April 2022

Steam Deck makers Valve are looking to avoid any further delays in getting their portable PC to the waiting hands of reserve order holders. The Deck, which launched in February after missing a planned release in December 2021, has only just finished its first round of shipments; now it’s moving into the Q2 2022 phase, Valve are “ramping up shipments” to make sure everybody gets theirs within their current order availability estimate.

That’s according to the Steam Deck Twitter account, from which Valve also announced that they’re clarifying what these availability estimates actually are. So far these have been given purely as Q2 2022, Q3 2022 and so on, but the Deck’s Steam store page will now list the actual months in that quarter – including your personal delivery estimate, if you’ve already got a reservation waiting. This change won’t affect when the handhelds are ready, it just saves a Google search for anyone less familiar with the business-speak of quarterly codes.

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Along with announcing a spiritual sequel to Hypnospace Outlaw, named Dreamsettler, the alt-reality webmasters at Tendershoot today revealed a curious spin-off. Slayers X: Terminal Aftermath: Vengance Of The Slayer is an FPS 'made by' one of Hynospace's netizens, the rude 'tude dude Zane "ZANE_ROCKS_14" Lofton. It's a retro-styled shooter overflowing with that trademark Zane 'tude, and you can see a bit in the trailer below.

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Tomb Raider franchise developer Crystal Dynamics has confirmed what we all rather suspected already - that it is working on the next major game in the series - and that this project will be made in Unreal Engine 5.

The announcement capped off today's Unreal Engine 5 presentation by Epic Games, which was timed alongside the engine's general release.

Unreal Engine 5 is the powerful toolset behind Epic Games' recent The Matrix Awakens demo, and which also runs the ever-changing Fortnite.

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Destroying road barriers using the Cow Catcher or Battle Bus is one of the Resistance challenges in Fortnite Chapter 3 Season 3.

This challenge involves either finding a Battle Bus or modding a vehicle with a Cow Catcher, so you can then smash through the road barriers the IO have placed across the map.

First, however, you need to know how to get a Cow Catcher and the Battle Bus locations.

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Hypnospace Outlaw is getting a sequel. Well, a spiritual sequel called Dreamsettler. But it's almost exactly the same thing: a detective game set in an old version of the internet, which you'll trawl to uncover a mystery.

And there's more: another new game called Slayer X: Terminal Aftermath: Vengeance of the Slayer. It's more of an accompaniment or spin-off, and it's fictitiously made by Hypnospace Outlaw character Zane! Though developer Tendershoot and publisher No More Robots are so committed to this fiction they'll even apparently roleplay as Zane when answering questions on Steam forums and so on.

The Slayer X game is like retro Doom, or Duke Nukem 3D - a game in that vein. It's pixelated and filled with trashy gore and ridiculous weaponry. And if you know the story of Hypnospace Outlaw, you'll know Zane is out for revenge. He apparently found an old CD-ROM with the game on and decided to brush it up for a noughties audience.

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Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga is a compilation of games featuring the stories of the nine mainline Star Wars movies. The game is out now on Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 5, PC, Xbox One and Series X after its release on 5th April 2022.

The game promises the same charming action adventure gameplay you can expect from a Lego game. That means slicing through enemies with your lightsabre and destroying different parts of the environment to find all sorts of collectibles. What's also great about this game is, regardless of platform, being able to complete the story through local co-op. So if you have more than one Star Wars fan in your life, this could be a great game to play together.

Below we've listed all the best places to purchase Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga standard and deluxe editions, as well as where you might still be able to grab some pre-order bonuses.

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A new video uploaded by the Italian Bethesda Softworks YouTube account has given a look at Vasco, a robot companion that will be at your side in the upcoming Starfield.

The video is narrated by Istvan Pely, the lead artist on Starfield. Vacso is described as “Constellation’s very own expedition robot.”

While it has been uploaded by the Italian Bethesda Softworks channel, the video is in English, it just has Italian subtitles. You can watch the video for yourself here and below:

“He’s a utilitarian, heavy industrial machine well suited to the rigors of space travel.”

While there are looks at Vasco, in game, they are the closest thing there is to gameplay showing him off. Though, the voice lines heard in the video are sure to become commonplace as you travel together.

While a majority of the video does seem to describe Vasco as a companion focused on helping haul cargo, there is a mention that “Vasco does have defensive capability, should the need arise, but his primary role is peaceful.”

Today Epic Games hosted its “State of Unreal” livestream focusing on the latest news about Unreal Engine 5.

While the engine was available in early access before, today it launches in its version 5.0 for all developers.

What is Lyra?

We also get the announcement of a project named “Lyra,” which is test game running on PC and consoles that can be used as a base for other games.

Lyra comes with two game modes: Expanse, which is basically Team Deathmatch and Convolution which is essentially a control the zones mode.

The livestream then showcased a massive library of photogrammetry assets that can be used for free by developers in any industry.

We also hear from the developers at The Coalition, who provided a look at their work done with Unreal Engine 5 (which you can see below).

The next segment features CD Projekt RED, which just announced a partnership with Epic Games and the move to UE5.

Lastly, we got the usual “one more thing” with a message from Crystal Dynamics that announced that the next Tomb Raider is in development and will be powered by the engine.

You can watch the full livestream below, alongside a list of developers currently working with the engine.

The bubble dragon brothers are back with a brand new surprise, as two brand new limited physical editions of Puzzle Bobble 3D: Vacation Odyssey have just been revealed for PlayStation. These titles allow players to explore lush local while solving 100 new puzzles in Puzzle Bobble’s first-ever 3D and optional VR experience.

You can check out the official trailer and list of features below.

Features: 

There are approximately 40,000 playable characters and ships in the new Lego Star Wars game. (Editor’s note: No, there’s only like 350.) But most of them are locked when you start, and while completing all of the story missions will unlock some of these heroes and villains in The Skywalker Saga, you’ll still need to…

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If you thought that mysterious survival horror game Abandoned by Blue Box Game Studios couldn’t get any more enigmatic, wait until you hear this. The game was thrust back into public consciousness this week, but not because the developer had anything to show off. No, instead, information was quietly removed from the…

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Elden Ring has a new rune farming strategy that revolves around hiding in seemingly unreachable parts of the map until your opponent dies or gets bored and leaves. Now, players who just wanted a good old-fashioned PvP showdown are finding new ways to fight back. The results are entertaining and brutal, but will they…

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Horizon Forbidden West has one of the most extraordinary suites of in-game and accessibility options, making for a frankly daunting collection of tweaks and changes available to adapt the game for exactly how you want to play it. But there’s one feature buried there that you’ve likely missed, and it’s amazing:…

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Xbox Game Studio's Gears of War team, The Coalition, is no stranger to the Unreal Engine and has been working with the newest version of Unreal Engine 5, available in full today. Along with the engine's release, The Coalition showed off its cinematic test of the tech in a demo video called "The Cavern."

According to the video, the demo is not representative of a game that's in production. "The Cavern" features a man in a dark cave, facing off with an imposing and impressively rendered smoke that moves in abrupt ways smoke shouldn't be moving in, and a deadly creature lurks within. The man only has a sharp, glowing crystal in hand to defend himself against the dangers stalking him in the darkness.

Click here to watch embedded media

The environment featured in "The Cavern" runs on an Xbox Series X and is built with 100 million triangles. All of the reflections and lighting in the demo are rendered in real-time. The man alone is created with 160 thousand polygons in his body, 31 thousand in his face, and 3.5 million in his beard and hair, and it looks great. You can see it all in action in the video above.

The excellent destructive sandbox heist game Teardown is winding up to leave early access and launch in full, today announcing a version 1.0 release date of April 21st. Teardown's a cracking game, about carefully poking holes in destructible environments to prepare for a madcap high-speed heist once an alarm's triggered. I'm excited for it to be done. For now, check out a new trailer show off some of the newness they've added across early access.

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Unreal Engine 5 has finally released, after nearly a year of early access and nearly two years since its reveal (featuring that Tomb Raiderish tech demo). Having launched a few minutes into Epic Games’ State of Unreal event, Unreal Engine 5 is likely to be the basis of many a PC game over the next few years, in addition to a few in-development games that have already made the jump: games like S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 and Black Myth: Wukong.

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After jacking into an alt-reality 90s Internet in Hypnospace Outlaw, creators Tendershoot are now jumping forward a few years with a "spiritual sequel" named Dreamsettler. Announced today, Dreamsettler will once again send us into an unconscious alternet, this time set from 2003-2005. Watch the trailer below for a peek at the wonders awaiting.

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Who saw this coming? As a self-contained spin-off to the Borderlands series, Tiny Tina's Wonderlands takes one of the more charming characters from its universe and invites us on a dungeons and dragons-style detour. The idea is undeniably cute. Think of Borderlands' FPS mechanics as seen through the lens of a table-top Dungeons and Dragons campaign, and you're on the righty track. But at its core, we’re still looking at an extension of the same Unreal Engine technology that’s at the foundation of Borderlands 3.

In terms of its tech, Tiny Tina's Wonderlands has a few extra twists. Unlike the open-world roaming in mainline Borderlands, here we navigate between key areas using a table-top style world map. It's oddly akin to an old-school JRPG world maps as you guide a super-deformed version of your character between missions. A few tricks in the Unreal engine suite help sell the idea, too: a heavy depth of field creates a lovely tilt shift photography effect - another reminder that you're a tiny figurine on a table-top. You'll see bottle caps and pins dotted around, and all round it's a pleasant departure from the typical open-world Borderlands approach. No need for vehicles here, either. As a result, missions are also more focused in design. More linear, too; once you enter an area, you have some lateral movement within a map to explore - but these are often more contained experiences, like themed fairground rides.

My Time at Sandrock, the upcoming follow-up to My Time at Portia, will launch in early access via Steam and Epic Game Store on 26th May.

Sandrock looks to follow a similar path to its gentle farming and life simulation predecessor, though this time set in sandier frontier-esque surroundings.

You'll need to tame the desert through cultivation of crops and construction of civic buildings, while winning over the local community and levelling up your friendships. Mining, cave exploration and combat also feature, alongside expanded customisation options for your home. Here's a new trailer:

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A new behind the scenes video for Starfield has been revealed, with robot companion VASCO taking centre stage.

In this video, shared by IGN, Starfield lead artist Istvan Pely introduces us all to one of his "favourite campanions in the game".

Here, Pely states VASCO is a "reliable companion that an intrepid explorer like yourself can depend on".

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After its game-changing reveal on PlayStation 5 and following a period of early access, Unreal Engine 5 is finally available for general download. In combination with the release, Epic is releasing a cut-down, Keanu-free rendition of the remarkable The Matrix Awakens demo alongside a sample game project to experiment with, called Lyra. UE5's release takes centre stage in today's State of Unreal virtual event, and we're told to expect a range of tech deep dives surrounding the technology alongside the launch of the engine itself.

UE5 takes the established Unreal Engine 4.27 and adds full support for a number of key next generation technologies. We've already seen these in action, of course. Lumen is Epic's take on a fully real-time global illumination solution, eliminating the need to rely on static, pre-calculated 'baked' lighting, leaning into hardware accelerated ray tracing where appropriate. Nanite is UE5's virtualised micro-polygon technology, delivering incredibly granular detail from assets of motion picture quality and the elimination of geometry 'pop-in'.

Amazon Games has outlined its April and May content plan for Lost Ark, including two new playable classes.

Coming in April is the Glaivier, a new female martial artist advanced class who weaves together attacks with a spear and glaive depending on the two stances she uses: Focus and Flurry.

"“"While certain builds may focus your attention onto one of these weapons, an effective Glaivier can maximize their potential by creating balance between the two stances, building up energy in one stance which grants an impactful stat-boost when swapping to the other,"”" reads the blog post.

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Everything is permitted, the classic Assassin's Creed slogan says - and that's certainly true for Fortnite's bustling item shop.

Assassin's Creed Valhalla heroine Eivor will become available to purchase later this week with a bundle of themed items, alongside a general launch for the game's previously-released Ezio promotional skin.

Both Ezio and Eivor will make their item shop debuts upon the store's refresh on Thursday night (that's 1am Friday here in the UK).

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The adorable free-to-play Super Animal Royale has entered its third season with update 1.4

One of the biggest additions this season has brought is a fix for the old S.A.W. vs Rebellion mode. The game mode previously took a full lobby and cut it down the middle to make the game into a 32v32 fight to capture points. In the new version, fighting areas have been condensed and the mode is now 24v24. Not only that but their are now five classes to choose from comprised of Scout, Medic, Assault, Sniper, Heavy.

Along with that change is a new location for the map called the S.A.W. Security HQ. This area will be found in the east near Pixile Port.

Seeing as the adorable animal critters are what make this game, there are two new Super Dogs and one new Super Wolf to unlock in the Research Lab. Those exact breeds are:

• Super Chihuahua
• Super Poodle
• Super African Wild Dog

Dogs aren’t the only breed getting some love, there are a couple new Super Cats and a new Super Leopard. You can now make:

• Super Himalayan Cat
• Super Chimera Cat
• Super Cheetah

Some of the more notable changes coming this season are:

Season 3 of HBO’s Emmy award-winning series, Barry, is just around the corner, and fans can’t wait to see the fallout of the shocking events that ended the show’s sophomore season. To celebrate its upcoming release, a brand new trailer was released earlier today, highlighting some of the themes that will be the focus of the story this time around.

For the most part, the teaser focuses on regret and forgiveness, as Barry tries to live with the terrible things he has done in his past and how it is affecting the people he cares about most. You can check out the official trailer and description for season three of Barry:

“Desperate to leave his violent past behind in favor of his newfound passion, Barry (Hader) is attempting to untangle himself from the world of contract killing and fully immerse himself in acting. But getting out is messy. While Barry has eliminated many of the external factors that pushed him towards violence, he soon discovers they weren’t the only forces at play. What is it about his own psyche that led him to become a killer in the first place? Season three finds Barry and the other characters trying to make the right choice.”

Today third-party developers shared new videos about upcoming Microsoft Flight Simulator add-ons, on top of releasing a new airport.

We start with Just Flight which released a video showing the in-depth startup procedure of its vintage airliner BAE 146.

We already know that the developer is targeting late April as a release window, while the pricing will be $80.

Next, we hear from Jo Erlend, who is working on Brussels Airport (EBBR) in Belgium for Aerosoft.

Specifically, he published a video showing off the work done on parallax texture mapping to simulate the buildings’ interiors.

It’s 2022 and you can once again play one of the best JRPGs from Square Enix’s golden age on a modern handheld. But even enjoying it as I have been on Switch, it’s hard not to feel like the Chrono Cross: The Radical Dreamers Edition remaster is another missed opportunity by a publisher intent on doing the bare minimum…

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That sound you hear? That low hum, that ceaseless wailing? It’s an elegy of Halo Infinite fans around the world. Developer 343 Industries will soon nerf the best weapon in its multiplayer shooter, fulfilling a longtime request of top-flight players—and thumbing its nose at the desires of the hoi polloi.

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We’ve seen an eye-popping gorgeous tech demo for a not-real game that I totally wish was real. We’ve seen Keanu Reeves (‘90s edition) alongside Keanu Reeves (modern-day edition). We’ve seen…a beard. But today, Epic Games presented by far the biggest look into its Unreal 5 3D creation engine, which can render visuals…

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Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga did what Disney wouldn’t and finally made the Tumblr-famous FinnPoe ship canon.

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Platform: PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Stadia, PC
Publisher: Ubisoft
Developer: Ubisoft Paris
Release: October 4, 2019
Rating: Mature

Ubisoft announced on Twitter today that the ongoing development of Ghost Recon Breakpoint is ending. 

The post reminisces on the recent content released for Breakpoint over the last two years and highlights the final content that came to the game in recent months, including bringing Splinter Cell's Sam Fischer into the game and the inclusion of AI teammates.

Hey Ghosts, we have an important message we would like to share with you all 👇 pic.twitter.com/kYeyVWVtgi

Pathea Games, the studio behind My Time at Portia, is preparing to release its newest game, My Time at Sandrock, into early access. A new trailer released today announced the early access release date of May 26.

Click here to watch embedded media

My Time at Sandrock will have players crafting and exploring in a new land, the dusty desert region of Sandrock. There, you'll play as a Builder who can craft, gather, and construct devices and machines to "save the town from the jaws of economic ruin." 

Like Portia, Sandrock development started following a successful Kickstarter in 2020, and the game has been in backers' hands for an extended beta period for almost a year. The Kickstarter raised over $500,000 to bring the sequel to life, and now we're just a handful of weeks away from the public's opportunity to get their hands on it.

My Time at Sandrock will be available in early access on May 26 on PC through Steam and the Epic Games Store for $24.99 but will increase in price when Sandrock is fully released.

DC Comics just killed off a major character in the one-shot comic book, Shadow War Alpha. In this episode, we dive deep into this moment, and also talk about Marvel expanding its roster with a new character in the new issue of The Amazing Spider-Man. We discuss other books that released last week and then welcome a special guest to talk about the first episode of Moon Knight, the new MCU series on Disney+, as well.

As always, we end the show with a look ahead to what releases next Wednesday.

If you would like to follow us on Twitter: Andrew Reiner (@Andrew_Reiner) and Philip Hoff (@bnow23).

From Panel to Podcast is a weekly show created by two lifelong comic book readers who offer suggestions on which comic books you should be reading each week. Each episode also dives into the latest developments for comics in video games, movies, and television shows. We'll even discuss comic book collectibles and anything we think you should know about that pertains to this entertainment medium.

Be sure to subscribe to From Panel to Podcast on your favorite podcast platform. The show is available on Google Podcasts, Spotify, and Apple Podcasts.

Back in August 2021, Crunchyroll and Funimation shook up the entire anime genre, as it was announced that Sony would unify the brands, creating one giant place for fans to get all of their anime. Recently, the merger has been signified via some significant changes, including a boatload of new subs and dubs being added to Crunchyroll.

Today, another big change is coming in the form of some alterations to the brands’ Youtube channels, as the official Funimation channel is now becoming Crunchyroll Dubs. As the name suggests, the rebranded page will now be home to anime clips, trailers, and full episodes of fan-favorite English-dubbed anime.

You can check out the official statement from Crunchyroll and Funimation right down below:

Funimation is unifying under the Crunchyroll brand, and as such, so is their YouTube channel. Funimation’s YouTube channel, which consists of 3.7 million subscribers and has been in operation since 2006, is now becoming Crunchyroll Dubs!

What can you expect now? Well… Mostly all of the same content you’ve loved, and more of it! Crunchyroll Dubs will continue providing anime clips, trailers and full episodes of your favorite English-dubbed anime.

Not only that, Crunchyroll Dubs will be releasing WEEKLY dubbed episode 1 drops every Saturday at 12PM PST, starting on April 9 with Re:ZERO -Starting Life in Another World-! Be sure to subscribe and watch free dubbed episodes of anime every week.

What about Japanese-language content? For all of your English-subtitled anime needs, check out Crunchyroll Collection (4 million subscribers) for English-subtitled clips, trailers, and full episodes.