February 2021

Night Dive Studios’ System Shock Remastered has been in the works since 2016, when pre-alpha footage was shown. The original System Shock, released back in 1994, was critically acclaimed and would go on to inspire the revolutionary Bioshock franchise. System Shock follows the first-person exploits of a nameless hacker, charged with disabling a malevolent AI system named Shodan. System Shock Remastered takes this classic adventure and upgrades it with the help of cutting-edge Unreal Engine capabilities. Today, the remaster got an exciting new teaser trailer in the wake of its eventual release.

The trailer, while short, is still very evocative of its predecessor — the terrifying atmosphere and visuals are particularly apparent and Shodan’s automated, glitchy voice adds to the overall sense of dread. Melee weapons and explosives rip limbs apart and hulking automata lurk in the shadows of the space station. You can see the footage above. 

Bomb Rush Cyberfunk perked the ears of many Dreamcast fans when it was revealed last summer. The game is an obvious love letter to Jet Set Radio (or Jet Grind Radio for us westerners), with its graffiti drenched art style, skating gameplay, and an original soundtrack by the series’ composer, Hideki Naganuma. After dropping a brief teaser video last year, Bomb Rush Cyberfunk has resurfaced with a slightly longer (but still tantalizing) look at the game in action. 

The game comes courtesy of Team Reptile, the team behind Lethal League, and looks to capture wholesale everything Jet Set Radio fans love. That includes its cel-shaded art and neo-future vibe; over-the-top, parkour-style skating; and bizarre-looking characters. It’s such a faithful-looking homage that you could probably slap a sticker on it that reads “Jet Set Radio 3” and people would nod and say “yep, that there’s a Jet Set Radio if I ever saw one” Take a look at the new footage below. 

If you haven't claimed an on-the-house copy of Destruction AllStars via PlayStation Plus, don't worry, there's still plenty of time – and now we know what's going to happen after the offer runs out in April.

Lucid's car-smashing multiplayer action game will cost $20 as a standalone purchase starting April 6, 2021. For those who already own it, you're good to keep playing as long as you're subscribed.

It's impossible to cover this news without mentioning the previously planned price for Destruction AllStars – a head-turning $70 – back when it was still going to be a PS5 launch game. Pushing the game back, baking it into PlayStation Plus for a couple of months, and selling it for $20 was a good call.

Admittedly, I haven't been back to play more Destruction AllStars since my review, though I've considered it a few times after seeing it sitting there on my mostly PS4-game-filled PS5 home screen.

In a blog post today, Lucid Games outlined what's next for February (the single-player Challenge Series for Genesis), March (Mayhem 8v8, Stockpile 4v4, Bluefang's Challenge Series, and 10 skins), and April (Carnado Solo and "a few more surprises"). That's on top of the ongoing Double XP Weekends.

"New Challenge Series will be continuously dropped throughout the year for you to have exciting new content to play and cosmetics to earn," according to Lucid Games community manager George Rule.

Nintendo is prepping the arrival of the latest update to its mobile battle title Fire Emblem Heroes. Launching just in time for the weekend, the new event sees the arrival of a brand new Legendary Hero, and this time around it's the turn of Claude von Riegan of Switch release Fire Emblem: Three Houses.

Of noble birth and heir to the House of Riegan, Claude will be immediately recognizable to fans of the Fire Emblem franchise. As the head of the Golden Deer - one of the titular "Three Houses" - Claude is one of the main points of contact for the player protagonist should they choose to settle in with the Golden Deer's conclave of keen-eyed, sharp-shooting officers.

The sci-fi oceanic survival adventure game Subnautica: Below Zero is releasing for PC and consoles on May 14, and as someone who has painstakingly waited out the Early Access version, I am stoked.

Unknown Worlds and Bandai Namco posted a release date trailer highlighting the physical editions.

Subnautica is not just one of the best story-centric survival games out there, it's among my favorite games, period. It's the survival game for people who don't (or think they don't) care for survival games. You don't necessarily need to have played the first before going into Below Zero – it's a standalone, not an expansion – although the new game does take place in the arctic region of the same planet.

Beyond Steam and the Epic Games Store, you'll be able to play Below Zero for $30 on PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X, and Nintendo Switch. The latter platform is also getting a $60 two-game bundle.

I'm curious to finally experience the game's more character-driven story and face my fears in the depths again. Accidentally discovering funky-looking biomes, mentally plotting them out, and pushing my diver to their limits to explore deeper and deeper were true highlights of Subnautica for me. Below Zero isn't going to feel as novel as its predecessor, there's just no way it can, but I'm still super excited.

I'll probably play on PC or PS5 to avoid texture pop in. I need to feel immersed!

Square Enix has announced that its ensemble RPG Octopath Traveler has achieved an impressive 2.5 million global shipments and sales to date. The character-driven adventure game first launched on Nintendo Switch in the summer of 2018, before ported to PC a year later and the Stadia service in April 2020.

Octopath Traveler is a narrative-heavy RPG that follows the journey of an ensemble cast of characters. Rather than playing as one protagonist on a typical adventure, the player bounces between a selection of distinct individuals, whose stories tend to overlap as they face up to their respective quests and hardships. It's a novel idea, and while it doesn't entirely work, the title's distinct charm and personality help it surmount its flaws.

When Square Enix last reported on Octopath Traveler's sales, it had just passed the two million mark, meaning that it has shifted a further 500,000 copies since, which is not too shabby for a new IP RPG already several years into its lifespan. Talented artist Ikusy released a charming illustration to celebrate the sales milestone, which you can check out below.

There's a new Octopath Traveler sales record, with artwork showing Cyrus and Adelle celebrating the occasion.

The post Octopath Traveler Sales Pass 2.5 Million appeared first on Siliconera.

You can now see who made the top ten in the Pokemon Day popularity poll.

The post Pokemon Day Popularity Poll Results Reveal Most Popular Pokemon appeared first on Siliconera.

The television adaptation of horror comic The Walking Dead is expected to come to a close in 2022 at the end of its 11th season—an impressive stretch that has nothing on the comic’s 17-year, 193-issue run. But throughout much of that time, franchise creator Robert Kirkman was plugging away at another lengthy graphic…

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Earlier this week, it came to light that Twitch was running ads in blatant opposition to the Amazon warehouse worker unionization effort in Bessemer, Alabama. Streamers, who had no say in whether or not these ads appeared during their broadcasts, were outraged. Today, Twitch has removed the ads, saying that they never…

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We praise dancing in the Chantry y’all! According to a report from Bloomberg, EA is allowing BioWare to ditch “all multiplayer components” originally planned for the latest game in the Dragon Age series.

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Square Enix’s weekly Marvel’s Avengers blog post went live this morning. That said, there isn’t much to talk about besides the game’s silly new Iron Man outfit, so let’s do that.

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Bungie announced today it’s getting rid of Destiny 2's most beleaguered mechanic: sunsetting. Starting in Season 14, new weapons will no longer have an expiration date.

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Two raiding guilds in the upper tiers of World of Warcraft’s North American ladder, Clout Gang and Instant Dollars, have come under fire for using racial and homophobic slurs. First reported by PC Gamer, an Imgur album containing screenshots of Clout Gang’s Discord and in-game chats was posted in the r/WoW subreddit…

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After failure of Anthem, success of Jedi Fallen Order, Dragon Age team drops multiplayer

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A crisis on Marvel-ous earths

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Big and small, I love them all

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In this Game Developer magazine postmortem, Akihiro Imamura and Akira Yamaoka describe the making of their claustrophobic 2004 horror classic in grisly detail. ...

SIE Japan Studio has seen its share of departures in months past, but a recent staff exodus seems to indicate that PlayStation may be close to closing down the 28 year old game development studio. ...

Developer BioWare's highly anticipated new Dragon Age game is reportedly now a strictly single-player experience, with EA having pivoted its demands for a live-service-style game following the success of Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order and the failure of Anthem.

As reported by Bloomberg's Jason Schreier, sources familiar with the matter say the next Dragon Age title was previously being designed with a heavy multiplayer component.

The project reportedly first entered development in 2015, but Bloomberg says the original vision was rebooted by EA and BioWare in 2017, in a grasp for long-term monetisation. This reboot - supposedly dismissed by some employees as "Anthem with dragons" - is said to be the reason behind the departure of creative director Mike Laidlaw that same year.

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Bungie carpet-bombed the Destiny 2 community out of nowhere this afternoon with massive announcements that are each worthy of their own post. I’m not going to waste any time setting this post up, let’s jump right into the most important beats.

The Witch Queen Has Been Delayed to 2022; New Expansion After Lightfall Announced

After a lengthy introduction that set the stage, Bungie revealed that it’s in the best interest of the team to delay The Witch Queen into Early 2022 citing the need to ensure that the expansion meets expectations and that the health of their team is supported.

At the same time, they also announced that The Witch Queen and Lightfall will not be sufficient enough to conclude the “Light and Darkness Saga”, and they announced another, unnamed, expansion that will happen after Lightfall.

Sunsetting Getting Killed Off & Power Changes

Well, that was fast. Shortly after launching in earnest in Destiny 2: Beyond Light, sunsetting is being removed from the game. Anything that is currently not already sunset will be able to be infused to the maximum power cap. Yes, the Ikelos and Seventh Seraph weapons are surviving just by the skin of their teeth.

The team, going forward, is going to look at different ways to achieve game balance that doesn’t involve effectively removing weapons, armors, and mods from the meta. They aren’t ready to announce their plan for how they will keep the meta interesting, and fans shouldn’t expect any updates on that until closer to the release of The Witch Queen.

When Bungie added cross-progression to Destiny 2, Guardians were excited to be able to have more freedom regarding the platforms of choice. That being said, cross-progression is still limited to platforms that the player owns. For those that want to play with friends regardless of platform, the studio has confirmed that Destiny 2 crossplay is officially slated to launch with the release of Season 15. 

Currently, Destiny 2: Beyond Light is in its 13th season with Season of the Chosen, so we still have a little further to go before crossplay is implemented. The studio took to the Bungie blog to provide a little more context for crossplay as part of the team's effort to make Destiny 2 more community-friendly. 

"With Destiny now committed to being an everlasting evolving world, we want to make sure we are still taking the time to upgrade the systemic foundation of Destiny 2 to support everything we want to do in the future," reads the blog post. "Our ultimate vision for Destiny 2 still stands – a definitive action-MMO, a unified global community where you can play Destiny anywhere with your friends."

What's turning out to be one of the busiest video game news weeks of the year continues with the fire as Sony now takes center stage. On top of its announcements of the new PlayStation VR, Days Gone, and other games coming to PC, and a new lineup of free titles, PlayStation is set to host a new State of Play stream to highlight what's coming for both the PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5. But what will the house of Kratos have to show on this fine day?

While there's no confirmation as of yet, Insomniac Games recently announced that Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart will be coming to the PS5 on June 11, and the company's first digital presentation of 2021 seems like a fitting time to give an update on one of the biggest releases of the year.

Assistant game director Joe Blackburn took to the Bungie blog today to give fans an update on what's next for Destiny 2, specifically The Witch Queen release date. While the team has a lot in the works, including crossplay coming in Season 15 and transmog in Season 14, Bungie did have to make the difficult decision to push back the launch of The Witch Queen due to a couple of different factors. 

The blog post started out as wholesome as can be, with Blackburn opening up about being a fan of the game and knowing that his passion for it was enough to drive him to want to be a part of its growth in an official capacity. Now, he works at Bungie, and the work is far from over with ongoing content and the future ahead. With Season of the Chosen out now and so many enjoying the newly added features like Battlegrounds, Bungie is heads down when working on what's next. While there is much to look forward to, a few dates have been changed and largely due to the ongoing pandemic and Work From Home orders.

Bioware recently cancelled its planned reboot of Anthem, stating that no further updates were coming to the beleaguered multiplayer title. Though not surprising for that game, the news had a ripple effect by making Dragon Age fans fear that the upcoming fourth game in that series could follow the fate since it was reportedly adopting a similar live-service model.  According to a new report by Bloomberg, though, Dragon Age 4’s development has seen a major pivot, ditching its multiplayer-centric designs for a more single-player focused experience.

Any month with a Nintendo Direct and a State of Play is a good month for video game news – especially when they're main events, not mini showcases or single-game streams like we've been seeing.

The February 2021 State of Play presentation starts today at 2:00 pm Pacific. It's about 30 minutes.

What to expect from the show: "new updates and deep dives for 10 games coming to PS4 and PS5," according to Sony. What not to expect: "PlayStation hardware or business-focused updates."

There's been enough of a gap since the last showing – and we're early enough into the PS5 generation – that I feel like people can speculate just about anything right now, and there's a chance it could happen. One example: the chatter surrounding the March PlayStation Plus lineup is heating way up.

Expect little, dodge disappointment. That's my motto.

Nintendo Switch fans who are craving something a little... out-there will want to set aside time next month for Gnosia, a "social deduction" sci-fi RPG with an unmistakable visual-novel style. After reports of a late February launch, Playism has confirmed Gnosia's March 4 launch on the Nintendo eShop.

With so-called "Gnosia" hiding in plain sight among your shipmates, you'll need to figure out who can be trusted and who has to sleep as you piece together a larger story split into 15-minute gameplay loops.

"The reviews the game received were overwhelmingly positive in Japan [for the original Vita version], and we can't wait for players in the West to experience the thrill of finding – or failing to find – the Gnosia," Playism executive producer Shunji Mizutani said today in a press release. "We are so excited to get to collaborate with Petit Depotto to bring this long-awaited English adaptation of Gnosia to Switch."

Not my usual jam, to be honest, but I love to see these kinds of games pop up on Switch. And as someone who doesn't care for deceitful social games, I appreciate the chance to let loose alone.

It's been a long and winding road for the future of the System Shock series, but at least in the case of Nightdive Studios' remake, the end is in sight. Along with news of a summer 2021 launch, the developer released its "final demo" for the System Shock remake on Steam, GOG, and the Epic Games Store.

I played the demo for a bit (that's code for "I played it until I was wiped out by cybernetic freakos"), and the latest build is noticeably creepier and feels more put-together than what I remember of the last check-in. I wasn't expecting to be so unnerved in broad daylight with a save file I'm not going to keep.

Here's what's new in the "feature complete" final demo:

• Cyberspace Level
• Crew Audio Logs
• SHODAN Audio
• Dismemberment
• Proximity Mines
• Bugs
• Enemies
• Generative Music System
• Snacks
• Save Feature
• Notes System
• Difficulty Modes
• Destructibility
• DLSS Support
• Nightdive intro
• Secrets

Presentation matters, especially in a new take on a moody classic, and I can see myself settling into some horrible nights on Citadel Station this year. I also dig the look of the difficulty-select screen.

It wasn't supposed to end like this. Anthem was primed for a heroic comeback story. Much like Fallout 76, or No Man's Sky, or Rainbow Six: Siege, BioWare's mechanized action RPG took its lumps after immediate release for its unadventurous story, broken progression system, and unfurnished technical jank. But all was not lost. Perhaps someday Anthem would reform into a feel-good success story. A bounty of expansions and refinements would dot the horizon, as players around the world made their prodigal return to the servers. BioWare's most ambitious project could still make good on its promise and take its rightful seat among the greatest sci-fi stories ever told.

At least, that's what the Anthem faithful hoped would happen. Despite the soft reviews and the tepid sales, there remained a bastion of players who believed in this game. After all, Anthem worked at its core. The combat was fun and sparky, and flying across the alien biomes in an exosuit could be genuinely thrilling. The primary issue was the filler around the edges, which tended to be dysfunctional and frustrating. But with an honest effort, it was conceivable that BioWare could right the ship. That's why so many fans were anticipating a release date for the so-called Anthem Next — a down-to-the-studs revamp of the game's core loop — that could potentially alter its fate and drive up interest again, just like No Man’s Sky did after its similarly rocky launch. Unfortunately, EA announced yesterday that it would be pulling the plug on Anthem entirely, cutting bait on one of what was once its most anticipated new properties, and leaving thousands of fans twisting in the wind.

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