March 2021

While looking back on season 2, she considers the many other shows she’s worked on

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Leads off March 16, a month before MLB The Show 21 launches

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Bowser isn’t just ‘defeated’ in this version of the game

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Double the Guardians, half the challenge

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Organizers hope to stage in-person event in November; online-only Comic-Con@Home returns in July

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Most people seem to agree that Super Mario World 3D + Bowser's Fury is a good game. One of the major features of the new Bowser's Fury campaign is that Bowser is now enormous – far bigger than his usual forms. You may think it's neat that Mario must confront a mountain-sized nemesis, but not everyone feels that way. How does former United States President Donald Trump feel about it? Truthfully, he probably doesn't care. But if he did care, and if he decided to go on a rant about it, it would probably sound something like the video below.

Twitter user James Austin Johnson (@shrimpJAJ) has a unique ability to impersonate the former president's voice, which he has used in the past to create a series of videos that approximate unlikely speeches from Trump. The latest one hits close to gamers' hearts, focusing on the Super Mario 3D World re-release on Switch, and the new Bowser's Fury content. You can give it a listen for yourself: 

OMG TRUMP UNLEASHES 'FURY' ON BIDEN ADMIN IN TRIUMPHANT CPAC SPEECH: "UNDER [BIDEN], BOWSER... TOO BIG, [SUPER] MARIO CAN'T KEEP UP!!" pic.twitter.com/cv7lqEkldf

While the gaming community anxiously awaits for any sort of confirmation about whether or not those Silent Hill reboot rumors are true, modders have been keeping that horror love alive in their own way for years nows. We've written about a few different Silent Hill-like mod experiences in the past, but one that I've been covering for years just got a major new update that takes the world of Whispering Hills and breathes new life into it in Fallout 4. 

Whispering Hills, for those that may not be familiar, is a total overhaul mod for Fallout 4 that is designed specifically to deliver a Silent Hill-like experience in the Commonwealth. This mod has been in development for quite some time now, with a prototype version also available to play. Now the team has shown off episode one, "Welcome back to school," and it takes this project to a whole other level. 

The video above shows off what the first episode brings to the table, including a fully voiced questline for players to take on. As is the nature of many spooky stories, episode one will take players deep into the heart of Midwitch Elementary School, a school based off of the Midwhich facility in the first game. Queue up the fog, the rain, and the general horror vibes, and Whispering Hills just got a whole lot better and worth checking out.

The cast for Eli Roth’s Borderlands movie has beefed up in short order, already boasting the likes of Jack Black (Claptrap), Cate Blanchett (Lilith), Jamie Lee Curtis (Patricia Tannis) and Kevin Hart (Roland). The latest character to find its performer is fan-favorite Tiny Tina, who will be played by Ariana Greenblatt.

For those of you asking “who?” Ariana Greenblatt may be most familiar to mainstream audiences (especially Marvel fans) as the actress who portrayed child Gamora in Avengers: Infinity War. Yes, she’s one half of the famous scene that launched a thousand memes. You know the one. 

The Binding of Isaac is a roguelike classic for a reason, thanks to its gripping gameplay, fun powerups, and the infinite loop of "one more try." Now, about a decade after the original's release, creator Edmund McMillen and developer Nicalis are ready to close out the saga with The Binding of Isaac: Repentance. This new version of the roguelike classic adds a ton of upgrades to the base game to deliver an experience Nicalis has branded as "bigger than any sequel." 

Despite releasing a decade after the original version, Isaac is still a tearful toddler exploring the horrors of his basement. In this new, enhanced version, Isaac can travel to unexplored depths, encountering new places, enemies, and bosses. However, he'll also have new weapon combos and items to use in his quest for answers and survival, as The Binding of Isaac: Repentance adds more than 130 new items to bring the total tally to more than 700. 

The Binding of Isaac: Repentance also includes a full alternate path with new chapters, a new final boss, and a new ending, as well as true four-player cooperative play. Players can also expect to encounter more than 100 new enemies, 25 new bosses, seven new challenges, and more than 5,000 new room designs. 

Last week, Guardians noticed an interesting new glitch in Destiny 2 that allowed players to double the number of teammates in certain instances like raids, dungeons, and more. When testing it out myself this weekend before writing up about it, I had more fun than I have had in a long time teaming up with my clan. After diving all-in with the different ways this glitch worked, I'm convinced that this is the way Destiny is meant to be played. I've never wanted a glitch to remain in-game as much as I do with this one and while I know it's fruitless, I hope that it stays forever. 

The Destiny 2 12-player glitch applies to raids and any instances requiring 6 players. Some have reported being able to swing the double bug for PvP events like Crucible, but no one in my clan was able to replicate this (not that we wanted to, this type of glitch would destroy the PvP experience). 

The developer of The Sinking City has accused its publisher of pirating the game and tricking Steam into uploading it for sale.

In the latest development in Frogwares' long-running dispute with Nacon, the Ukrainian studio issued a blog post outlining a raft of accusations against its French publisher.

Over the weekend, Frogwares recommended gamers do not download its H. P. Lovecraft-inspired horror adventure from Steam after it popped up on Valve's platform last month.

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Sega just revealed another AC Scratch collection for Phantasy Star Online 2 titled “Throwback Collection III.”

As usual, it comes with plenty of costumes, accessories, emotes, CAST parts, hairstyles, and more, including some of those that proved most popular in previous collections.

It’s available Starting on March 3, and it’ll disappear on March 10. As usual, you can take a look at the trailer below to see the main items, while the full catalog is published on the official website.

If you’re unfamiliar with AC Scratch, that’s basically the game’s loot box/gacha-like mechanic that you can get through tickets purchased with Arks Cash.

Phantasy Star Online 2 is available in the west for Xbox One and PC. A few months ago, we heard that the western version enjoyed a “strong start” and that it passed one million players.

Third-party add-on developers are continuing to work around the clock to deliver new scenery and aircraft to Microsoft Flight Simulator users.

First of all, it’s always a joyous occasion when a new developer makes its first steps on the market, and this one hails from Japan. Metropolitan Airport Development Brothers (MADB for short) just released its first airport, and it’s Chofu (RJTF).

It can be purchased on Simmarket for about $18 including VAT.

While Chofu is mostly used for general aviation, it’s well known due to its position within Tokyo metropolitan area, also close to Yokohama.

The package doesn’t just include the airport, but also nearby landmarks like the well-known Ajinomoto Stadium, home of FC Tokyo.

Below you can check out a trailer, a few screenshots, and a features list.

When I first started up Valheim and began chopping down trees and picking up rocks, my immediate reaction was, "Ugh, another one of these, huh?"

That attitude quickly changed once I invited a few friends along, built a simple enough base to call home, and began exploring the tenth realm.

Next thing you know, we'd battled our first boss, explored burial chambers and troll caves, and began hunting said trolls for their skin. The hooks were in deep by this point. Time seemingly slipped away from me altogether, and right when I thought I was ready to take a break, another group of friends started their own server and wanted me to tag along. Before I realized it, I'd clocked in over 11 hours into Valheim on my first day.

So, in today's Impulse episode, your local video dudes (Justin Moore and myself) break down and showcase our experiences within Valheim after spending more than 50 hours with it so far. From the visuals and building mechanics to why we think the progression is so addictive, this episode covers that and so much more.

Several developers have reported that Hardsuit Labs told them today that they would be losing their jobs after the studio was fired from work on Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines 2. ...

The back and forth between Frogwares and Nacon, once known as Bigben Interactive, continues to pick up steam. ...

One of the biggest issues in game funding now is - how on Earth do you get your prototype funded? Can†™t do game discovery if you don†™t have a game. We look into it! ...

The Navy turned off text chat for today’s ‘Women of Warzone’ boot camp Twitch stream, so some viewers took to spamming the chat with bomb and fire emojis instead.

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Can we ever truly know the nature of the sea? Primordial creatures lurk in its depths. It’s powered by outer space. We still don’t understand how eels reproduce. In Valheim, however, it’s a bit simpler: The ocean is a trampoline.

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Biggie: I Got A Story To Tell is a frustratingly thin take on a rap legend’s story

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The publishing dispute surrounding The Sinking City has practically eclipsed any conversation about the game itself (which is just okay). Developer Frogwares and publisher Nacon have been embroiled in a very nasty battle over, among other things, the distribution rights to the game.  Last week, The Sinking City launched on Steam only for Frogwares to implore players on Twitter not to purchase that version of the game, raising a lot of questions as to why. Frogwares has since posted a lengthy blog post explaining that Nacon allegedly had employees “crack, hack and pirate” a version of The Sinking City to release on Steam.

Bungie has temporarily removed Trials of Osiris from Destiny 2: Season of the Chosen due to an issue with win-trading. The brutal-yet-satisfying (when not faced with cheaters) PvP event has always been hit or miss with players, but now it's a miss for all players because it has been removed from the game entirely. At least for now. 

Bungie took to Twitter to share the news that Trials has been disabled, though the tweet didn't go into specifics other than "an issue." It was later discovered on a now-removed post on Reddit that the removal had to do with the Hakke emblem. 

Due to an issue, Trials of Osiris has been disabled for the remainder of the weekend.

— Bungie Help (@BungieHelp) February 28, 2021

Even though the original Reddit post is gone, a responding comment helped fill in the blanks regarding what was taken down. Since then, the post has been locked and no further comments can be added at this time. 

Just because you can do something doesn't mean you should, but that didn't stop one Spore player from playing a messed up version of god anyway by recreating Pokémon in terrifying detail. While not exact replicas by any stretch, the Pokémon-ified Spore creations are just too horrifyingly perfect to keep to ourselves. 

Spore is an adorable open-world game that basically lets players live out their godlike fantasies by creating entire universes for some single-player fun. With great power comes great responsibility and apparently great meme-ability, because that's what one player did when they attempted to bring that "gotta catch 'em all" energy into the world of Spore. 

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Gears 5 will begin its sixth season of content tomorrow, March 2 with new characters, a new map, and some changes for multiplayer.

The sixth season, simply titled Operation 6, will add three new playable characters available for multiplayer with Colonel Victor Hoffman, Queen Reyna, and Locust Zealot. Skins for these characters can either be earned in the new Tour of Duty, bought from the in-game store, or purchased in a bundle alongside other cosmetics and boost for $14.99.

The new map will be a remake of Speyer, which was first introduced in Gears of War 4. Gears 5 developer The Coalition announced last week that it will be shortening the length of operations from 16 weeks to 11 weeks, and each operation will have “at least one map and two new characters” at launch and in the middle of the operation.

Competitive multiplayer will receive a new mode tomorrow called Control, which plays similarly to King of the Hill but must stay inside the ring to gain control and score points. Horde mode also receives a twist with the Escape from Kadar playlist, consisting of 10 waves of returning Locust enemies armed with Retro Lancers and pipes.

Operation 6 will also bring other changes listed in the official patch notes when it launches tomorrow in Gears 5 across Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, and PC.

The latest mainline Touhou game will the 18th entry in the series and star Reimu, Marisa, Sanae, and Sakuya.

The post Touhou Project Game 18 Will Appear in May 2021 appeared first on Siliconera.

What it means if nothing is real

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When WandaVision began its weekly run on Disney+, I enjoyed being reunited with two of the Avengers, but didn't have any idea what I was watching. By the third or fourth episode, it all started to make sense, and it just kept getting better from there. I'm now singing its praises as one of the best shows you can stream; once again cementing my believe that the Marvel Cinematic Universe can do no wrong. Okay, Thor: The Dark World is of a much lower quality than every other MCU film, but it still has some great moments and character development. I recommend watching it to connect all of the MCU tissue.

The one thing you shouldn't do is scroll below if you haven't watched any of WandaVision yet. This is your spoiler warning. The first season of WandaVision hasn't concluded (we're waiting on one more episode that hits this Friday), and yet Funko has already introduced a sizeable line of collectible Pops that give away some of the show's biggest twists and turns.

If you've kept up with the weekly delivery of episodes, take a look at the figures below. Funko has pulled out all of the stops, with a handful of different Wanda and Vision Pops, one for almost every time period they experience. The black-and-white figures for the first two episodes are a nice touch.

Developer Ghost Ship Games has revealed the 2021 roadmap for Deep Rock Galactic, including a major update scheduled to go live in April. This will be followed by another update in Q3 2021 (July to October), which, in a blog post, Ghost Ship Games says "will be huge--maybe our biggest update ever."

The update coming in April, called Update 34: Bits n' Pieces, is primarily geared towards adding modding support to Deep Rock Galactic. Update 34 will also add a controller rebinding feature and rebalance the game's weapons and overclocks.

Then in Q3 2021, Update 35 will add a ton of content, including a new mission type, weapons, overclocks, cosmetics, and user interface improvements. "Deep Rock Galactic is here to stay for a long time--there are no signs of fading, quite the opposite--so we need to think further ahead," Ghost Ship Games writes. "Normally, we don’t even plan that far, but we must also admit that getting a bit of breathing room and time to dream feels and sounds really good."

Releasing on PC in early access in 2018, Deep Rock Galactic officially launched for Xbox One and PC in May 2020. The game sees you and up to three friends work together as a group of dwarven miners, tasked with exploring procedurally generated caves that are full of valuables to obtain and hostile aliens to defeat.

The Wholesome Direct will be back for another year, scheduled to air sometime later in 2021. If you have a game to show off, submissions to be featured in the direct are now open until March 15.

Like last year, Wholesome Direct will be a livestream all about indie games that can be described as cute and/or cozy in terms of their visuals, tone, or story. The stream will feature exclusive trailers and gameplay demonstrations and interviews with developers.

Wholesome Direct 2020 occurred in May so its stands to reason this year's event will as well, but the organizers have not yet confirmed a date.

Ubisoft has released a new patch for Rainbow Six Siege, which adds Fuze back to the game, though only on the PC test server. The patch also implements several bug fixes.

Fuze was removed from all Siege playlists (except for Custom) via an update on February 26. Picking the operator was causing an issue that would make Siege crash. The bug attached to the operator is now supposedly fixed, though Ubisoft is keeping him on the test server for now.

As mentioned before, the patch also fixes several in-game bugs. Among them is a bug that was affecting Flores, Siege's latest operator, who was added in Year 6, Season 1: Crimson Heist. The patch fixes a bug that prevented players from hearing Flores' RCE-Ratero Charges going off on the other side of a wall.

The full patch notes are listed below.

Rainbow Six: Siege March 1 Update Patch Notes

Updates On Crashes

• Fuze has been re-enabled on the Test Server following a crash-related bug fix.

Bug Fixes

• Operators
  • FIXED – Kali's CSRX 300 does not always destroy a hatch with one bullet.
  • FIXED – Operators return to a neutral standing position after performing a melee while leaning.
  • FIXED – Kali's CSRX 300 won't destroy a hatch if only one panel is hit.
  • FIXED – When Flores' RCE-Ratero Charge gets anchored to a wall, the explosion cannot be heard from the other side of that wall.
• User Experience
  • FIXED – Various warning messages and UI issues.
  • FIXED – Multiple customization issues.

Epic Games has released the patch notes for Fortnite update 15.50. The update removes the Hand Cannon from play, while "another item" is coming back. However, Epic did not announce what this item is. It only said, "Spread the news!"

Additionally, update 15.50 adds a new island size to the Creative mode, while there will also be localized featured creative hub support with this update.

The new Fortnite update is slated to roll out on March 2, beginning with downtime that starts at 1 AM PT / 4 AM ET. It's not precisely clear how long the downtime will run for.

Microsoft has announced a livestream event for Tuesday, March 2, during which it will showcase the content coming to Halo: The Master Chief Collection in Season 6.

The stream kicks off at 2 PM PT / 5 PM ET and is slated to run for one hour. During this livestream, developers from 343 Industries will provide an "early look" at the Season 6 content before jumping into live multiplayer against fans. Anyone who is lucky enough to be group with a developer from 343 will receive the rare Ice Unicorn nameplate.

This broadcast will take place on the official Halo Twitch channel, so you can bookmark it now to get ready for the big show.

Animal Crossing fans are known for being fanatically devoted to the series, but devotees of the musical megahit Hamilton might give them a run for their money. Now, a fan of both who goes by "Guitar_Knight14" has recreated the first act of Hamilton in Animal Crossing: New Horizons, and it's an impressively detailed effort.

The YouTube video of the performance clocks in at over an hour, and runs from the play's opening number to the close of the first act, ending with the song "Non-Stop." The sheer amount of effort that went into the video is mind-boggling, with a villager cast in each part, detailed choreography for each song, and even a facsimile of an audience. Guitar_Knight14 has a Patreon you can contribute to if you want to see Act 2 before its official release. It's not necessarily clear how this performance will deal with certain mature themes of songs like "Say No to This," but we're excited to find out.

Developer and publisher Bohemia Interactive has released the patch notes for the latest update for DayZ. The update implements several bug fixes.

There are two lists of patch notes, as the update for the Xbox One and PS4 versions of the game is slightly different than the one for PC. Specifically, on consoles, the update fixes a client crash issue that would pop up when base building objects.

On all systems, the update addresses bugs that prevented weapons from spawning with attachments, caused flag poles to refresh more often than they should, stopped you from switching to VSS iron sights while using PSO optics, and a few other issues. The full patch notes for both consoles and PC are listed below.

DayZ March 1 Xbox One/PS4 Update

• Weapons would not spawn with attachments
• The truck battery could not be charged using the battery charger
• The flag pole was refreshing bases more often than designed (every server restart)
• The universal flashlight could be attached to handguards without a rail
• The player could not switch to VSS iron sights when using PSO optics
• A client crash related to attachment slots on base building objects

DayZ March 1 PC Update

• Weapons would not spawn with attachments
• The truck battery could not be charged using the battery charger
• The flag pole was refreshing bases more often than designed (every server restart)
• The universal flashlight could be attached to handguards without a rail
• The player could not switch to VSS iron sights when using PSO optics

It's a new month and that means PlayStation's game-streaming service PlayStation Now has been refreshed again with a series of additional titles.

Coming to PS Now in March on Tuesday, March 2 with the update include Sony's own InFamous Second Son, along with high-profile third-party games like World War Z, Ace Combat 7: Skies Unknown, and Superhot.

These games won't be available on PS Now forever, as World War Z leaves on September 16, 2021, with Ace Combat 7 flying out of the catalog on May 31, 2021. Sony's blog post did not include an end-date for InFamous Second Son or Superhot.

PS Now, which has been operating for years, is available for $10/month or $25 for three months. A yearly subscription is available for $60. A free 7-day trial is available new users.

Developer The Coalition will drop a new update for Gears 5 on PC, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X|S on March 2. The update makes some changes to the game as part of Operation 6, Gears 5's new season of content that is said to be a few weeks shorter than previous seasons.

Operation 6 introduces two new game modes to Gears 5: Control and Escape from Kadar. As part of the Versus playlist, Control is similar to King of the Hill but with a couple of modifications, such as requiring players to sit in captured zones to accrue points and placing individual player respawns behind a brief timer. Escape from Kadar is a Horde event that sees players attempt to withstand a 10-wave bout against "unique Locust enemies."

The new season of content adds some playable characters to the roster as well. This includes Colonel Victor Hoffman, the Locust Zealot, and Kait Diaz's mom Queen Reyna. The Coalition shared a new reveal trailer for Operation 6 briefly showcasing what players can expect.

Operation 6 also comes with a host of updates to Gears 5. Character issues related to clipping and needless dialoguing have been fixed while problems on maps like Foundation and Nexus have been ironed out. PvP and PvE also get a few adjustments. For example, "Gnashers Only" modes in PvP will no longer spawn players with no weapon. Check the full patch notes below.

Gears 5: Operation 6 goes live on March 2 on PC, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X|S.

Update: The LazarBeam Fortnite skin reveal has debuted. You can see pics of the skin below or watch the reveal video for yourself. According to the reveal and the official press release from Epic Games, the set will be available on March 4 at 4 PM PT / 7 PM ET. It comes with the LazarBeam outfit, Lunch Break emote, Ol' Mate Sledgy Pickaxe, and the Baby Gingy Back Bling.

A tournament is also set to take place a day before the skin goes live, on March 3, where players can compete in Duos to unlock the bundle before it's available in the Item Shop. Find out more details from Epic Games.

Original story follows...

Epic Games will be revealing the next in its "Icon Series" of Fortnite skins, which honor popular content creators by modeling them in the cartoon Fortnite style. This time it's LazarBeam's turn, and the streamer is promoting a reveal to take place at 2 PM PT / 5 PM ET today, March 1.

You can view the reveal below when it goes live. As usual we expect the cosmetics to include a skin, emote, and some gear like custom back bling and pickaxe.

A trademark that Bungie originally filed in 2020 is making the rounds again this week, prompting speculation that the Destiny studio may have plans for its own convention.

Bungie's trademark for "BungieCon," which was originally filed in summer 2020, covers all manner of products, including jewellery, trading cards, pants, and boots, along with something more befitting its name.

The Goods & Services description states that BungieCon could apply to the "organizing and conducting [of] fan conventions in the fields of video and computer games."

The connection people are making here is that Bungie has plans to hold its own fan convention. This potential idea is further bolstered by the news back in 2017 that Bungie had trademarked "DestinyCon."

If Bungie is indeed planning a fan convention, that might explain the other Goods & Services descriptions for things like jewellery, trading cards, and clothing. It's not uncommon for those types of things to be sold at a convention.

Combined, it appears that Bungie is at least interested in the idea of a fan convention, or even less than that; that it wants to get the trademark to protect its future opportunity to use that name for a fan convention should the developer ever want to do this.