April 2021

BMX XXX sounds like a terrible idea on paper. It’s technically a perversion of the Dave Mirra Freestyle BMX series, which itself is a perversion of Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater. Acclaim decided that they weren’t making enough money on their "sort of okay" series, so they decided to add the only thing that could possibly bring them more attention: tits. BMX is, after all, the most erotic of sports. It basically boils down to a lot of straddling in fancy and inventive ways.

I like breasts as much as the next woman, but this came out while I was in high school, and even then it sounded like a cynical attempt to make sales with controversy. Of course, this was also at a time when I was trying to maintain the illusion that I wasn’t interested in flesh of any kind, so I would have passed it up anyway so that no one would discover my dark secret.

Now I’m an adult and I can explore my interests without having to worry about getting “the talk” from my parents. So, I’m going to take this game -- one that I’m probably going to hate -- and see how long it takes me to see a nipple. That is, after all, the main bullet point of this game. Also, I don’t count nipples that are visible through tops. You don’t get bonus points just because you don’t wear a bra.

I tell this story time and time again, but my introduction to Oddworld was completely by accident.

It was dropped into my lap by a family member, who heard I liked interesting adventure games and gifted me a PlayStation copy. Man, I'm glad that happened.

Visual novel fans hoping to take more of their libraries on the go are getting a new one this week. A Nintendo eShop listing shows that The House in Fata Morgana: Drams of the Revenants Edition is hitting the Switch eShop in North America on April 9, 2021.

The eShop listing popped up sometime recently, as noted by a few sharp observers. We reached out to publisher Limited Run Games for confirmation and a spokesperson confirmed that yes, it will be released digitally this Friday.

The House in Fata Morgana is a pretty well-regarded visual novel, sitting as one of the highest-rated stories by users on VNDB and overwhelmingly positive reviews on Steam. Though it was first released in Japan in 2012, it went worldwide on PC in 2016, with a run from Limited Run Games in 2019 for both the PlayStation Vita and PS4.

Set in a mansion throughout various time periods, it follows an attempt to regain lost memories by viewing past tragedies associated with the residents and their residence. I've managed to keep myself pretty unspoiled on what more happens, but given the praise I've seen for The House in Fata Morgana, it's definitely jumping up my backlog.

You don't see Zelda: Breath of the Wild motorcycle stunt videos as often as other clips.

I mean, that's because it takes work to unlock it! To get the Master Cycle Zero, you need to finish the Champion's Ballad DLC, which not everyone even owns, much less has the gumption to finish. But if you do, it's a pretty rad reward in its own right, and allows for all sorts of open world shenanigans. Like this video from Redditor kneil95!

Short and to the sweet, like many classic Breath of the Wild stunt videos, they take the Master Cycle for a spin and get launched into the air by a waking Hinox. But the fun isn't over, as they whip out their bow and launch some slow motion explosives down at the unsuspecting foe. The landing is arguably the best part, with a Legolas style leap at the end.

The creator of the video was actually inspired by Aura over on Twitter, who is helping popularize Master Cycle stunt videos again. I can get down with this new wave! Every few months the community shifts to something new, showing off their take on a classic stunt. And of course, most people end their videos with the slow motion "no look" anime walk away.

There's an accepted etiquette at this point for these videos. That's how far we've come from "check out this random clip I made." One of the first-ever videos I remember watching ages ago was the "bear is on fire" clip.

I was inspired to try this out [Reddit]

A Save Me Mr. Tako Definitive Edition is on the way to the Switch and PC, with Limited Run Games handling Switch physical copies.

The post Save Me Mr. Tako: Definitive Edition Will Debut in May appeared first on Siliconera.

The latest Xbox Insider program update nixes the Xbox Live Gold requirement for free-to-play (F2P) Xbox games for users in the Xbox Insider Alpha & Alpha Skip Ahead rings. The change will roll out to other Xbox Insider levels in the coming weeks, and, hopefully, everyone else soon after.

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A recently published study likens loot box mechanics to gambling while also exploring the complicated reasons why players are attracted to those purchases. ...

We look at an interesting widening of Apple Arcade†™s subscription service, Steam's new European cookie rules, and lots more. ...

Grab April 2021’s Games with Gold Before It’s Too Late Read More »

Build-A-Bear’s Animal Crossing stuffed animals will drop will little warning

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Nier Replicant ver. 1.22474487139 is just a few weeks away from its April 23 release, and we got our hands on the updated version of Yoko Taro’s beloved cult hit that started it all. The original game launched over a decade ago on PS3/Xbox 360, and now fans and newcomers alike are getting the opportunity to play it with quality-of-life improvements, such as adjustments to the gameplay and enhanced visuals.

Following the outstanding Persona 5 and Persona 5 Royal in 2017 and 2020 respectively, we were ecstatic to dive back into the world of the Phantom Thieves in an all new adventure. Persona 5 Strikers gave us pause when it was first announced since it deviated away from the turn-based combat and social simulation elements that have proven so integral to the series, but the finished product delivered a worthy follow-up journey starring our favorite cast of Metaverse-infiltrating heart stealers.

Now that we're more than a month following the game's acclaimed release, we caught up with Atlus producer Daisuke Kanada and Koei Tecmo director Kazutoshi Sekiguchi to learn about how the collaboration came to be, how the team remained authentic to the Persona 5 characters and stories, and what the themes of trauma throughout the story say about the way people intend to live their lives.

Warning: The following article contains minor spoilers for Persona 5 Strikers.

How did this project come to exist? Did Omega Force approach Atlus or was it the other way around?

Hitman developer IO Interactive announced last November their next project is a James Bond title that will serve as an origin story for the iconic spy. In a recent interview with IGN, IO shed more light on how they’re building the game’s narrative and, most importantly, how it’s shaping its own take on 007. 

In an episode of IGN Unfiltered, IO CEO Hakan Abrak spoke with Ryan McCaffrey and confirmed that its Bond is 100% original and thus won’t use any existing movie likenesses. The studio is also drawing inspiration from Bond’s entire history, from the books to the films, to craft a whole new story untethered to any existing narratives. This approach speaks to the team’s desire for creating a version of Bond that is, his Abrak's words, "A Bond for the gaming industry". To learn more, you should visit the link above (or below) to read quotes from the full interview. 

Marvel's Avengers is doing it again. Although this new weekly War Table update has some tweaks, and the game just launched a second Hawkeye, the marketplace is the big focus this time. Such is the life of a live service game.

The skins in question this time around are the "Aerospace outfits," which come in a set for the entire team, including the new Hawkeyes. "Subsequent weeks" will swap new outfits in and out, so in addition to spending real cash on them, (900 premium currency, which is roughly $9), you'll also have the FOMO of getting matching costumes as a group.

This week, Captain America and Iron Man are up. Starting strong! Our community said that those two were in the top three most-used characters in our poll near launch. Who knows how many people still play, of course. If you want, you can also grab a Black Widow BW046 nameplate for free as promotion for the upcoming MCU film.

Marvel's Avengers is in such a weird spot. It wasn't the best-received game at launch, much less after a number of improvements. It's a learning experience for big publishers. Maybe coming out of the gate super strong with mobile service provider tie-ins and a huge push for live service isn't always beneficial when it alienates the people you want to monetize.

Still, there's plenty of life left in this game, and I'm curious to see where it goes. Black Panther and Spider-Man are up later this year, among others.

War Table [Avengers]

Mobcast Games opened pre-registration and is also running a promotion for free in-game currency.

The post Yu Yu Hakusho Genkai Battle Spirits Is a Step Closer to Launch appeared first on Siliconera.

Fans of the RPG Another Eden—out this month on PC—this week discovered that, alongside installing the game itself, copies of the game obtained on Steam were also installing something called ‘wfsdrv’ which seemingly had nothing to do with the game.

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In a mysterious new video (h/t Polygon), an off-camera player navigates through what appears to be a prototype of Castlevania: Resurrection, a canceled Sega Dreamcast game from the early 2000s. If legitimate, this is the first time gameplay footage has been made publicly available.

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We are looking for a talented game programmer to join our team and create high-quality game code for an unannounced third-person multiplayer project. ...

Pokemon Go's Rivals' Week event begins on April 13, developer Niantic has announced. In addition to spotlighting Pokemon that have rivalries with each other, the event will introduce a couple of new monsters to the game, including the Gen 6 Pokemon Skrelp and Clauncher, as well as Therian Forme Landorus.

Throughout the Rivals' Week event, you'll encounter various Pokemon known for their rivalries more frequently in the wild, including Hitmonlee, Hitmonchan, Seviper, Zangoose, and more. On top of that, Nidoking, Nidoqueen, and other monsters will appear as Raid bosses throughout the event, while the following Pokemon will hatch from 5 km eggs:

• Machop
• Tyrogue
• Elekid
• Magby
• Makuhita
• Meditite
• Zangoose
• Seviper

Several Pokemon are also making their Pokemon Go debut during the Rivals' Week event. Skrelp and Clauncher will be available for the first time in the game as Raid bosses and wild spawns, and you'll be able to evolve them into Dragalge and Clawitzer, respectively, when you've amassed enough candy. Therian Forme Landorus will also make its debut. The Legendary will appear in five-star Raids from April 13-27.

Amazon Prime Day has become one of the biggest sales events that budget-minded shoppers can count on every year, offering literally thousands of deals across every category imaginable, from tech and gaming to toys, kitchenware, beauty, apparel, and more. Prime Day has grown exponentially since its launch in 2015, expanding to take place over multiple days and offering tens of thousands of deals for Prime members to shop, but it's also forced competing retailers to hold their own anti-Prime Day sales to try to steal some of Amazon's thunder. The summer sales bonanza is almost on par with Black Friday at this point, with all the biggest stores offering best-of-year prices on their hottest items.

As a result, there's always a ton of interest leading up to the announcement of Amazon Prime Day, with Prime members and other shoppers anticipating when the sale will be, how long it'll last, and what special offers it will bring. While the details on Amazon Prime Day 2021 are currently slim, here's what you should know about Amazon Prime Day and what to expect from this year's sale based on previous years.

What is Amazon Prime Day?

Amazon Prime Day is a blowout sale the retailer throws every summer to offer steep discounts on thousands of products, exclusively for Prime members. The sale offers a mix of deals that end at different times--some will run for the full 48 hours, while others will only be available for one day. The hottest offers tend to be the lightning deals that may last for a few hours but usually sell out much sooner (sometimes in a matter of minutes).

As part of the Spring Into Spring event, a new Collection Challenge is underway in Pokemon Go. Like previous Collection Challenges, this one tasks you with capturing specific Pokemon within a limited time, with a special medal and other rewards up for grabs if you're able to complete the challenge.

In keeping with the motif of the Spring Into Spring event, the Pokemon you need to catch for this Collection Challenge are spring-themed. You'll have to capture 10 monsters in total to complete the Challenge. Fortunately, most of them will be appearing fairly frequently throughout the event, so you shouldn't have too much trouble. You can see the full list of Pokemon to catch, along with where to find them in the game, below.

The Masters Tournament, one of golf's four major championships, kicks off this Thursday. It's fairly common for golf games to be discounted during Masters week, and right now golf fans can save big on PGA Tour 2K21 on PlayStation and Xbox. Normally $60, you can snag digital copies for $19.79. While PGA Tour 2K21 doesn't have a next-gen update, it's backwards-compatible with PS5 and Xbox Series X|S and features significantly reduced load times. The Nintendo Switch edition isn't on sale on the eShop, but Amazon is selling physical copies for all three major console platforms for $30.

Developed by HB Studios, PGA Tour 2K21 is technically the latest entry in The Golf Club series. Just like its predecessors, PGA Tour 2K21 offers a superb golfing experience that aims for realism. It earned an 8/10 in GameSpot's PGA Tour 2K21 review. "PGA Tour 2K21 improves on the mostly stellar foundation of The Golf Club series, offering the most realistic and pure golf experience in a game to date," we wrote.

PGA Tour 2K21 deals

It's the beginning of another new month, and that means PlayStation Now has another new batch of games available. Coming to April's PlayStation Now lineup are Marvel's Avengers, Borderlands 3, and The Long Dark.

All of the above games will be available to play starting April 6. Marvel's Avengers will be available until July 5, 2021, and Borderlands 3 will be on PSN a little longer, leaving the service on September 29, 2021. There is currently no set date for when The Long Dark will leave PSN.

Marvel's Avengers released on August 20, 2020 and is an action-RPG brawler featuring--you guessed it--Marvel characters. The latest Marvel's Avengers update, Patch 1.5.0, brought Hawkeye Clint Barton onboard as a playable character and added a campaign replay feature. Patch 1.5.0 also gave PlayStation 4 and Xbox One players a free next-gen update, promising better visuals, improved destruction and Heroic detail, and significantly faster load times.

If you're looking for some fast storage for your gaming PC, Best Buy has a great deal on an NVMe SSD. For today only, the SanDisk Ultra 1TB NVMe SSD is only $100. That's a huge $130 discount from its regular $230 price.

The SanDisk Ultra will work great as a boot drive or even as extra storage for games. It features read speeds of up to 2,400MB/s and write speeds of up to 1,950MB/s. Those speeds aren't the fastest on the market, but they will be a huge jump over SATA-based SSDs and hard drives--you will absolutely notice the difference in load times and open-world performance.

The PS5 is expected to support expandable NVMe SSD storage in the future, but this SSD will not be compatible with the next-gen console whenever that update comes. Its speeds don't match that of the PS5's internal SSD, meaning it won't be able to store or run the console's next-gen games.

If you're looking for more savings, check out today's best deals. The brand-new Monster Hunter Rise is only $50 on Ebay, and you can get an excellent LG 27-inch gaming monitor for less than $300.

Call of Duty: Warzone has been teasing a major zombies event for months now, and it appears that the rumored destruction of the game's map might be just around the corner. The game's social media accounts recently posted in-universe (i.e. fictional) news broadcasts that claimed that the zombie situation is under control, but on Friday the zombies overcame the TV studio itself.

A recent update moved the zombies to Verdansk's TV station to go along with the storyline, and some of them have mutated to become more resistant to bullets. There are also machines on Verdansk that indicate the percentage of zombie spread, implying that they will continue to grow as the storyline progresses. Some have speculated that the game's new "bombardment" killstreak, which unleashes a cluster bomb on an entire area of the map, might be used as part of the anti-zombie initiative.

Apex Legends isn't known for its cute and cuddly characters, but a new piece of branded merch looks to change that. A pair of Nessie dolls are coming, perfect for sulking into after you were one shot away from being crowned match Champion. The new Nessie plushies are exclusive to Entertainment Earth.

The plushies are a reference to an Easter egg in Apex. Nessie dolls are scattered around King's Canyon and firing at them all in order will trigger a giant Nessie to briefly spawn in the swamp. The legendary creature has become popular among fans, having appeared on in-game items like charms and badges. These real plushies are modeled after the in-game item.

The Loch Ness Monster (aka Nessie) has been a longtime running gag and Easter egg in the Titanfall series, from which Apex originated. Apex's connections to that multiplayer mech combat game have sometimes been tenuous, but Respawn promises the coming Season 9 will make Titanfall fans happy by bringing back a lot of its elements.

In honor of this weekend's springtime holiday, game developers are sharing some of their favorite Easter eggs in games they've worked on. A Twitter thread asked devs to respond with "the best Easter eggs you ever hid in a game," and developers were happy to oblige.

The request from Vlambeer lead Jan Willem Nijman was followed by a treasure trove of Easter eggs in everything from big AAA releases to smaller indie games. The homages range from film references to hat-tips to other games to small in-jokes.

Both Uncharted 4 and Uncharted: The Lost Legacy have a camera-pan reminiscent of the Assassin's Creed franchise. All four Ninja Turtles weapons are tucked away in different spots in The Division. The original Plants vs Zombies: Garden Warfare has a background meant to evoke the island from Zelda: Wind Waker. The list goes on and on.

This comes just after a few other recently discovered Easter eggs, like the Last of Us 2 reference in Uncharted 4, or the "F--- the Oscars" reference in It Takes Two. You can see some of our favorites from developers below, and comb through the Twitter thread for even more.

Video chatting app Houseparty has expanded its livestreaming tools by letting Fortnite players on PC and PlayStation consoles stream gameplay to up to nine of their friends.

The feature is only available for PC, PlayStation 4, and PlayStation 5. There's no word on if it will become available to other platforms. Epic Games said it will "let everyone know if we're able to support more platforms in the future."

Those who connect their Fortnite account to the Houseparty app on their Android or iOS device can livestream their gameplay to up to nine of their friends and the friends of those in the Houseparty room. Users will get a notification when their friends are going live.

To livestream Fortnite using Houseparty, users must first download the app on their Android or iOS device. Once installed, link your Houseparty account to your Epic Games account. This will enable video chat and streaming on the app, as well as where it can be disabled. Open the app on your phone and connect to Fortnite through Settings. Join your friends like normal, boot up Fortnite on the specified consoles, and go live.

Epic Games and Houseparty unveiled the video chatting feature in Fortnite in November 2020. Epic responded to safety concerns at the time, saying that only a users face would be cropped and a Fortnite-themed background would scrub the rest. It's worth noting that since June 2019, Houseparty is owned by Epic.

April is officially underway, which means some new Field Research tasks and rewards are now live in Pokemon Go. In addition to the new rewards, Niantic is offering a new Research Breakthrough encounter this month. Each time you achieve a Research Breakthrough in April, you'll earn a chance to catch a male Frillish.

To achieve a Research Breakthrough in the game, you'll first need to earn seven stamps. You'll get one stamp for the first Field Research task you complete each day, so you'll need to complete tasks over at least seven days before you can catch Frillish. If you weren't able to achieve a Research Breakthrough last month, any progress you made will carry over, which will reduce the number of stamps you need to earn this month.

Unlike Special Research, which is assigned by Professor Willow, Field Research tasks are typically distributed at PokeStops and Gyms. You'll randomly receive one task from an overarching pool when you spin the Photo Disc, and the rewards for completing them may include Pokemon encounters or helpful items like berries and Poke Balls. You can see this month's Field Research tasks and rewards list, as compiled by The Silph Road, below.

Obsidian's survival game Grounded has been updated on all platforms to address a number of issues raised by the community and more. The new 0.8.1 update is out now on Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, and PC, and the patch notes are outlined below.

Starting off, bases built on certain objects will no longer return an "Unsupported" error when you try to load them. Additionally, melee and ranged attacks should now register more like they should, while you should experience less lag and hitching when looking at buildings. Furthermore, any backpacks that escape the game world will now resync with you.

Outside of these fixes, Grounded's trail market for the "Weed Killer Peak" quest will now show up in the right place, while any insects you've stuffed can be placed on furniture.

There are also some UI changes. Hammer build icons are now part of the "Toggle Trail Marker and Backpack" icons action, while the "Eat/Drink or Die" warning, along with the breath meter, should no longer become stuck on the screen after you respawn.

You can see the full list of patch notes below, as shared by Obsidian. The Microsoft-owned studio's next project is the RPG Avowed, which is set in the Pillars of Eternity universe.

A line in Outriders that appears to reference the January 6 insurrection in Washington DC is "purely coincidental," according to publisher Square Enix.

Outriders features a sci-fi story in which Earth has been abandoned for a new home, but various characters are old enough to remember their prior planet. In a dialogue exchange reminiscing about old times and swapping war stories, your player character makes a reference to saving your partner from a "redneck mob storming DC."

At a glance, this appears as if it could have been a reference to the January 6 storming of the United States Capitol building, in which supporters of former President Donald Trump attempted to overturn the 2020 election results. However, Square Enix says this isn't the case.

"We wrote and recorded the script for Outriders a couple of years ago and all aspects of it are entirely fictional and related to the backstory of the game," a spokesperson told Kotaku. "Any similarities to real-world events are purely coincidental."

Basing such a line on real-world events would have been difficult in any event, given that games require such long development times. The line of dialogue was already present in the game's demo, which was released on February 25. That was just under two months after the insurrection, so making, recording, and implementing the dialogue just afterwards would have been exceedingly quick.

Playdemic, the mobile game studio owned by Warner Bros., has announced a partnership with golfing great Bubba Watson for its golf game, Golf Clash.

This takes the form of a limited-time event that runs April 8-10 in the game, during which players can compete in what's being called Bubba's 9-Hole Cup. This is a three-round tournament set on the Southern Pines golf course.

While the tournament doesn't begin until April 8, you can check it out through a practice mode right now on iOS and Android.

In addition to the tournament itself, a series of Bubba-inspired items are coming to Golf Clash, including the Bubba Ball, the Bubba Tee, the Bubba Hole explosion, and a Bubba Emote that captures the golfer's "UR welcome" catchphrase. There is also a Bubba chat message--"High Bomb!"--that's coming to Golf Clash in this new event.

The ball, tee, explosion, emote, and chat message can also be purchased with real money.

What's more, a closest-to-the-pin mini-game called Bubba's One Shot Challenge is coming to Golf Clash as part of the event. It's live now through April 11. You can score the Bubba Ball if you get a hole in one, but that's not easy.

"The Golf Clash team has been a great partner to work with to come up with fun, innovative ideas, and I think the fans are really going to enjoy it," Watson said.

Personal information for over 500 million Facebook users was recently posted online on a hacking forum. According to Business Insider, the data includes phone numbers, Facebook IDs, full names, birthdays, bios, locations, and some email addresses.

The posted data includes users from 106 countries, with the vast majority of records coming from either the US, the UK, or India. Business Insider obtained a sample of the publicly available data and verified its contents by matching known Facebook users' phone numbers with information in the data set.

A Facebook spokesperson told Insider that the leaked data is the result of a data breach that occurred in 2019. The tech company patched the vulnerability that allowed hackers to scrape the set later that year. Alon Gal, the chief technology officer of the cybercrime intelligence firm Hudson Rock, told Insider that while the data is old, it can still be used by hackers and scammers to trick users into giving up their private information.

"A database of that size containing the private information such as phone numbers of a lot of Facebook's users would certainly lead to bad actors taking advantage of the data to perform social-engineering attacks [or] hacking attempts," Gal told Insider.