April 2022

A new Elden Ring patch has restored some power to Starscourge Radahn, a boss so delightful he has a whole festival celebrating him. A previous patch in mid-March made Radahn a pushover, see, and apparently that's partially because a "bug" caused the intended nerfs to go too far. So, they've fixed that bug, giving Radahn some power back, but still leaving him slightly less mighty than he originally was.

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Minecraft is being used to teach young people in schools about flooding.

A new mod, named Rivercraft, has been created and is currently being tested in a school in Preston, as detailed by Microsoft.

The mod was created in a collaboration between Minecraft, the Environment Agency and BlockBuilders, an organisation that specialises in digital youth engagement.

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Valve has revealed it is “ramping up Steam Deck shipments” now we are into the second quarter of the year.

"Welcome to Q2! We've just sent out the first set of order emails to Q2 reservers (in order of reservation time)," the Valve team tweeted.

"Starting today we're ramping up Steam Deck shipments and will be sending more order availability emails every week. Sometimes even twice a week!"

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Concept art for Overwatch 2 has raised the possibility that Blizzard's hero shooter sequel will include a battle pass.

A concept for the game's main menu, designed by Blizzard senior UI artist Jayson Kirby, has popped up online via Artstation (as spotted by Attack of the Fanboy).

The image shows a new look for the game's homepage, complete with familiar options to access its hero roster, shop and challenges - but also a separate battle pass option.

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An official Witcher cookbook is currently proving and will be released from the oven later this year.

Created by Anita Sarna and Karolina Krupecka of food blog Nerds' Kitchen (and Witcher Kitchen), it's officially licensed by CD Projekt Red and will feature 80 recipes inspired by Geralt’s travels in the games.

The book will include "meticulously-researched, immersive recipes that give fans a taste of the distinct flavours a witcher might sample as he travels the countryside in search of monsters to slay and coin to earn," according to the pre-order page.

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Following confusion over the project's future, the director of upcoming PS5 game Abandoned has spoken out about why developer Blue Box deleted various tweets about the game, the status of the game's prologue and his own "heartbreak" about the situation now surrounding the game's release.

Speaking to IGN, Hasan Kahraman of Blue Box Game Studios said the developer had removed older tweets about the game in a bid to keep information surrounding Abandoned up to date. "Basically, the tweets were deleted because some of the concept has changed, and I figured maybe just deleting the tweet and then tweeting more relevant information would be a better idea - which was actually not a good idea," Kahraman said.

"I have learned now just to keep them. Even if the information or concept changed, just keep the older information because people eventually will see for themselves what the difference is and then see what's more actual."

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Activision Blizzard employees have taken part in a planned strike in protest at the company's recent decision to drop its requirement that in-office staff are vaccinated.

Last week, the embattled World of Warcraft and Call of Duty maker announced it would no longer require office-based staff to have had Covid jabs, while encouraging a gradual return to in-person working over the coming months.

The decision, announced in an email by Activision Blizzard exec Brian Bulatao, was immediately criticised by staff who said it risked employees who may be immunocompromised or who lived with others who are, and was poorly timed as the US faces up to Covid's current Omicron BA2 subvariant.

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Chrono Cross: The Radical Dreamers Edition on Nintendo Switch

Do you ever wonder what your life would be like if you had made different choices? What would things be like if you had taken a different career path, or what if you had never met your closest friends or significant other?

Perhaps a single decision you made at one point in your life set you on a path that took you to where you are right now, reading this review. If you had made a different decision, would your life be the way it is today?

How would the world be different if you had died at a young age? Would it be any different at all?

Chrono Cross: The Radical Dreamers Edition explores these concepts and more. You play as a boy named Serge who lives in a quiet fishing village before he is transported to a parallel dimension. Here, everything and everyone seems similar, but he quickly learns a disturbing difference: in this alternate world, Serge died 10 years ago. He teams up with new friends who help defend him from Lynx, the main antagonist.

Today Aksys Games announced that it will bring west the recently-released (in Japan) Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid shoot ’em up by Bushiroad with the title Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid: Burst Forth!! Choro-gon☆ Breath.

The game will come this summer for PS4 and Nintendo Switch.

If you’ve not kept up with the news about it, here’s an official description directly from the press release.

“After being abducted by a cursed PC, the dragons and Miss Kobayashi must combine their powers to escape.

After receiving a cryptic email, Miss Kobayashi and her maids go to Takiya’s house to investigate. There they are mysteriously (and overdramatically, let’s face it) sucked into the PC. Help them clear stages by banding together and using their wits to defeat the computer. Using the 3-fold attack system of Long Range, Melee and the unique and deadly Choro-gon Breath (they’re dragons, get it?), you’ll obliterate the enemy! Combine the power of three with the Tag System by using Tohru, Kanna, and Elma to tackle each stage with Kobayashi’s support. There’s no enemy they can’t defeat! In certain conditions, activate the dragons’ Raging Spark to deal even deadlier damage!

As you progress, collect 30 unique Memorial Pieces of the friends’ precious daily life in beautiful illustrations created especially for the game!”

Platform: PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Switch, PC
Publisher: Blizzard Entertainment
Developer: Blizzard Entertainment
Release: TBA

Platform: PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Switch, PC
Publisher: Square Enix
Developer: Square Enix
Release: April 7, 2022
Rating: Teen

In recent years, Square Enix has been porting a portion of its hallowed JRPG library onto modern consoles in a plethora of ways. Titles from Final Fantasy, the Mana series, and more have found their way onto consoles such as the Nintendo Switch, providing an excellent history lesson to those who want to understand the foundations of contemporary RPGs. Chrono Cross is next on the list, and on this episode of New Gameplay Today, we're taking a look at the fan-favorite title and letting you know how The Radical Dreamers Edition holds up.

Despite what your timeline might have looked like in the last month, Elden Ring was only the seventh-most-discussed game for that period. That said, the conversation doesn't appear to have slowed at all, based on this graphic shared by Twitter:

The stylish side-scrolling samurai story Trek To Yomi will launch on the 5th of May, publishers Devolver Digital announced today. And to sate your black-and-white bloodthirst until then, they've released a new 15-minute gameplay trailer full of monochromatic murder. Check it out below.

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Chrono Cross was one of those Square JRPGs that never made its way to Europe at its original time of release. Heck, the first time I got to play time-travel classic Chrono Trigger was when the Nintendo DS version came out in 2009, almost 15 years after it first came out on the SNES. Chrono Cross, its semi-related but not direct sequel, has taken even longer to get here. First releasing on the original PlayStation in 1999 in Japan (and 2000 in the US), it's finally arriving on PC and modern consoles on April 7th as Chrono Cross: The Radical Dreamers Edition, which bundles the original game with its accompanying text-based side story Radical Dreamers that only ever released on the ill-fated Satellaview. The latter's original 4:3 pixel art looks mildly ropey blown up on today's screens, but the main game has received all the modern conveniences you've come to expect from Square Enix's recent run of retro PC ports: new HD character models, re-orchestrated music, multiple font options, and the holy grail: a fast-forward button.

Ubisoft has unveiled Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Mobile, an upcoming free-to-play tactical first-person shooter mobile game from the Rainbow Six franchise.

In this new game, players will be pitted against each other in 5v5 matches, or "Attack vs Defence". As the name suggests, attackers will have to gain intel on their enemy by deploying drones and breaching "walls, floors and ceilings". Meanwhile, those on the defence team will have to ensure their intel is secure with the use of spy cameras and traps.

You can check out Rainbow Six Mobile's reveal trailer below.

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The enjoyable Life is Strange: True Colors is the next major addition to Xbox Game Pass.

The latest entry in the teen-with-special-powers narrative adventure series first launched last summer, and was warmly received. It's "a beautiful return to small-town mystery and young adult drama," I wrote in Eurogamer's Life is Strange: True Colors review.

True Colors is just one of Microsoft's latest list of titles headed to Xbox Game Pass through the first half of April. Also on the cards are sports games Cricket 22 and MLB The Show 22, plus gothic fairytale Lost in Random and cybernoir point-and-click adventure Chinatown Detective Agency.

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Chrono Cross is a time travel tale but it often feels more like a ghost story, albeit one rendered in dazzling, oceanic colours that give every pre-rendered backdrop the ambience of a tropical reef. Teenage protagonist Serge is gathering shells on the beach one day when he tumbles through a portal to a parallel world. This world has a different history: its version of Serge died as a child, his epitaph written in coral high above the waves. Seeking answers, Serge meets a boisterous, Australian-accented girl called Kid, and joins the hunt for a sinister, cat-headed man who is himself searching for something called the Frozen Flame.

This journey sees you warping back and forth between worlds, the basis for a narrative in which every character, place or thing is haunted by its alternative. In one reality, a vast technological complex exists far across the sea; in another, it is a ruin. In one reality, a local man has become an accomplished fisherman; in the other, he is a feverish recluse who worships a straw idol (which you can eventually recruit as a party member). In one reality, the lagoons surrounding a fairy village have been drained, thwarting access to a dragon; in the other, they have been overrun by goblins ousted from their homelands.

Splatoon 2 icons have come to Nintendo Switch Online.

Last month saw Nintendo add a new missions and rewards section to its Switch Online service. Included here were a series of new icon elements from Animal Crossing: New Horizons and Super Mario Odyssey.

Now, these icons have been refreshed for April, with NSO users now able to get their hands on a different selection of Animal Crossing themed icons (all based around islanders with April birthdays) as well as ones from Splatoon 2.

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MSI have always made great accessories focussed primarily for PC gamers, and that includes their monitors.

Right now, their MAG Artymis curved gaming monitor is currently a third off at Amazon, available for just £149. A saving of £70 is quite significant at this price point.

The 24 inch monitor has a VA panel, so you'll get a wide range of viewing angles without having to compromise by going for a TN panel, for example. And with a 1000R curve, you're sure to be more immersed in your games than a standard flat panel.

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Yesterday, Monkey Island fans got the news they’d be waiting years to hear, as creator Ron Gilbert confirmed that a new game in the series has already been in development for the last two years and that it would be released later this year. Titled Return to Monkey Island, the new game is set just after the events of Monkey Island 2: LeChuck’s Revenge, once again starring Dominic Armato as Guybrush Threepwood, Mighty Pirate.

With the news that Return to Monkey Island would pick up after the events of Monkey Island 2: LeChuck’s Revenge, many were wondering what exactly that meant for the three games that were released after that 1991 installment. Will there be new stories? Will all the characters we loved from those games be erased? Oh, god, what about Murray?!

These are just some of the questions fans have had over the past 24 hours. Thankfully, Gilbert has already assured fans on Twitter that Return to Monkey Island will be very careful about respecting the previous canon. More importantly, he also confirmed that Murray is indeed in the game.

Ubisoft’s long-running tactical shooter, Rainbow Six Siege, is coming to iOS and Android devices as Rainbow Six Mobile, and a brand-new trailer has just been released to make the announcement.

This has been in development for over three years and was built from the ground up with mobile in mind, which means that controls and gameplay are altered to create a better fit for iOS and Android devices.

So far, only two maps — Bank and Border — and 10 classic Operators have been confirmed, but more will be added in the future. Here are the five Attackers and five Defenders that we know so far:

Attackers:

• Ash
• Sledge
• Twitch
• Thermite
• Hibana

Defenders:

• Caveira
• Bandit
• Smoke
• Valkyrie
• Mute

Those who want to get in on the action a bit early can sign up right here on the official site for a chance to play the game before it releases.

You can check out the reveal trailer below to get a quick look at a mix of cinematics and gameplay from Rainbow Six Mobile.

Today Creative Assembly revealed the first major update for Total War: Warhammer III, including plenty of improvements.

Besides stability and performance optimizations, we also get several balance changes to the campaign.

Prominently, certain aspects of the campaign certainly applied a lot of negative modifiers to factions fighting against the spread of chaos, and the update changes that pretty radically.

Below you can check out a trailer, on top of a list of major changes. Do keep in mind that the video includes a major spoiler for the end of the campaign, so you should likely skip it if you haven’t finished it yet.

Today Sega revealed the new major update coming in June for Phantasy Star Online 2, on top of content coming in April.

This month will see three content drops. Tomorrow, April 6, we’re getting the Casual Comfort AC Scratch ticket.

April 13 will see the release of new SG scratch items and new high-rank content for Retem.

April 20 will see the implementation of the Geometric Labyrinth, a new challenge for groups of 4 players.

The big reveal is the major update coming in June, which will be titled “Frozen Resolution.” As the title suggests, it’ll be focused on a wintery area called Kvaris.

You can watch the first look below.

Another lineup of games will be coming to the Xbox Game Pass service on PC, Xbox consoles, and the cloud during the first half of April, Microsoft revealed today.

Starting today, Game Pass subscribers on console and cloud can play MLB The Show 22. The baseball title had been playable since April 1 for those who bought the MVP Edition or Digital Deluxe Edition of the game, but now anyone can play. Also available beginning today is Cricket 22 for console and cloud.

A few titles will be coming on April 7 including “cybernoir” point and click adventure game Chinatown Detective Agency for PC, console, and cloud. The other titles are Dragon Age 2, Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare, and Star Wars: Squadrons that are now playable in the cloud via EA Play.

Coming April 12 is Square Enix’s Life Is Strange: True Colors for PC, console, and cloud alongside strategy game Panzer Corps 2 and tactical RPG The Dungeon of Naheulbeuk for PC. Although, The Dungeon of Naheulbeuk is currently available on console and cloud. Finally, action-adventure gothic fairytale Lost In Random will be coming to PC, console, and cloud via EA Play on April 14.

Microsoft also revealed games leaving Xbox Game Pass this month, such as the previous edition of MLB The Show and cute comedy game Rain on Your Parade. The full list of games leaving includes:

• MLB The Show 21 (Cloud and Console) – April 15
• Rain On Your Parade (Cloud, Console, and PC) – April 15
• The Long Dark (Cloud, Console, and PC) – April 15
• Pathway (PC) – April 15
• F1 2019 (Cloud, Console, and PC) – April 18

Over the past few months, Microsoft has bucked expectations and irritated games journalists everywhere by dropping gems, like Tunic and Paradise Killer, on Game Pass without warning. Then it went silent on the Game Pass front for weeks. For a while there, some reasonable observers (hi) assumed Microsoft did away with…

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With folks constantly on the prowl for hands-off strategies in Elden Ring, it was only a matter of time before someone figured out how to reach the end of the game without fighting anything at all.

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To celebrate the reveal of Cyanide & Happiness’s new card game, Master Dater, we have two exclusive “Red Box” Collector’s Edition copies of their hit million-plus selling social card game, Joking Hazard, ready to give away. You can’t even buy these anywhere, only place to get ‘em is directly from the C&H team and we've got them!

From the Publisher
As one of the first hilarious social card games to blow up on Kickstarter, Joking Hazard has you build funny and terrible comics about friendship, violence, romance, and everything in between.

If you’re looking for something a little saucier to learn more of your friends’ terrible tastes, check out their new social card game Master Dater on Gamefound. This crowdfunding campaign launching today is the only way to get Gamefound exclusives like a limited box print of the game or the expanded Big Love Edition.

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Now for your chance to win one of the two available copies of Joking Hazard, all you have to do is enter below by Friday, April 15, 2022. Sweepstakes is open to U.S. residents ages 18 and older due to adult content (curse words, violence). Good Luck!

A new Tomb Raider game has been announced, but a title for it was not revealed. 

Crystal Dynamics revealed during today’s State of Unreal 2022 presentation that it has just begun development on the next Tomb Raider game and it will be developed entirely in Unreal Engine 5. However, if you’re looking for anything more about the game, that’s sadly all that was shared. 

Crystal Dynamics is incredibly excited about the future of Unreal and how it will help us take our storytelling to the next level. That's why we're proud to announce that our next #tombraider game is being built on Unreal Engine 5! pic.twitter.com/UFMiWzJAZc

— Tomb Raider (@tombraider) April 5, 2022

Here’s what was announced, in full, by Crystal Dynamics’ Tomb Raider franchise general manager Dallas Dickinson: 

Platform: PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Switch, Stadia, PC
Publisher: Square Enix
Developer: Deck Nine
Release: September 10, 2021 (PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One, PC, Stadia), December 7, 2021 (Switch)
Rating: Mature

Epic Games has officially released Unreal Engine 5, the game development engine it first unveiled in 2020. This is the same engine used for last year’s surprise Matrix demo, The Matrix Awakens: An Unreal Engine 5 Experience. 

Now, it’s out and available for anyone and everyone to download and use. Plus, to get people started on their Unreal Engine 5 journey, both in development and those who want to mess with it more casually, Epic Games has released Lyra, a new playable shooter demo. You can, of course, simply play Lyra – it looks like Splitgate mixed with Fortnite shooting mechanics –  but what makes this demo unique is that it can be completely customized on the development side. This gives users the chance to tinker with lighting, platform locations, and more. 

Click here to view embedded media

Epic Games also released City Sample, another Unreal Engine 5 demo, but unlike Lyra, this one isn’t playable. It’s the same city from The Matrix Awakens experience, but in this, you’ll be able to freely view the city, its buildings, its vehicles and pedestrians, and more. 

Publisher No More Robots and developer Tendershoot held a Hypnospace Next presentation today, revealing what comes next for the Hypnospace Outlaw series, and it's not one but two new games coming this year.

Click here to watch embedded media

First is a spiritual successor to Hypnospace called Dreamsettler, set in an alternate reality in the early 2000s. In Dreamsettler, you'll play as an internet private detective trying to solve problems for other users on the Somnius Sleepnet Systems. There will be all kinds of familiar references while surfing this shifted reality version of a burgeoning time for the web. You'll experience an early version of social media, listen to alternate-reality genres of music, and explore a version of the 00s internet that's much like our own but with some abnormalities. Although, No More Robots hints it will get weirder as it gets even darker.

Click here to watch embedded media

Platform: PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PC
Publisher: Bandai Namco
Developer: Bandai Namco
Release: September 10, 2021
Rating: Teen

Tales of Arise is a great game – it’s one of Game Informer’s highest-reviewed games of 2021, with us giving it a 9.25 out of 10. For that reason, it’s easy to imagine a sequel or follow-up to it, even though it does end quite nicely, all things considered. However, it doesn’t sound like one is in the cards.