There are a lot of things I love about Final Fantasy XV. Its tale of brotherhood is bar none and representative of some of the best “it’s the little things” storytelling I’ve ever experienced in a video game. But there are, of course, elements I don’t like. In particular, the game’s villain.
Someone is already writing a book on the saga that has been GameStop’s stocks, which in turn is already primed to become a movie. It’s barely been a week.
There's a new Monster Hunter World weapon mod, and it gives PC players a chance to use the Magnamalo long sword.
The post Monster Hunter World Mod Gives People a Magnamalo Long Sword appeared first on Siliconera.
Udon's latest round of Street Fighter merchandise gives people a chance to get new Chun-Li shirts or a pin.
The post Udon’s Street Fighter Chun-Li Shirts Let Out a ‘Kikoken’ appeared first on Siliconera.
Tom Nook has a blue shell with Mario Kart 8 Deluxe’s name on it, as Animal Crossing: New Horizons nears the best-selling Switch game spot.
The post Animal Crossing: New Horizons Is Almost the Best Selling Switch Game appeared first on Siliconera.
Featuring Noah Centineo. This is not a joke.
Good news for fans of Microsoft Flight Simulator, Elite Dangerous, and Star Citizen
Kings Canyon has undergone some explosive remodeling
Microsoft Flight Simulator will soon launch on Xbox Series X|S, marking the debut of the genre on consoles.
Many wonder how it’s going to work out, so Twinfinite asked directly to head of Microsoft Flight Simulator Jorg Neumann during a recent interview.
Neumann explained how he sees the Xbox release as an opportunity to expand the hobby and pledged not to dumb down the simulator at all.
On the other hand, efforts will be done on the front of tutorials and assists in order to help players get acquainted with the complexity of the simulation.
Dedicated peripherals will also be made available by third-party manufacturers, enabling what Neumann considers part of the journey to becoming a simmer.
“I think there are going to be millions of people will have their first experience with a flight simulator. I think the opportunity is fantastic to grow the hobby and we bear a lot of responsibility to make that great.
In general, to back up a little, when you talk to simmers, they’re all very particular and know a lot, and have a lot of expectations, and they all tell me that they would really like the hobby to grow. A lot of them have been at it for decades, and they all look forward to the next generation of simmers.
That was one of the goals on PC, and I think on PC we actually accomplished quite a bit of that and people see that new blood is coming in, which is great, bringing great energy in the ecosystem, new thoughts, new companies pop up and groups like the Fly By Wire guys, Working Title that didn’t even exist. They’re wicked smart and making great contributions.
This past weekend, Gearbox & 2K followed through with their plan of shutting down Battleborn for good. As of Feb. 1, 2021, Battleborn is completely unplayable.
As stated last year, 2K is bringing Battleborn offline to focus its efforts and resources on other projects.
The shutdown not only removes the online multiplayer portion of the game but also knocks out the campaign as well since it wasn’t able to be played offline.
While you may want to hold onto your physical disc for the memories, your memories are the only place Battleborn will exist anymore. Battleborn for all intents and purposes is as dead as a game that was once playable can be.
Unfortunately for players that may have enjoyed Battleborn either currently or at some point in the past, the game didn’t go out with a bang.
The Battleborn Twitter has been mostly inactive for the past year other than dry housekeeping announcements and reminders that the game was going offline. Gearbox didn’t mention anything on its Twitter either. There was no official going away party, final cutscene, or event.
It was a very cold and lonely death for a game that frankly deserved a lot better.
SuperData has today released its updated tracking of VR headset sales during Q4 of 2020, highlighting the impressive launch of Oculus’ Quest 2 which hit the market in mid-October. The device has already exceeded 1 million units sold, making it the fastest-selling headset not powered by a mobile device.
In its supporting commentary, SuperData notes that the Quest 2 benefitted from a lower price point at launch than its predecessor. Further, that the timing of its launch during COVID-19 stay-at-home measures likely boosted interest amongst its target audience, many of whom hadn’t been able to purchase the original device as a result of stock issues throughout 2020.
That pent up desire for a VR headset in combination with Quest 2’s launch just before holiday season created a perfect storm for the device’s early success.
Just over one year in, Google is making major changes to its Stadia strategy and shutting down the game development studios it created to develop Stadia games. ...
Google Stadia, the tech giant’s video game streaming platform which launched in 2019, is shutting down its internal game development studios and refocusing on offering its tech platform to third-party publishers, the company announced Monday.
As first reported by Kotaku, Google will close its two Stadia Games & Entertainment studios located in Los Angeles and Montreal. The closure will impact approximately 150 employees, one source told Kotaku. Google says it will try to find new roles at the company for those impacted.
"With the recent successful launch of Cyberpunk 2077 on Stadia, gameplay on all types of devices, including iOS, growing our slate of YouTube integrations, and our global expansions, it’s clear that Stadia’s technology has been proven and works at scale," Google's vice president of Stadia and GM Phil Harrison said in a statement. "Having games streamed to any screen is the future of this industry, and we’ll continue to invest in Stadia and its underlying platform to provide the best cloud gaming experience for our partners and the gaming community. This has been the vision of Stadia since the beginning."Jade Raymond, the noted producer who helped bring Ubisoft’s Assassin’s Creed franchise to life, is also departing from her role as head of game development at Google.
[ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2019/11/22/google-stadia-review"]
What does this mean for Stadia subscribers? Google states that players can still access their games on Stadia (or the $10-a-month Stadia Pro), and that third-party games will continue to release on the service. It’s unclear how many third-party games Google plans on hosting on Stadia.
Just 14 months after Stadia's high-profile launch, Google is embarking on a major rethink of its streaming service strategy, which will see it close down all internal game development and begin providing its tech to third-party publishers.
Stadia general manager Phil Harrison confirmed the closure of the company's two internal game studios, based in Montreal and Los Angeles, in a new blog post, signalling an end to its console-like ambitions of creating flagship Stadia-exclusive titles to drive adoption of the platform.
"Creating best-in-class games from the ground up takes many years and significant investment, and the cost is going up exponentially," explained Harrison of the decision. "Given our focus on building on the proven technology of Stadia as well as deepening our business partnerships, we've decided that we will not be investing further in bringing exclusive content from our internal development team SG&E, beyond any near-term planned games."
The 2018 God of War is getting a free PS5 upgrade, and it's coming extremely soon. Starting tomorrow, February 2, you can download the patch for the enhanced version, which gives the game a nice graphical upgrade.
According to a blog, the PS4 Pro lets you choose between performance or resolution. The impending patch will replace that option with one a new default that offers both. It will run at 60 FPS in 4K checkerboard resolution at 2160p. You'll still have the option to choose "Original Performance Experience" to run the game at 4K with 30 FPS.
God of War was already known for its impressive visuals, and a few of the glimpses of this upgrade look even nicer. The blog shows two images: a colorful forest, and Kratos climbing a mountainside.
Continue Reading at GameSpotFebruary 2021 marks Blizzard's 30th anniversary, and the company is commemorating the occasion with celebration bundles for some of its biggest titles. This month, players will be able to buy one of three "Celebration Collections" containing various in-game goodies for World of Warcraft, Overwatch, Diablo III, Hearthstone, and more.
The Celebration Collections will be available to purchase from the Blizzard Shop starting today, February 1, and they come in three varieties. The Essentials Pack costs $20 and includes the following items:
The Heroic Pack costs $40 and includes everything in the Essentials Pack plus the following items:
Continue Reading at GameSpotThe game-streaming platform Google Stadia is making a big change, announcing that it will no longer develop games. In a blog post from industry veteran and head of Stadia, Phil Harrison, the executive said Google is focusing on fleshing out Stadia's technology and will back away from actually developing games for it.
"Given our focus on building on the proven technology of Stadia as well as deepening our business partnerships, we've decided that we will not be investing further in bringing exclusive content from our internal development team SG&E, beyond any near-term planned games," the statement said. "Over the coming months, most of the SG&E team will be moving on to new roles. We’re committed to working with this talented team to find new roles and support them."
Google's game-making studios in Los Angeles and Montreal are closing as part of this news, according to Kotaku. Around 150 developers are said to be impacted. According to the report, Google is trying to place the affected developers in new positions within Google.
Continue Reading at GameSpotThe PlayStation 5 launch title Bugsnax from developer Young Horses is selling extremely well, it appears. Co-founder and president of the studio, Philip Tibitoski, revealed on Twitter that Bugsnax has already exceed the launch sales of the studio's previous game, Octodad, despite Bugsnax being free for PlayStation Plus subscribers for a good amount of time.
"The team at Young Horses is so grateful for everyone's support," Tibitoski said.
Bugsnax has been out for a few months now, and it's wild that even after being free for PS5 PS+ users for most of that time it has outsold Octodad's launch PS sales. The team at @YoungHorses is so grateful for everyone's support!
— Philip Tibitoski (@PTibz) February 1, 2021
Bugsnax was free on PS5 for PlayStation Plus members until January 4, so Tibitoski is presumably referring some combination of PS4 sales, non-Plus members, and those who bought it after the free period ended. There is no word on how many free copies the game shifted during its PlayStation Plus promo period. Neither Sony nor developers typically share those details for competitive reasons.
Continue Reading at GameSpotUniversal Studios Japan's Super Nintendo World was originally scheduled to open on February 4 before being delayed indefinitely due to COVID, and hardcore Nintendo fans still hope to check out its take on Peach's Castle in the flesh someday. However, let's face it: this in-progress Minecraft recreation of it is as close as most of us are going to get over the next few months.
Planet Minecraft's Dippy22 has been working on a one-to-one build of the park since late December, and the project is around 45% complete. This isn't the first time that Dippy22 has worked on a project like this: the Minecrafter previously created a hypothetical version of the park based on leaked models and concept art earlier in 2020. They also worked on a 1:1 recreation of Earth, which is a major undertaking to say the least.
We previously saw Shigeru Miyamoto himself walk around Super Nintendo World back in late 2020, complete with a warp pipe and the Super Mario 64 castle music, which certainly inspires nostalgia in gamers of a certain age. Super Nintendo Land is scheduled to come to Universal's Singapore, Orlando, and Hollywood parks, each with unique rides, but we don't know when those projects are scheduled to begin.
It's no secret that RPGs have certain standard mechanics when it comes to gameplay, but developer High Level Studios is looking to buck that trend with its new title Void Arena, an RPG that will not have character leveling up or skill points.
Those familiar with RPGs, whether they're Western or JRPGs, know that a core part of the gameplay loop for these titles is having your character/s complete different tasks or quests to gain more experience and level up. By leveling up, you're able to make your characters stronger and they can usually gain access to better equipment and abilities as they advance. Changing this progression scale would really shake the RPG genre up, and that's exactly what High Level Studios is aiming to do.
The Apple AirPods Pro are a quality pair of earbuds, and if you've wanted to snag yourself a pair at a good price, you'll be happy to know that their Black Friday price is back for a limited time. Right now, you can buy the Apple AirPods Pro for $190 at the Amazon-owned store Woot, down from their regular price of $250. This deal is only valid for the next two weeks or while stock is available; however, if stock runs out at Woot, Amazon and Walmart both have the AirPods Pro for $200. Best Buy also has refurbished AirPods Pro for $170 for today only.
The touch sensor also lets you switch between the AirPods Pro's two different sound modes. Active noise canceling allows you to block out sound, while the transparency mode makes it easier to hear your environment. This is particularly helpful if you're running, cycling, or doing another activity where hearing cars or people is paramount to safety.
Continue Reading at GameSpotThe Fallout: New Vegas mod The Frontier was in development for a long time, but it was only up for less than two weeks before concerns about its inappropriate content resulted in its development team temporarily removing it from Nexus Mods. Now, the mod has returned, but some elements of it are missing due to the controversy.
A new post from project lead "tgspy" explains the situation thusly: the mod was taken down due to a team member posting "inappropriate content involving anthropomorphic minors" on their personal art page, as well as the negative feedback to some of the mod's more questionable elements, such as the ability to have sex with lizard-people. Some of those elements have been removed from the mod, including the ability to make one of the characters your "slave."
Haven't played Fallout Frontier yet but I am absolutely astounded by this one character just being a surrogate for the writers barely-disguised fetishes pic.twitter.com/pi4UOl2X9p
More limited-time seasonal items are now available in Animal Crossing: New Horizons. From now until February 14, players can order two special Valentine's Day items: a chocolate heart and a heart-shaped bouquet.
Both items can be purchased from the Seasonal tab in Nook Shopping, and they cost 1,200 bells apiece. A couple of other seasonal items are also still available until February 3, including a football rug and cheer megaphone to celebrate the Super Bowl.
The new seasonal items arrived as part of Animal Crossing's January update, which also added the Festivale event to the game. That takes place later this month, on February 15. As part of the event, Pave the dancing peacock will visit your island, and you'll be able to catch different colored feathers and exchange them for rewards.
Continue Reading at GameSpotRespawn has released the full patch notes for Apex Legends Season 8: Mayhem, which starts tomorrow. The new season introduces new playable character Fuse, the 30-30 Repeater assault rifle, and map changes to Kings Canyon.
All things considered, Season 8 doesn't make nearly as many game-changing adjustments as the past few seasons have. But Apex Legends just had a transformative second year.
Of note, however, is an additional change to Wraith. Her hitbox has been slightly adjusted, with her upper torso, waist, thighs, and shins becoming slightly wider to better reflect the overall shape of her body. It should make her ever so slightly easier to hit, a welcome nerf in comparison to simply weakening her abilities again.
Continue Reading at GameSpotIn one of those unexpected "Oh, right... neat!" moments, MLB The Show 21 is coming to PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S on April 20, 2021 – and there's even online cross-play and cross-progression.
Sony's long-running (and fairly well-liked) baseball series hasn't appeared on Xbox before, and it's a welcome sight. Curiously, when we first heard in 2019 that MLB The Show would venture outside of PlayStation, Nintendo of America responded with a baseball emoji on Twitter. No word on a Switch port.
For PlayStation and Xbox players, there will be a standard edition and a collector's edition of MLB The Show 21, but the latter wasn't shown off yet – more details about the game will roll out on Wednesday. MLB The Show 21 will cost $60 on the older consoles and $70 on PS5 and Xbox Series X/S.
Sony says that there won't be an "upgrade path" across console generations, so if you want to own, say, the PS4 and PS5 versions, you'll need to buy "any collector's edition of MLB The Show 2021."
There's a list of must-play PS4 games that warrant a visual and performance upgrade on PS5, and soon, we can check off God of War. Sony Santa Monica is pushing out a free PS5 update on February 2.
The update adds an "Enhanced Performance Experience" as the default graphics setting in God of War. With it enabled, you can bond with your boy at 60 frames per second and 4K checkerboard. Fans have been calling for an upgrade of this sort, and it's arriving seemingly well before Ragnarok – perfect!
The old visual setting – Original Performance Experience – will still be available should you want to stick with 4K checkerboard at 30 frames per second while playing God of War on your PlayStation 5.
Who's up next for the free-PS5-boost treatment? Horizon Zero Dawn? Lead right into Forbidden West.
I know some of you would prefer to have thoughtful DualSense feedback and other PS5 niceties that you might see in a full-on PS4-to-PS5 remaster, but for a free update, I'm happy enough.
There are a lot of lingering questions when it comes to Final Fantasy VII Remake - Part 2.
Like...what does it entail? How far off the beaten path will the new story go? Is it going to be a true open world adventure, or another linear, narrative-driven action romp? Right now, as of the end of January 2021, all Square Enix is saying is that it will introduce people to the world at large.
It's vague! But I'm also kind of glad that the publisher isn't giving us wild promises, or even timelines right now. We'll get Part 2 when we get it, and a lot of those potential story twists should be concealed, so they're surprises when they actually do happen (much like they were with the remake).
Next month will see the first anniversary of Animal Crossing: New Horizons. That's one whole year of Nook Island shenanigans. And the Nintendo Switch social sim has more than proven its staying power, once again returning to the number one spot on the UK Charts.
Since launch, Animal Crossing: New Horizons has dallied in and around the Top Ten, returning to the number one spot on numerous occasions throughout its first year of release, with many players openly noting how its cheerful and social nature has helped lift spirits during this miserable COVID-19 times. Nintendo continues to add seasonal updates and events in its cute fantasy world, and with Festivale just around the corner, this looks set to continue into spring and beyond.
This is much more of a friendly low-key PSA than an urgent drop-what-you're-doing notice, but if you're thinking of getting Paper Mario: The Origami King or one of several other older first-party Nintendo Switch games anytime soon, you can earn double Gold Points for your My Nintendo account.
This eShop promo runs until 11:59 pm Pacific on February 28, 2021. Here's the list of supported games:
The idea of spending $60 on a not-that-new Switch game in order to earn 600 Gold Points (instead of the normal 300 Gold Points) is so incredibly Nintendo, it hurts. For those of you who haven't bought anything in a while and need a refresher, the points conversion would be $6 off (instead of $3 off).
At least Origami King came out in 2020! For the rest, talk about staying power.
Well, I guess I called it, though - to be fair - it was an inevitability. MGM has already landed the movie rights to an as-yet-unwritten book charting the chaotic events of the GameStop stock / Wall Street carnage, which is still unfolding in the finance world today.
The new book will be written by NYT best-selling author Ben Mezrich, whose previous works have been adapted for the big screen as The Social Network and 21. Titled The Antisocial Network (ehh), the book will meticulously detail the events of the past week, when members of Reddit group WallStreetBets rocketed the stock price of ailing retailer GameStop, causing major headaches for hedge fund traders. The "once-in-a-lifetime" happening has received global media attention, and has even found its way to the nation's capitol, with the U.S. government "monitoring" the unfolding situation.
As reported by Hollywood publication Deadline, MGM leapt on the movie rights to Mezrich's book, scoring the deal within days of the book's initial proposal. MGM has assigned producer Aaron Ryder (Donnie Darko, The Prestige, Greyhound) to the project, which the studio considers a "priority" given the highly topical nature of its story.
For details on this fascinating story, check out our earlier report from Anthony Marzano.
In the past couple months, the experience of watching Twitch via third-party sites or tools like MultiTwitch has become... fraught. A purple screen sometimes obscures whatever you’re watching. It implores you to tune in on Twitch dot television instead. Eventually, it disappears. Then, every 15 minutes or so, it comes…
A good friend of mine has this running joke where he says “Super Bowl’s coming up” anytime there’s a lull in a conversation, regardless of what time of year it is. That joke works best when March rolls around and the Super Bowl most certainly is not coming up. However, this time, the Super Bowl really is coming up.…
Hitman 3 is b-a-n-a-n-a-s. IO Interactive’s latest stealth game puts you in the spit-shined oxfords of international assassin Agent 47 and tasks you with eliminating various well-protected targets. But the most effective tool at your disposal isn’t a firearm or vial of poison. No, it’s an ingredient you’d most likely…
It’s Monday and time for Ask Kotaku, the weekly feature in which Kotaku-ites deliberate on a single burning question. Then, we ask your take.
