Apple Music got significantly better outside of Japan today with the addition of soundtracks from the Persona series.

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After a photo of Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi’s vandalized San Francisco home started circulating online, it didn’t take long for people to call bullshit. Was the graffiti and seeming pig’s blood really the work of outraged leftists, or an elaborate psy-op perpetuated by some right-wing group to delegitimize…

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The latest event in Apex Legends, Fight Night, is now live. The new limited-time event adds a Pathfinder-themed town takeover to Olympus, a brand-new mode, over two dozen legendary and epic cosmetics, and makes several quality of life adjustments to the in-match meta. Of note, there's a particularly interesting adjustment to how ring closure works.

In order to address the chaotic nature of the last few fights in a match, developer Respawn is tweaking how the ring closes for rounds five and six. Ring 5 is now a bit bigger, expanded from a 1500 unit radius to a 2000 unit radius, though it still closes at the same rate. And Ring 6 is now the final ring of every match, closing over the course of 100 seconds.

This change completely removes Rings 7 and 8, which were traditionally only seen in a handful of matches anyway because most squads were killed off and a winner decided by Rings 5 or 6. But when multiple teams did manage to survive that long, those final rings were always a cluster of character abilities and shotgun/submachine gun fire--any squad with a surviving Caustic and his ultimate ability at the ready was practically guaranteed to take the win.

The last day to get Twitch drops from Escape From Tarkov’s New Year event on Twitch is fast-approaching. The event, which began on December 28, will conclude on Friday, January 8. On that day, all Twitch streams for Escape From Tarkov will have drops activated. However, if you’re looking to get Twitch drops from Escape From Tarkov right now, you’ll need to seek out specific streamers with active drops.

In this guide, we’ll show you how to link your Escape From Tarkov account to Twitch, how to enable Twitch drops, and which streamers to watch to start earning rewards.

How to link your Tarkov and Twitch accounts

If you don’t already own a copy of the game, head to our Escape From Tarkov preorder guide and learn the difference between each edition. When you’re ready to make your purchase, you can do so on the game’s official website. If you purchase one of the lower-tier editions, you can still purchase a more advanced version for a discounted price later and receive all the associated bonus items.

A big part of the Pokemon Go experience is customizing your trainer avatar with different hats, accessories, and clothes. Now, you can take that customization to the designer level with items inspired by the North Face x Gucci collection.

Starting January 4, Trainers will be able to find hats, t-shirts, and backpacks based on this high fashion athlesiure collection via geo-drop at 100 PokeStops around the world, including at Gucci pins. These are pop-up Gucci shops where the real-life versions of these avatar items can be purchased, in case you want to match your stylish Pokemon Go avatar in your daily life. But just because these are pop-up shops, you can't just pop in. If you want to snag IRL North Face x Gucci, you will need to find the closest pin to your location and make an appointment.

Pokemon Go's Unova event is going on now, so you won't be all dressed up with nowhere to go. Considering Niantic is looking to add player avatars into the game as Trainer NPCs in the Kanto event, it might not be a bad idea to add some designer flair to your Trainer's look.

Nintendo is holding another crossover event in Tetris 99 this weekend. The online puzzler's 19th Maximus Cup competition kicks off this Thursday, January 7, and this time, the prize is a theme based on the recent Kirby spin-off, Kirby Fighters 2.

Like previous Maximus Cups, this weekend's event is a point-based competition. You'll earn points depending on how well you place each round, and if you can amass 100 points by the end of the event, you'll unlock the aforementioned Kirby Fighters 2 theme.

Pokemon Masters, the mobile spin-off game from DeNA, has gotten a New Year's update packed with new sync pairs, limited-time special events, and more in-game rewards.

To start, the game is offering special New Years versions of two sync pairs, Lillie & Ribombee and Lance & Gyarados. Both of the sync pairs can reach the 6-Star EX rating, which was introduced in a recent update that unlocked the EX ratings for some other existing sync pairs. Plus they're sporting new outfits.

An in-game story called Season's Greetings is now available. It features Lillie and Lance and will grant you some rewards as you make your way through the story. Both of the new sync pairs and the Season's Greetings story are available through January 13 at 9:59 PM PT.

The first update of 2021 for Red Dead Online has arrived, and it gives everyone a clean slate. To ring in the new year, Rockstar is giving everyone a free honor reset that they can use to start anew, which is great because it can be very easy to do dastardly deeds in the game.

And if you want to make a change to your character's look, all barbers in Red Dead Online are giving free haircuts until January 11. If your New Year's resolution was to drink more alcohol, there is good news for you, too, as saloons are giving away free drinks all week.

Outside of this, the new update makes the Naturalist Sample Sales to Harriet Davenport pay out a further 50% cash in RDO$. Additionally, everyone who completes a Collector's Set and turns it into Madam Nazar will get a 30% increase to their payouts.

A new year means a new slate of PC gaming accessories, and one of the first announcements comes from peripheral maker Mad Catz. The company has revealed its new RAT DWS wireless gaming mouse, which features an adjustable palm rest in addition to a number of unique features that could make it a particularly exciting option for first-person shooter fans. The RAT DWS doesn't currently have a price or release date, but we'll likely learn more soon as it starts shipping in February.

In addition to the new mouse switch and huge battery life, the RAT DWS also features a precision aim button. Mad Catz hasn't said exactly how this works, but it likely lowers the mouse's sensitivity for fine-tuning those long-distance sniper shots. On top of that it comes with a barrel scroll wheel that should work well for switching weapons, an adjustable 16K DPI optical sensor, and 14 programmable buttons.

With the annual Consumer Electronics Show kicking off next week on January 11, Nvidia is using the week to show off some new GeForce products and improvements during its own livesteam on January 12.

The GeForce RTX: Game On event will be hosted by Jeff Fisher, senior vice-president of GeForce, at 9 AM PST / 12 PM EST, streaming live on YouTube and Twitch. No additional information about the event was shared by Nvidia, outside of the description telling viewers to look forward to "the latest innovations in gaming and graphics."