February 2021

Suicune is returning to Pokemon Go very soon. The Legendary Aurora Pokemon will appear in five-star Raids again beginning Thursday, February 4 (immediately after Raikou's departure from the game), giving you another rare chance to capture it. To help you defeat the Legendary, we've put together some tips on how to beat and catch Suicune below.

Suicune Raid Schedule

Suicune returns to five-star Raids starting Thursday, February 4, at 10 AM local time, and it'll remain in the game until the same time on February 9, giving you only a few days to capture it. To participate in a Suicune Raid, you'll need to have a Raid Pass (to join the battle in-person) or a Remote Raid Pass (to join remotely).

The online trading platform Robinhood is in hot water with users and politicians, and Senator Elizabeth Warren is the latest notable figure to question the platform's decisions during the GameStop stock surge in late January. Warren (D-Mass.) asked Robinhood to explain why it restricted trading on GameStop shares as notable hedge funds suffered massive losses during the "short squeeze."

"Robinhood has a responsibility to treat its investors honestly and fairly, and provide them with access to the market under a transparent and consistent set of rules,” Warren wrote in her letter, according to CNBC. "It is deeply troubling that the company may not be doing so."

During the surge, Robinhood restricted the buying of a handful of "meme stocks," as well as increasing the margin requirements on certain stocks and options. This move caused its userbase to explode with anger on social media as Wall Street hedge funds and institutional investors continued trading the restricted stocks. The platform is now facing many lawsuits in multiple jurisdictions.

Cyberpunk 2077 developer CD Projekt Red is warning players of potential exploits that can be executed when using custom saves and mods for the open-world RPG.

CD Projekt Red's technical support account on Twitter warned Cyberpunk 2077 players of the issue. The game relies on certain external DLL files, some of which can be altered by mods or save files from third-party sources. This can inadvertently run malicious scripts injected into the files when the game launches, which might put your PC at risk.

CD Projekt Red says that it is working on a fix to prevent this from being possible but is asking players to be careful about where they source mods from.

We finally have the release date for Mass Effect Legendary Edition, a version of the trilogy overhauled for the PS4, Xbox One, and PC that will come out on May 14. However, BioWare told Eurogamer that a Switch version of the Legendary Edition may come out at some point, but if it does, it'll be long after it releases for PC and existing consoles.

"Personally, I'd love it," Mac Walters, the project director of the Legendary Edition, told Eurogamer. "But ultimately, I think we had a path set and it was like, let's finish that, then let's see sort of where we're at."

Best Buy is hosting a 24-hour flash sale featuring a dozen or so products, including several 4K TVs and multiple laptops. If you're in the mood for some football after EA's announcement that its college football series is coming back from a lengthy hiatus, you can also snag Madden NFL 21 for PS5, PS4, and Xbox for its lowest price yet at $18. We've highlighted a few of the best deals in the sale below. You only have until the end of the day to take advantage of these prices, and select deals have already sold out.

When examining why BioWare's Mass Effect 2 is so beloved, it's in large part due to its iconic cast. Almost every character in the game has a legion of fans, so the prospect of learning how they were conceptualized is incredibly exciting. And that's exactly what the latest episode of Audio Logs does. Not only that: The episode digs into the characters who didn't make it into the game.

In the video, Mac Walters, who has been working on the franchise from the very start and is responsible for creating and writing a number of characters, shows GameSpot never-seen-before documents which catalogue ideas that BioWare had for making up its Dirty Dozen cast. Outside of the developers who worked on the game, very few people have seen concepting documents and, even Walters himself hadn't looked at them for a few years, so you'll get the inside story on everything from the creation of Thane to how The Princess Bride influenced the team, and how certain characters are the amalgamation of multiple ideas.

On top of that, Walters explains the process of creating loyalty missions and, ultimately, crafting that ambitious final Suicide Mission that effectively was sending characters to die, if you didn't play your cards right. This episode is a must-watch for fans of the Mass Effect franchise and the perfect way to get hyped for the upcoming release of Mass Effect: Legendary Edition, which releases in May. For more on that, check out our rundown on all the changes in Legendary Edition.

The Mass Effect franchise is brimming with memorable characters, but there are a few who didn't make it into Shepard's story but are fascinating in their own right. In a new episode of Audio Logs, BioWare's Mac Walters talked about some of the ideas that didn't make the cut, including a Techno-Hippie, among others.

Speaking to GameSpot, Walters said that, during development, BioWare took a "there are no bad ideas" stance for coming up with pitches. This, as a result, led to some interesting submissions.

"There's a lot of really fun characters in here that eventually didn't make it for one reason or another," Walter said, referencing a never-seen-before character ideas document that was shown to GameSpot. "Although I'm sure now that they're going to be out in the world, people will be clamoring for some of them, like the, you know, the crazy Quarian King.

EA Sports is reviving its dormant collegiate football series, the publisher has confirmed.

"For those who never stopped believing..." the publisher said in its announcement on Twitter. The announcement was accompanied with an image that says "College football is coming back." EA has also launched a new Twitter account called EA Sports College.

The announcement does not mention the NCAA by name, and the game is being made without their involvement. It will be called EA Sports College Football.

Heavy Rain and Detroit: Become Human studio Quantic Dream has opened a new office in Montreal to complement its headquarters in Paris. Industry veteran Stéphane D'Astous--who previously worked at Eidos and Ubisoft--is the general manager of the new office.

The new Quantic Dream office is located in the Atwater Avenue district of Montreal. Employees are currently working from home due to the virus, but Quantic Dream said they will return "as soon as sanitary conditions allow it," the studio said in a blog post.

Quantic Dream opened the office in one of the biggest video game development hubs of the world in part to help attract new talent. "The door of Quantic Dream is now wide open to talents based in Europe as well as in North America; no matter which side of the Atlantic you are on, you can now join us!" the company said.

Tech magnate Elon Musk has never been shy about offering his opinions on a variety of topics, and video games are no different. When a fan asked him on Twitter if he enjoys any console games, Musk offered a simple reply: "Only Halo." The main social media account for the franchise was quick to reply, along with its community director.

The real Red Dead Redemption is redeeming these deals

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Apex Legends Season 8 arrives today, and with it comes a new legend named Fuse, the 30-30 Repeater rifle, and a ton of changes to the game's original map, Kings Canyon. Fuse is an explosives expert with a passive Grenadier ability that allows him to stack extra grenades per inventory slot while the character's tactical power launches a cluster bomb that stuns nearby opponents on impact. Lastly, Fuse can cast his ultimate ability, The Motherlode, to launch a bombardment of missiles that create an area-of-effect flame wall.

On this episode of Game Informer Live, join Alex Van Aken and Alex Stadnik as they dive into Season 8 with our resident Apex Legends expert and Top 500 player, Jay Guisao. Starting at 2:45 P.M. CT, join us as we become the next Apex Champions. Yeah, we're gonna win some games today. If you can't get enough of our live shows, remember to subscribe on YouTube, Twitch, Twitter, and Facebook to get notified when we go live each week!

Destruction Allstars is a new destruction derby game that released today on PlayStation 5 via PlayStation Plus. Developed by Lucid Games and published by Sony, the game pits up to sixteen racers in a combat arena that's reminiscent of games like Twisted Metal or even Monday Night Combat. However, the game's twist is that players can eject out of their cars to hijack other vehicles or compete in various platforming challenges that are scattered around the level. Destruction Allstars utilizes the DualSense PS5 controller in many ways, including using the gamepad's adapter triggers to apply pressure when braking or to simulate the feeling of driving a rattling vehicle after surviving a fight.

On this episode of New Gameplay Today, Marcus Stewart and I play a few matches of Destruction Allstars and check out some of the game's characters and abilities. If you're interested in playing the game yourself, all you need is a PlayStation 5 and an active subscription to PS Plus. Did you enjoy this video? Be sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel and watch previous episodes of New Gameplay Today. 

Later this month, Blizzard will be holding a special digital-only version of its long-running BlizzCon gaming convention (following the cancellation of last year's in-person event as a result of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic), and the developer has now shared preliminary details of the activities planned to run over its two-day duration.

This year's BlizzConline, as Blizzard is determined to call it, is described as an "all-digital community celebration and exhibition of Blizzard games and universes" and will run from 19th-20th February. It's a free event, and will be available to watch on the BlizzCon website, as well as various streaming platforms, including Twitch and YouTube.

Blizzard says it'll be "celebrating some fun milestones, shining a spotlight on the epic things the Blizzard community has been up to, and sharing the latest Blizzard game news with everyone" across the event's two day run-time, and has assembled a schedule of activities, gaming competitions, and pre-produced segments to do just that.

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This role will include working in a co-development environment, with the unique challenges and opportunities that it brings. ...

EA closed out Q3 of its 2020-21 fiscal year with record net bookings for both the quarter and the trailing 12 months thanks largely to the out performance of its suite of live games. ...

After a good 23 years as a solo-studio developer, French dev Quantic Dream has opened a second studio across the Atlantic in Montreal. ...

Today Slitherine Games showcased plenty of gameplay of the upcoming RTS game Starship Troopers: Terran Command.

With all the time spent exterminating bugs in third-person with EDF, it’s time to try something different, and an RTS seems to hit the spot perfectly.

On top of the first gameplay trailer, we get to see a lot of gameplay, which you can enjoy below with the long video set at the correct timestamps.

Of course, if you’d like to know more, you can also rewind and watch the whole thing.

Today Electronic Arts released its financial results for the third quarter of the fiscal year 2021, related to the period between October 1 and December 31, 2020.

Firstly,  the press release includes statements from chief executive officer Andrew Wilson and chief operating and financial officer Blake Jorgensen.

Wilson boasts about the publisher’s growth.

“We’re bringing great entertainment to hundreds of millions of people all over the world.

Our amazing teams continue to deliver exceptional, high-quality experiences as more players connect with their friends and engage deeply with our games. With our expansion plans for EA SPORTS, strong catalogue of owned IP, leading live services, and ability to span every platform, we are growing to reach an even larger audience.”

Jorgensen mentions that EA raised its outlook for the full year due to the strength of the business, mentioning that the publisher expert further growth next year (starting on April 1) due to the next Battlefield game.

“We delivered another strong quarter, driven by live services outperformance in Ultimate Team and Apex Legends.

We are raising our net bookings outlook for the full year on the strength we continue to see in our business. Looking further ahead, even with the upside this year, we anticipate delivering growth in fiscal 2022, driven by the next Battlefield.”

We also get a number of highlights of the publisher’s performance and financial metrics. We learn that over the past fiscal year, EA Sports franchises “engaged more than 230 million people, while The Sims 4 has passed 33 million players, recording record average players in December on all metrics.

Titanfall spin-off Apex Legends is set to bring its online battle royale action to the Nintendo Switch on March 9, according to new details released by developer Respawn Entertainment.

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Jeffrey Preston Bezos announced today he’s stepping down as CEO of Amazon less than a year after it un-released team-based shooter Crucible because nobody wanted to play it. First Stadia. Now Bezos. You hate to see it.

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Tuesday’s Best Deals | Kinja Deals

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Intellectually, we all know that the advancements and technological marvels that we all take for granted in modern cars — big center-stack color touchscreen displays, integrated computers, global navigation via a network of satellites, and even video game systems built right into the car — didn’t come out of nowhere.…

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Ready for a new adventure? Try and win one of our Switch copies of Root Double -Before Crime * After Days- Xtend Edition.

The post Contest: Win Root Double -Before Crime * After Days- Xtend Edition for Switch appeared first on Siliconera.

In an undercover operation worthy of Bond himself, a full playthrough of the canceled Xbox 360 remaster of Rare's GoldenEye 007 has surreptitiously slipped onto YouTube, giving fans of the legendary N64 title perhaps their only opportunity to see the lost game in its entirety.

Originally planned for release on the XBLA service in 2008, Microsoft, Rare, and Nintendo somehow aligned the moon and the stars in order to get the remaster developed. However, the James Bond license serves many, many masters, resulting in endless issues that have plagued the franchise for decades. GoldenEye 007 for Xbox was no different and ultimately required too much plate-spinning in order to get the remaster into the hands of the players.

When it comes to action games, I see things like Neo in The Matrix. But as soon as you tell me to start crafting an elaborate design in a builder: I freeze.

People like NetWarrior FM see it as a challenge. They rise to the occasion. That's how they were able to build a giant "Super Mario Bros. theme song" speedway in Stardew Valley. You've probably seen these sorts of things before, but regardless, it still amazes me. They even use the Mario costume for extra effect! It's 433 flute blocks in all. That's dedication.

UK digital marketer Sumo Group has acquired indie developer PixelAnt, adding the Polish outfit to its family of ten-strong studios - although PixelAnt is Sumo's first acquisition from mainland Europe.

PixelAnt, based in Wroclaw, will retain the leadership of studio heads and industry veterans Pawal Rohleder and Adam Lasoń, who co-founded the company just last summer. Going forward, PixelAnt will now work exclusively with Sumo Digital on its upcoming releases.

"We’re incredibly excited by the opportunities that being part of the Sumo family offers to PixelAnt," said Rohleder in a press statement. "Sumo has demonstrated a proven commitment to each of its studios to give them what they need to make incredible games and hire the best people. We have very ambitious plans in place, and we know that Sumo is going to support us every step of the way."

Sumo MD Gary Dunn also spoke of his pleasure at the new partnership. "In addition to adding supremely talented people to our family of studios in the form of Pawel, Adam, and their team, we now have our first base of operations in mainland Europe, allowing us to tap into Poland’s phenomenal talent pool. As a full-service studio, PixelAnt will provide game development services to clients across the world, as well as own-IP opportunities, and will continue to work on Sumo projects."

In addition to PixelAnt, Sumo Group consists of studios The Chinese Room, Lab42, and Red Kite Games, as well as internal developers based out of Sheffield, Newcastle, Nottingham, Leamington, and Warrington in the United Kingdom and Pune in India.

It’s Apex Legends, but smaller

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Some players are turning off features to avoid cheaters

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