April 2021

Stone Ocean will follow the journey of Jolyne Cujoh

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From The First Avenger to The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, Marvel has defined the hero in a consistent way

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Outside of the fun team-based gameplay, Overwatch events have continued to be a main draw for its dedicated playerbase. These events — from the Summer Games to Winter Wonderland — usually introduce new arcade game modes, cosmetics, sprays, emotes, victory poses, and play of the game cutscenes. Overwatch’s Archives event goes a step further by including PVE story missions that provide more details about the Overwatch universe and the colorful personalities that inhabit it. As you might have already guessed, the Archives event has returned. 

Prepare to experience the past while fighting for the future.

The Overwatch Archives are back starting April 6! pic.twitter.com/whwjyGL9T2

PlayStation Now subscribers are getting a big dose of superhero content this month. Sony announced that Marvel’s Avengers will be a part of the batch of games hitting the library for April. Crystal Dynamics' multiplayer hero title will join Borderlands 3 and The Long Dark.

All three games will be available tomorrow, April 6. Marvel’s Avengers will be available to subscribers until July 5. The game puts players and their friends in the boots of Earth’s mightiest heroes in a game that combines action, RPG, and live-service elements to mixed results. 

Meanwhile, subscribers have until September 29 to dive into Borderlands 3. The multiplayer looter-shooter landed during the fall 2019 and brings the explosive gameplay and irreverent writing to a new generation of players. You can read our review here. 

Sometimes pacifism can be the path to victory. That often isn't the case in competitive shooters, but Reddit user Pinkys Brain somehow managed to net a solo victory in Call of Duty: Warzone without harming another individual. When this incredible feat was achieved, Pinkys_Brain pulled out a camera and recorded the post-match statistics to verify no kills were made, and no damage was dealt.

In the Reddit comments section, Pinkys_Brain said a pacifist run wasn't necessarily the game plan. "I was waiting to fight people in the final circle, and they got stuck at the bottom of a hill and died in the gas." Pinkys_Brain netted a score of 4,900 and somehow managed to complete a contract along the way.

There's a good chunk of games (especially from big publishers) I kind of avoid until they're basically out. "No, I don't want to watch this NPC backstory video. Call me when it's out!"

Our own Jordan Devore can't count the number of times I've asked "is [x] out yet?" whenever he's tasked with covering a specific beat. It's weird to think about now, but Fortnite was a big one. When it was just the "Save the World" edition I never really bothered to pay attention to its development process until it was finally out.

Outriders is another big one. It's one of those huge releases that is whispered in the wind, and I'll see it when I see it. Well, I saw it! And it's better than some of the other ill-fated looter shooters in recent memory, but it still has plenty of issues.

As soon as both Destiny games launched, players managed to spy hundreds of potential quality of life upgrades in a matter of days.

While internal testing can't match a wide rollout, Bungie has implemented some very questionable mechanics in their live service games; and either remain steadfast in their choices or (very) slowly adjust them. Vendors are getting just that as season 14 kicks off.

Detailing the alterations on their blog, Bungie notes that Destiny 2's Ada-1 will be headlining the transmog (change gear appearance) system, which is dubbed "Armor Synthesis." Basically, Ada-1 will dish out a random combat style armor mod each day on top of a random armor mod. This system is to alleviate the FOMO from folks who missed out on Year 3 gear. Ada-1 also has a weekly table of armor and sells materials just like Banshee-44.

Speaking of, that little gun peddler won't sell armor mods anymore, as that duty now falls on Ada-1. But now Banshee-44 is getting an upgrade by selling six weapons from the world loot pool with perk rolls. Basically, it's another reason to actually check him out.

Adding more flavorful NPC vending options is a win for me. Often times going to the Tower feels like a chore, with rote vendors that don't really pop, so hopefully Ada-1's duties will make these necessary trips a little more fun. Cut down load times on current generation consoles already help a lot. I can remember lengthy multi-minute loads for Tower visits in the original Destiny!

This Week at Bungie [Bungie.net]

As the popular battle royale genre continues to search for new locations, realms, and even eras with which to wreak its multiplayer mayhem, fledgling studio Team GRIT has announced its intention to take the Last Person Standing concept back to the wild west, with the announcement of a brand new hard-shooting free-for-all: Grit.

Currently in development for PC, Grit will see 100 varmints take to the dust bowls, saloons, gold mines, and deserts of the Old West, engaging in tense, gun-slinging mayhem in hopes of becoming the last desperado in town come sundown. Looting trains and treasure will help kit out your cowboy with one of 20 different weapons, while scavenged poker cards will add various buffs and effects to your custom character's playstyle.

A new Shenmue 3 voice acting mod brings back the original Ren and Lan Di actors to reprise their roles.

The post Shenmue 3 Mod Brings Back Lan Di and Ren Voice Actors appeared first on Siliconera.

The upcoming stream will feature Suda51, Mafia Kajita, and Botan from Hololive.

The post No More Heroes 3 April 2021 Live Stream Will Have New Information appeared first on Siliconera.

Tasomachi: Behind the Twilight, an adventure designed by nocras and with music from Ujiko*, will release on PCs next week.

The post Tasomachi Will Release on PCs Next Week appeared first on Siliconera.

A group of independent developers known as Team SCU recently released a demo for Prime 2D, an impressive side-scrolling remake of 2002’s Metroid Prime that has been in the works for over 15 years. After spending some time with it, I can say it was definitely worth the wait, even if Nintendo’s lawyers are no doubt…

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Watching The Nevers—HBO’s new epic fantasy series created by Joss Whedon, who’s no longer involved with the show—can be overwhelming. “Victorian ladies with superpowers” is already a high-concept idea, but The Nevers, while entertaining, somehow finds a way to make things even busier.

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An analysis of what makes for compelling storytelling in games, and a proposed set of guidelines for maximizing the intrinsic advantages of video game narration. ...

Microsoft Flight Simulator add-on developers are continuing to work around the clock to deliver new scenery for the growing and popular sim.

Today Onfinal Studio announced it they will release Stokmarknes Airport, Skagen (ENSK) in Norway.

It’s a small but scenic airport host to scheduled flight by Widerøe, and you can check out the first two screenshots below.

Slowly but surely, Sony’s PlayStation Now streaming service has been improving leaps and bounds over the past 18 months, and today the service is announcing another three games coming in April that make it all the more appealing. From April 6, Marvel’s Avengers, Borderlands 3, and The Long Dark will be made available.

PlayStation Now games for April: Marvel’s Avengers, Borderlands 3, and The Long Dark, all available to play starting tomorrow: https://t.co/XRje3Lakf8 pic.twitter.com/Qj8JQve6WN

— PlayStation (@PlayStation) April 5, 2021

It’s the first two that really catch the eye; Marvel’s Avengers wasn’t received all that well critically but still finished 2020 as one of the year’s best-selling games. Borderlands 3, meanwhile, was one of the previous year’s big standouts, earning rave reviews and smashing sales records for the franchise. Certainly, both are major additions to PS Now’s growing library of games.

As for The Long Dark, the first-person exploration-survival experience is now more than five years old, but it’s still absolutely worth checking out if you’re a fan of the genre. You can read Twinfinite’s tips and tricks for the game if you’d like a helping hand getting started.

With the dust having settled from Re:Zero’s second season, it’s safe to say the series has moved forward in some big ways. Big reveals have been made, and Subaru has inched closer to uncovering the truth behind the circumstances surrounding his new and fantastical life. Not every plotline has been tied up though, resulting in these five questions we still have after Re:Zero Season 2’s finale.

Spoiler Warning: The following goes into heavy detail about the plot of the first and second seasons of Re:Zero. If you want to avoid these spoilers, we recommend you don’t read any further.

Is Amazon’s new superhero show too faithful to the source material?

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Scrapped 3D platformer would have been Victor Belmont’s debut

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The GameCube classic, with a twist

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Reject modernity, embrace tradition

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Blizzard’s having a laugh while also teasing Overwatch 2

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A compilation of Atomic Heart gameplay trailers showcases visceral combat and a few highly-detailed locations that you’ll get to explore. From multi-floored museum-like arenas to lush forests with abandoned structures, Atomic Heart looks to offer blood-pumping action sequences within flashy, bombastic setpieces. 

Mundfish’s upcoming open-world RPG is set in an alternate reality where the USSR has made substantial technological advancements that push it decades ahead of any other world power. You play as a special KGB agent named P-3. Armed with a robust selection of firearms and melee weapons, you’ll traverse the various environments to unearth the secrets behind the Soviet Union’s creations while fighting off a bevy of the wild experiments that roam the land. 

The adversaries shown vary from cyborgs (they’re like an interesting cross between the ones in I, Robot and Alien: Isolation) to powerful monsters. There’s that terrifying beast that emerges from a hole in the ground that P-3 fights at the 5:25 mark, and the sauntering bear-man-thing with the bloody head at the 8:32 mark is the stuff of literal nightmares. Gameplay-wise, Atomic Heart reminds me of the first Bioshock game.

I can’t claim to be intimately familiar with Record of Lodoss War, but then, it’s a little scarce in the West. It started out as a “replay” of a group’s Dungeons and Dragons campaign, then spun out in about a million directions. We previously only got one of the games on the Dreamcast, and, frankly, I’m not sure how this one happened. A lot of the media remained in Japan.

Record of Lodoss War: Deedlit in Wonder Labyrinth is an absolute mouthful of a game that Playism has bestowed upon us. What’s immediately fetching about it is its outward similarities to Castlevania: Symphony of the Night. Just look at it and tell me you don’t see it. The title character, Deedlit, has practically the same walking animation as Alucard. But mockery is the sincerest form of flattery! No, wait…

Well, for a while it was actually a bit different. The past month has seen Monster Hunter Rise, Spider-Man Miles Morales, Super Mario 3D World + Bowser's Fury, and even Supergiant's excellent Hades all hit the number one spot. But normal order has been restored, and Electronic Arts' FIFA has returned to the top of the UK Charts.

The soccer sim managed to successfully push past Square Enix's Outriders to regain the physical sales throne, with the brand new RPG shooter debuting outside of the Top Five at number six. It should be noted that Outriders is also available as part of Xbox's paid gaming service, Xbox Game Pass, which will have cut into the title's physical launch numbers.

Outriders, like many modern looter shooters, can seem daunting at first. It's really not!

Here are a few quick tips to help you on your way.

It sounds like Apex Legends will be doing some more digging into the broader Titanfall universe. Respawn Entertainment's battle royale is in the same setting as the Titanfall series, though not the same point in time; and with Season 9, it sounds like Apex will be leaning more into that side of things.

As reported by Dexerto, a recent panel hosted by Brown Girl Gamer Code brought on several Apex developers. During the discussion, game director Chad Grenier said there was more in store for Titanfall content crossing over into Apex Legends.

"Next season, Season 9, you're actually going to see a ton of Titanfall coming back into the game in one way or another," said Grenier. "I've told some people before, if you're a Titanfall fan, hang on for Season 9 because there's gonna be some really cool stuff there."

Senior writer Ashley Reed also discussed how Apex Legends' place in the timeline informs the relationship between the battle royale and the universe at large.

Siliconera spoke with Kira Buckland about voicing Cris Tales' heroine, her impressions of Crisbell, and how she tackles acting challenges.

The post Interviews: Cris Tales’ Kira Buckland Talks About Voice Acting Challenges appeared first on Siliconera.

Build-a-Bear sent out a notice to people who signed up for Animal Crossing collection emails and announced sales will open for it tomorrow.

The post Animal Crossing Build-a-Bear Orders Open Tomorrow appeared first on Siliconera.

Sucker Punch Co-Founder Brian Fleming discussed transitioning from inFamous development to Ghost of Tsushima in an April 2021 GDC showcase.

The post Sucker Punch Co-Founder Compared inFamous and Ghost of Tsushima Development appeared first on Siliconera.

A free update to a masterpiece? That adds full voice acting, new quests, and a slew other of bonus features? Gee, I’m sure Steam users are hating that.

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Monday’s Best Deals | Kinja Deals

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On Monday, in a rather surprising turn of events, Arkansas’s Republican Governor Asa Hutchinson vetoed HB 1570, a bill that would ban gender-affirming care for trans youth in the state, which sailed through Arkansas’s Republican-dominated legislature.

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Anker PowerWave Charging Pad | $8.50 | Amazon | Use Promo Code ANKER2503

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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.

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And a possible time-travel plotline?

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The Borderlands movie was first announced back in 2015. Now that Eli Roth is set to direct it and a bevy of Hollywood stars like Cate Blanchett, Jamie Lee Curtis, Jack Black, and Kevin Hart make up an ever-growing cast, the film’s box office outlook is looking more and more promising. Édgar Ramirez (American Crime Story, Carlos) is the latest actor to join the film. He will play Deukalian Atlas, the mind behind the renowned Atlas Corporation that develops some of the most well-balanced guns in the franchise. 

In the Borderlands film in production with Lionsgate and Arad Productions, Edgar Ramirez will play the role of Deukalian Atlas, the Founder and CEO of the Atlas Corporation. pic.twitter.com/28ADh5nNTW

— Randy Pitchford (@DuvalMagic) April 5, 2021

Moreover, according to ComicBook, the Borderlands movie’s synopsis has also been unveiled. The official press release provides more details and reads as follows:

Outriders released this past weekend to positive reviews and is performing well thanks to its inclusion on the Xbox Game Pass roster. Join PC Editor Dan Tack for a special episode of Game Informer Live, wherein he dives into the Outriders endgame Expedition missions and shows off his tricked-out Technomancer build. The Technomancer is a class that specializes in long-range gameplay and servers as the game's support role. If you play this class you'll be able to utilize snipers, turrets, and toxic debuffs to slowly eat away at an enemy's healthbar. We're showing off an endgame Technomancer build that utilizes the Pestilence skill tree that focuses on damage-over-time abilities that can quickly dismantle larger targets and bosses in Outriders. 

Not exactly sure which class you should play in Outriders? Be sure to check out this quick guide that will help you decide, which describes the Technomancer:

After hearing the PSP, Vita, and PS3 store shutdown news last week, I was disappointed, but I wasn't as fired up as some. More like all-around bummed and tired. We're really doing this, Sony? Welp, okay.

With the recent clarification that we'll still be able to download our purchases after the store closures (for the time being, anyway), I had planned to procrastinate on getting my libraries in order. July 2 – the PS3 and PSP store shutdown date – felt far enough away that I didn't need to spring into action.

With that "I'll get around to it later" mentality, on Friday, I began poking around various forums and communities to refresh myself on which digital-only games and cost-effective buys are worth looking into before it's too late. Tomba costs how much on disc nowadays? Okay, sure, another PS1 Classic for the list. Next thing I knew, I was in the researching groove and I couldn't help myself. I went a bit nuts.