May 2021

At first glance, Welcome To Elk looks like the bright and breezy cousin of Die Gute Fabrik's alien soap opera Mutazione. Both feature young women travelling to a new island community for the first time, and while Elk swaps Mutazione's balmy tropical forests for the frozen hunts of a small Arctic fishing village, each game plays out in a very similar fashion.

You spend a lot of time getting to know the locals, and every now and again you'll play a small, reasonably inconsequential mini-game to advance the story. But beneath Welcome To Elk's cheery cartoon exterior lies a tale of surprising depth and human tragedy, as the tales you hear and the people you meet aren't just made-up creations of developer Triple Topping. They're all people and events that are based in fact and have happened in real-life, and the resulting story is as affecting as it is disarming.

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Five new Demon Slayer characters will become Gashapon at the end of May, and the first lineup is also making a return!

The post Bandai Announces Five New Demon Slayer Gashapon Figures appeared first on Siliconera.

Blizzard has lost another two million players across its titles.

Reporting its latest financial results, Activision Blizzard said Blizzard specifically saw 27m monthly active users in the first quarter of 2021.

As MassivelyOP points out, that's down from the 29m MAUs Blizzard had in the previous quarter. In fact, Blizzard has lost almost 29 percent of its overall active player base in three years.

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Epic Games head honcho Tim Sweeney petitioned Xbox boss Phil Spencer to ditch Microsoft's Xbox Live Gold requirement for free-to-play games last summer.

The exchange is one of several revealing, private emails sent between company top brass made public as part of the ongoing Apple vs Epic Games trial.

Last August, Sweeney emailed Spencer to suggest Microsoft drop the F2P Xbox Live Gold firewall and time it alongside Fortnite's Marvel season launch and permanent V-Bucks price-drop.

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Activision has committed to an autumn 2021 release for this year's Call of Duty game.

During a financial call last night, Activision confirmed for the first time that Call of Duty WW2 developer Sledgehammer is leading development of this year's title.

Eurogamer has already reported Sledgehammer is making Call of Duty WW2 Vanguard.

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The way the world discovers its new favourite musician is changing. Gone are the days of finding the next One Direction, Camila Cabello or Susan Boyle on popular television programming. It's been a while since we've had a breakout star from the world of televised reality competitions. The last ones were arguably Louisa Johnson who won The X Factor in 2015 and Becky Hill who made it to the semi-finals of The Voice in 2014.

This is not to say these kinds of shows haven't worked in the past. Some of music's biggest titans started out facing TV judges. Beyonce, Britney Spears and Justin Timberlake were first introduced to the world on the American TV show Star Search, which ran from 1983 to 1995. In more recent years in the UK however, TV shows centered around competitive singing haven't been moving on to the next round, so to speak. The most popular singing show in the UK is The X Factor, but viewing figures started to drop in 2010. The show went from an average of 14.3 million viewers that year to roughly 12.41 million viewers in 2011. By 2019 it was at 2.95 million, losing to its competitor The Voice, which had 4.6 million viewers.

These new variants show a more sinister side of these heroes.

The post Fire Emblem Heroes Forces of Will Banner Feature Dimitri and Edelgard appeared first on Siliconera.

Egosoft have just released X3: Farnham’s Legacy, a free game in their incredibly long-running space sandbox series (the first was released way back in 2005). The game was crafted by the Egosoft community, and is free to owners of X3: Albion Prelude. Hey, I own X3: AP! Yay for me! And hopefully yay for you, too.

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The Epic Games vs Apple antitrust trial started on Monday, and a bunch of internal documents that the companies probably didn't want to be leaked online have been made public. It's not just Epic and Apple's private info being revealed, however. Confidential emails found amongst the court documents detail Walmart's plans for their cloud gaming service, Project Storm, which they pitched to Epic back in 2019.

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The much-anticipated Legacy update for Apex Legends arrived last night, and while Apex saw record numbers of Steam players and a huge audience on Twitch, it wasn't exactly a smooth launch. The high demand meant many couldn't get into matches, while players also reported problems with the in-game menus and marketplace.

Legacy went live at 6pm UK last night, but as you can see from the Twitter thread by Respawn below, it took about eight hours for Respawn to iron out all the problems with the servers. Following matchmaking problems across all platforms, the marketplace went down, while some players found that their cosmetic preferences had been reset to default skins. Respawn explained this was a "minor side effect" of a fix, and told players to re-equip their cosmetic items through the menus.

Hilariously, there were some other strange side-effects to all of this in-game, including some extremely low-poly versions of Apex Legends characters. Or is that just the leaked mobile version?

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Housemarque has warned Returnal players to turn auto-update off on their PlayStation 5 ahead of the release of the game's first big patch tonight.

The developer tweeted to say Returnal players should to this "to keep your run".

The warning comes amid calls from some Returnal players for Housemarque to add a save and quit option to the roguelite.

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Plans for a Detective Pikachu film sequel were in the works following the successful launch of Pokémon's live-action big screen debut but now, on the film's second anniversary, we have our clearest indicator yet we won't see a Detective Pikachu 2 after all.

Here is the film's star (no, not Pikachu) Justice Smith, being asked if he'd still be up for it:

"I would love to participate in Detective Pikachu 2. I don't know if it's going to happen," Smith told Inverse. "I think we have to just kind of bury our hopes. I don't think it's going to happen. I really hope so though. Honestly, I'm such a huge fan, who knows, who knows? I hope so."

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In mind-blowing but completely believable news, it has been discovered that Epic Games' Fortnite — undeniably one of the biggest global phenomenons in the history of video games — raked in over $9 billion USD during its operation period of 2018 to 2019.

The ridiculous figure, brought to the forefront by The Verge, was released as part of the ongoing antitrust battle between Fortnite publisher Epic Games and industry overlord Apple. During the first day of the eyebrow-raising trial, a document was released from a January 2020 in-house presentation, revealing that the battle royale title made $5.4 billion in 2018, followed by $3.7 billion the following year, for a total over $9.1 billion in just two years.

Given the reduction in revenue between these two years, Epic predicted the downward trend would continue, and that Fortnite would make in the region of $2.7 billion in 2020. Instead, the figure actually increased, with players spending $5.1 billion in a year that turned out to be incredibly profitable for a large portion of the video game industry. The document also notes that Epic's sales platform, Epic Games Store, made $235 million during the 2018-2019 period, though it should be reiterated that, despite this, EGS currently operates at a loss.

If the Resident Evil Village demo wasn’t scary enough, just you wait. I have something that’ll give you the absolute heebies. Mods have already snuck out for Capcom’s horror game, extending the demo’s time limit, but I wasn’t ready for what was to follow. Prepare yourself for the nightmare fuel that is this Lady Dimitrescu/Thomas the Tank Engine mashup.

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Games where you get to play as tiny people and creatures have always delighted me, and now there's a game that throws mechs into that mix - a match made in heaven. Stonefly is an upcoming game made by the developers of Creature In The Well, where you play as a tiny inventor who flies around in bug mechs. It has a gorgeous art style and a colourful world, and it comes out on June 1st.

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Where there is the ability to mod, there is Thomas the Tank Engine. It's a tradition at this point, so when good ol' Thomas made it into the latest Resident Evil, no one can really claim to be surprised. That's right; a new Resident Evil Village mod has arrived from the short demo and this time it transforms Lady Dimitrescu (Big Tall Vampire Lady) into Thomas the Tank Engine. 

If you follow my weekly Mod Corner column, you'll know I frequent Nexus Mods to an obsessive degree. This one particular gaming take, however, is the one I was looking for. It's even better than the Barney one I shared yesterday for Village that brings in the world's friendliest dinosaur into the mix. 

The mod is simple (and free). It's a simple reskin of Alcina Dimitrescu to remake her face into the frightening likeness of Thomas the Tank Engine. It's pretty easy to use, you're just going to want to make sure you have the Fully Mod Manger for RE8 and JT's mod to replace the daughters with Lady D herself. Obviously, this mod will be undergoing changes once the game fully launches, but for now? Enjoy this sweet gameplay video of Lady Thomas the Tank in action: 

Biomutant has the potential to become a hidden gem when it's released on May 25. The long-in-development game offers a wacky blend of open-world exploration, multiple forms of traversal, a deep martial arts combat system, and choice-driven storytelling – all led by your furry, gene-spliced hero. If you’re like me, you probably just want the game to come out already and have seen everything needed to convince you of a purchase.

However, if you still have some lingering questions about Biomutant, I had a chance to sit in on a hands-off gameplay demonstration where I learned new details while getting clarification on some previously revealed features. Here’s a rapid-fire list of information that serves as the final primer for Biomutant before we finally dig in later this month. 

What’s The Story Premise For Biomutant?

We still don't have any extensive plot details, but developer Experiment 101 says Biomutant's story consists of three narrative pillars:

Let's take a trip back. Back to 2017, when the world was eagerly anticipating the release of The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and pandemics were reserved for Steven Soderbergh movies. 

Four years ago, developer Experiment 101 announced Biomutant, an intriguing open-world RPG. The game features bizarre yet adorable anthropomorphic creatures in a post-apocalyptic world and was supposedly dropping in 2018. But then, the calendar started to turn, and the window came and went. But now, with the official release date of May 25 rapidly approaching, Biomutant's arrival is imminent, but will it live up to the years of anticipation and hype?

While we won't know the full answer to that question until the official release, our preview time with Biomutant is making all the right impressions. Experiment 101's open-world feels alive and jam-packed with tons of weird enemies to fight, gorgeous skylines to gawk at, and a bounty of traversal options to keep players moving. 

When developer Experiment 101 announced Biomutant back in 2017, gamers were instantly charmed with its beautiful dystopian play space. But what's a bizarre anthropomorphic world without a weird yet charming main character? In today's video, Marcus Stewert and I are giving you an in-depth look at how to create your character in this new open-world RPG.

One of the strong selling points of Biomutant thus far is the game's ability to allow players to have a lot of creative freedom while making their new furry friends. At the beginning of the game, those who pick up a controller will be tasked with customizing everything from the protagonist's physical features and colors, to their class and stats. Now, I know what you're thinking. This isn't exactly a revolutionary advancement in the RPG space. But players who do pick up Biomutant (or watch this awesome video) will find something deeper. 

You'll have six different breeds to choose from, and once you've decided on if you'll be a Dumdon, Primal, Rex, Murgel, Hyla, or Fip, you'll be tasked with changing the creature's appearance even more when choosing which stats to prioritize. That's not even including the multitude of different classes, colors, and environmental resistances you can choose from as well.

With the upcoming Back 4 Blood, fans of zombie survival shooters look to have their hands full as they fight back against massive hordes. With plenty of Left 4 Dead inspiration, players already had a chance to dig in for a little action earlier this year, and now Turtle Rock is showing off some of the variance you can have from run to run via the card system. With Turtle Rock being the ones that brought us Left 4 Dead in the first place, the inspirations are hardly surprising, but things like the card system add new and important wrinkles to the classic team survival elements.

By creating decks as you progress through each run, every game is different and presents a multitude of possibilities to the player and groups. While we got a brief look at these decks and options in the prior gameplay reveals, today’s trailer digs deeper into card structure and how this mechanic impacts your runs. Take a look at the card system trailer below!

Earlier this year, Jade Raymond left her position at Google Stadia to create her own studio called Haven. Now, she's adding to her roster of incredible talent, including more senior-level devs from SG&E team, the studio working specifically on Stadia. General manager Sebastien Puel and SG&E's head of creative services and publishing, Corey May, are among the latest developers to join her new venture. 

Cyberia on Resetera broke the news, linking the professional profiles of both former employees tied to Stadia showing the change in direction. Other names that have made the jump over to Haven under Raymond's leadership include former staff UX researcher Jonathan Dankoff as Haven's insights director, Erwann Le Rouzic, Francis Denoncourt, and Pierre-Marc Bérubé. 

Additionally, pre-orders will include a special bonus.

The post The World Ends With You Anime OST to Release in June appeared first on Siliconera.

While the top five might not surprise you, the overall top ten list may.

The post One Piece Top Ten Most Popular Characters Worldwide Revealed appeared first on Siliconera.

The game has never looked better

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Turtle Rock offers a closer look at B4B’s rogue-lite elements

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Float and vibe along in Flight School’s upcoming adventure

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Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order is kind of a weird game! I mean, I didn't expect Electronic Arts to release a full single-player Star Wars experience that wasn't nickel and dimed into oblivion, but here we are.

Fallen Order managed to carve out a nice little fanbase since 2019, and it's been deemed worthy enough of a current-gen upgrade later this year. For free, no less! Its legacy continues. This week, in fact! If you're on the fence about Fallen Order, you can climb it for free starting this week and take your ball and go home.

It's part of Stadia's "Pro" subscription now, which allows players to claim games for free to their account. Note that "free with a subscription" is always a qualifier, but if you give the Stadia Pro trial a shot, you can finish it over the course of a few days. Think of it like a rental!

Other Stadia Pro games currently on offer include Trine 4, Resident Evil 7 (Gold Edition), Hitman Season 1, Floor Kids, and Ys VIII. It's a good spread, and a hell of a collection of games to spend a weekend on if you trial up.

Stadia Pro [Google]

Resident Evil Village isn't out yet, but its mod scene has already kicked off.

NexusMods' Village page is filling up quick with eye-catching mods for Village's ongoing demo, and, yes, the one I'm going to pull out is about Lady Dimitrescu.

The Count Theodora mod, created by Crazy Potato, replaces Lady Dimitrescu's head with Thomas the Tank Engine. It is as nightmarish as it sounds. Check out Crazy Potato's video, below, to see it in action:

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Why use free Counter-Strike: Global Offensive stat tracking websites like csgostats.gg or Leetify when you can now pay a $.99 monthly subscription fee for Valve’s official and less comprehensive CS:GO 360 Stats service? Because they’re free and more comprehensive? Ah.

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Activision Blizzard intends to bring all of its franchises to mobile platforms in some form, according to company COO and president Daniel Alegre. ...

Call of Duty developer Sledgehammer Games has opened a new studio in Toronto, Canada. ...

Joe Taslim is amazing, but so are two kids in a blue trenchcoat

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Bungie officially revealed what's next with Destiny 2: Season of the Splicer, including new gear, transmog, a new 6-player matchmaking activity, and heckin' awesome class swords. What wasn't initially apparent was that there is apparently a hidden code within the trailer, which is appropriate given that the entire scope of season 14 is hacking the Vex network. 

The Season of the Splicer trailer had a lot to unpack (did you see those adorable Fallen babies?!) but it also included binary code that players noticed during certain frames. With each new frame, filled with vibrantly bright colors, came a new binary code and it didn't take long before the Destiny community to get started on cracking the case.

Content Creators receiving videos, binary hidden inside from r/raidsecrets

Several edits later after a team effort to decode what the hidden message could mean, it was revealed to be a code (with huge help from the RaidSecrets discord) for a new themed emblem. The emblem is free and is pretty cool. I went to Bungie's code redemption page to see if it still worked, and it did! You can see it in my screenshot below: 

While we continue to wait for a Halo Infinite release date other than the anticipated November 2021 window, the team over at 343 Industries has a different sort of Master Chief-inspired project to share. Using the Jazwares action figure line, the stop-motion series called World of Halo just debuted its first episode. You can watch it below. Spoiler alert: It's pretty awesome. 

The Jazwares line is surprisingly detailed for being a mere four inches tall and seeing them in action in this format is kind of cool to see as a Halo fan myself. From a fight to death with the iconic energy sword to seeing some of the most recognizable enemies in the Halo-verse, the first episode of this series has us pretty excited to see what's next. Especially being a massive collector. 

Master Chief's badassery, glowing energy swords, grunts screaming in panic – what more could you want? Other than a Halo Infinite gameplay trailer, but don't worry about that. 343 Industries has recently confirmed that a new gameplay reveal is coming this summer to show off what the team has been working on since criticism hit about its next-gen graphics. 

People have a chance to see some of the Tears of Themis SSRs they could collect and cases they could solve.

The post Tears of Themis SSRs and Case Files Shared Ahead of Closed Beta appeared first on Siliconera.

Photographer and Bloody Queen will get figures that show off their unique abilities.

The post Identity V Figures Will Feature Bloody Queen and Photographer appeared first on Siliconera.