Destructoid

Electronic Arts continues to open its seemingly bottomless wallet as its shopping spree continues across the industry. Having just put the final touches on its acquisition of Codemasters, EA has now purchased mobile game maker Glu Mobile Inc. in a deal worth an astounding $2.1 billion - one of the priciest acquisitions in the industry's history.

Glu was founded in San Francisco in 2005, though it has expanded operations within Canada and India. In its 15-plus years of operation, Glu is responsible for the production of hundreds of licensed and original IP mobile titles. While Glu has handled major brands such as Call of Duty, DIRT, and Diner Dash, the majority of the companies' releases focus on the part-time player, with a raft of titles based on TV shows such as Family Guy, SpongeBob SquarePants, and Ren & Stimpy; celebrities such as Britney Spears, Nicki Minaj, and Kim Kardashian; and classic tabletop card and puzzle games.

"Our acquisition of Glu combines amazing teams and deeply-engaging products to create a mobile games leader with proven expertise across many fast-growing genres," said EA CEO Andrew Wilson of the acquisition. "Mobile continues to grow as the biggest gaming platform in the world, and with the addition of Glu's games and talent, we're doubling the size of our mobile business."

Hey, remember power up bands? Well the bands are back! In scalped form!

Yes, despite the fact that Super Nintendo World in Japan isn't even open yet due to another delay, folks are getting their hands on bands due to press and preview events. And they're selling them en masse on storefronts like eBay.

Right now the going rate is roughly $75 per band: and to finish a complete set, you'll need Mario, Luigi, Peach, Daisy, Toad, and Yoshi bands. As a reminder, all of them have corresponding amiibo, and will have special functionality within the park itself for various "activities."

Naturally, once the park actually opens to the public and the bands flood the market, the prices will go down. But if you're a hardcore collector and want to mess with one now, it's a little pricey.

I'm definitely going to get all of these bands eventually to round out my amiibo collection. But I can wait!

[Update: Lance McDonald has publicly released his "60FPS homebrew patch" for Bloodborne, though he has (understandably) avoided "providing instructions for how to make backup copies of Bloodborne, or how to run a backup copy of your game on your console." If you're already in a position to do that with your PS4 Pro, you can apply his patch to the most recent official version of Bloodborne, v1.09.]

Over the weekend, modder Lance McDonald showed Bloodborne running at 60 frames per second on a PlayStation 4 Pro – the culmination of lots and lots of tinkering. It's as beautiful as we all imagined.

Before you get any funny ideas, McDonald says that "out of respect," he won't release his unofficial high-frame-rate patch until after the PS5 is out in November and Sony has "made it clear whether or not Bloodborne will be enhanced on that system in any way." If an official patch never comes, "you'll need a way to run unsigned code on a PlayStation console to use the utility once it's released."

As for how any of this is possible, well, his 15-minute video is a great showcase.

This modification was far from a simple flip of a switch with debug tools to uncap the 30FPS limit. "A vast array of features such as cloth physics, particle and special effects, environmental wind, enemy patrol pathing, motion blur, sampling rate, and elevator movement speed" needed "manual patching."

With February 14 just around the corner, various video games are receiving lovey-dovey updates to celebrate Valentine's Day. And perhaps no one gaming brand truly embraces the themes of love, romance, and togetherness than Activision's billion-dollar military shooter series Call of Duty.

Yes, love is in the air, even in the rat-a-tat-tat world of Black Ops Cold War, and from February 11 to February 18, players will be able to enjoy a special re-themed version of multiplayer mode Kill Confirmed titled Kiss Confirmed. In this variant, each time you pump your hapless mark full of lead, their twitching corpse will leave behind a candy-style Love Heart in place of their standard dog tags. D'aww. Helen Park is my Valentine...sigh

If you could measure thirst, the wait for Final Fantasy VII Remake Part 2 would be an ocean.

It's in a very unique position, to be sure. If the first Final Fantasy VII Remake bit bombed in every way, there probably wouldn't even be a follow-up. But it was good! And it sold! So everyone is anxiously awaiting Part 2 for any number of reasons, which is definitely happening.

A lot of us are curious as to how the team could possibly adapt the open world structure; a stark contrast to the more linear, yet personal Midgar setting. But for now, we can only speculate, as Square Enix hasn't given us one iota of real info on Part 2. That could change soon.

Tweeting out hype for the Final Fantasy VII Remake Orchestra World Tour this week, Square Enix confirmed that co-director Motomu Toriyama (who worked on the game with Nomura and Hamaguchi) will be holding an "extra broadcast" before the event. That's on February 13 right before 17:00 JST, which is 3AM ET Saturday morning.

There's actually a February 12 event too, but the tweet notes that it's the February 13 event that will give us the goods.

Square Enix Music [Twitter]

Hollywood legend and long-time video game lover Jamie Lee Curtis is the latest superstar to join the cast of Lionsgate's Borderlands movie, based on the explosive shooter series from Gearbox. The Halloween and Knives Out star took to Twitter to candidly express her excitement at the new role.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Curtis has signed on to play Dr. Patricia Tannis, a Pandoran archaeologist who features as an important NPC in all three mainline Borderlands titles, spin-off Tales From the Borderlands, and even received her own spin-off comic book. Curtis joins fellow cast members Cate Blanchett, cast as the mystical siren Lillith, and Kevin Hart, who will pick up the heavy artillery of Promethean solider Roland. That's a more impressive cast than one might expect from a video game adaptation.

The Borderlands adaptation has been bandied about for many years, with multiple false starts. But with a star-studded cast and gore hound Eli Roth in the director's chair, it looks almost certain that this project is very likely to see its day on the marquee. Borderlands is still currently in its pre-production stages, however, so it will be sometime before we get to visit the vast, secretive, and dangerous planet of Pandora.

I guess we've always got Dune to tide us over until then...

I don't think I can accurately assess how many times I've played Mario 64. Whether it's on the original hardware, the DS, or various collection/Virtual Console means, every level is burned in my brain. But not quite like this.

In the provocatively named video "I bought a $1500 GPU (an RTX 3090) to play Super Mario 64 with RTX," YouTuber Dario showcases Mario 64 with ray tracing. Now this video showing off Wet-Dry World is a tad old, but it represents a project in progress, which could eventually see the light of day.

No matter how much time tries to keep the classics down, it's a losing battle. People will hold water for these types of games forever, and I have to say it's a blast to see the game's wonderful level designs preserved like this a million times over.

Of course, the community is very polarized in terms of how much the ray tracing effects actually add to the game. It's a tad more advanced than a lot of other mod projects over the years (that "enhance" the look of Mario 64), but it looks great to me. A diverse array of projects is never a bad thing.

I don't get that many physical packages these days, but when I do, they're usually pretty fun.

Activision has been very cheeky with its marketing of Crash Bandicoot 4: It's About Time, which ended up being pretty good! The bad news was that it only launched on two platforms (PS4 and Xbox One), but that's changing very soon.

In this very obvious press package that we received this week, Activision outright tells us that Crash 4 is coming to PS5, Xbox Series X/S, and Switch, on March 12. There's also a confirmation of a PC version, noting "not to forget" about the platform.

To herald in this announcement, they provided us with five cookies: one of Crash's head, and the other of PS5, Switch, and Xbox logos. But the PC cookie has an ominous Battle.net image, hinting at where Crash 4 could actually end up. Just in time for the Battle.net redesign, it seems, which could usher in more non-Blizzard games and become the de facto launcher for Activision as a whole.

To further clarify, Activision has since informed Destructoid, post-cookie-delivery, that the game will indeed come to Battle.net "later this year," and that the current-gen versions (PS5/Series X/S) will sport 4K and 60FPS visuals, as well as the obvious faster load times. Upgrades will be at "no cost" (except for Japan, weirdly) "within the same console family," and save transfer is confirmed.

The PS5 and Xbox Series X/S versions are priced at $59.99, while the Switch and PC editions are $39.99.

CD Projekt RED has announced that it has become the victim of a serious "targeted cyber attack," with an unknown person or persons having stolen private data from the Polish developer's servers.

CDPR has noted that it has full backups of all of the stolen data, which is believed to include the source code to the studio's recent release Cyberpunk 2077, code for an unreleased edition of Witcher 3, as well as "documents relating to accounting, administration, legal, HR, investor relations and more." CDPR has said that - to the best of its knowledge - no data involving players' personal information is at risk.

In a surprising move, CDPR also released a copy of the "ransom note" it received from the hacker(s), requesting that CDPR contact the individual(s) responsible or face public release of the hacked documents, source code, and other data files. CDPR has said it will "not give in to the demands nor negotiate with the actor, being aware that this may eventually lead to the release of the compromised data."

The studio is currently investigating the security breach with the help of its IT analysts, law enforcement officials, and the President of the Personal Data Protection Office.

NetEase Games, in association with ArtPlay, has announced that new updates are now available for the iOS and Android editions of Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night, adding new modes and challenges to the Castlevania-like Gothic platformer.

A free update for all players adds three additional modes previously made available to Bloodstained on PC and console. Speed demons might want to try their hand at the clock-busting Speed Run mode, while fight fans can take on challenging back-to-back battles in the new Boss Rush mode. Finally, Sound Mode allows players to take a break from all the sword-swinging action, sit back, and bask in Bloodstained's wonderful soundtrack.

Additionally, a new paid update sees the arrival of the "IGA's Back Pack" DLC, adding powerful boss character "IGA" - a thinly veiled representation of Bloodstained head honcho and Castlevania creator Koji Igarashi. Defeating yer boy IGA will award Miriam with the "Insatiable" shard and a Belmont-like whip sword. The IGA's Back Pack DLC is available to purchase now at the cost of a single dollar.

Annapurna Interactive has proven itself enough to land a permanent spot on my radar, and while certain games stand out more than others, I'm willing to give them all a look. Next on the roster is Maquette – a "recursive" puzzle-adventure that plays with scale and tells a personal story built around the highs and lows of a relationship. There's a brain-breaking "zoom-out" gif on Steam to help sell the premise.

As it turns out, Twelve Minutes isn't the only Annapurna game turning to Hollywood talent. Maquette will star Bryce Dallas Howard (Jurassic World, Rocketman) and Seth Gabel (Fringe, Genius). While other games have explored similar world-shifting mechanics, I haven't seen them married to a story like this.

It's trippy going back to watch the original "Reveal" trailer for Maquette from about a year ago. It's fundamentally the same trailer concept, albeit with different readings and further-along game footage.

If you feel like you could get into this sort of mind-bending headspace, you won't have to keep tabs on the game for too much longer – it's releasing for PC (Steam), PS4, and PS5 on March 2, 2021.

Playtonic Games has tried to capture the essence of some of our favorite 3D and 2.5D platformers with its own twist, and I can't wait to see what's next after 2017's Yooka-Laylee and 2019's Yooka-Laylee and the Impossible Lair. This morning on Twitter, the studio teased the imminent reveal of "something" new.

We'd like to give our community, our friends, a giant hug 💚💜

We know you're all wondering what we have cooking, and although we can't say just yet, something will be revealed SOON.

Thank you for being patient with us 🙂

— Playtonic (@PlaytonicGames) February 8, 2021

That's it – that's the post! – but I'm so curious to see which direction this team is taking. For what it's worth, a recent note to Yooka-Laylee Kickstarter backers referenced a secret "rebrand" at Playtonic.

I feel like the future could easily hold a different genre set in the wider Yooka-Laylee universe (it's fun to picture these characters in other Playtonic takes on Rare classics), or yeah, a more straightforward sequel could work. Just as well, it could be all-new. Nothing says it has to involve the dynamic duo.

What are you hoping to see? As popular as this series is, many of us seem to latch onto something slightly different and don't have the same priorities. I'm pretty adamant that Impossible Lair is much better-designed, but... I still want another Banjo-Kazooie-like 3D romp from this team. I'm easy like that.

The Epic Games Store is securing even more exclusives over the next two years, and later this week, it's streaming a Spring Showcase event with game announcements (and hosting a corresponding sale).

That first bit is crucial and lays the foundation for Epic's ongoing strategy. In a statement to PC Gamer, a rep said the store has "more exclusives coming in the next two years than we have published to date."

The list includes titles we know about, like this year's Darkest Dungeon 2, and presumably many we don't. There's also the matter of genDesign, PlayDead, and Remedy's publishing deals with Epic Games.

Later this week, we're going to see "a curated collection of new announcements, gameplay, and extended looks presented by the developers creating the games we all love" in a live-streamed event. The Epic Games Store Spring Showcase will air on Twitch at 11:00 am Pacific on Thursday, February 11.

At this point, there's no telling what Epic could have up its sleeve – established IPs, fresh indies, and everything in between. As long as these deals are being offered and the terms are appealing, we're going to see a lot more promising games tied down to the Epic Store for at least a year after launch.

It genuinely feels like this plan of attack could carry on uninterrupted for a long, long time.

Super Mario 3D World launches this Friday, and I am quite excited to get this on my Switch. The Wii U version is easily near the top of my personal "Best Game Ever" list, and while I'm not sure if Bowser's Fury will fit in with the rest of the game -- or if it will be a loose appendage that's still a joy to play -- you can bet your #dogecoins I'll be adding it to my collection posthaste.

Launching the same day is the Mario Red & Blue Edition Switch, a new limited edition version of the console that's decked out in Mario's trademark colors. Opinions have been split on it for the most part. I personally like the look of it all, dull gray kickstand aside, but I don't think it's special enough to push me to move away from my OG Switch. If I'm going to upgrade, it's going to be for something really dynamo.

I've been thinking a lot about special edition consoles and handhelds in the lead up to the release of the Red & Blue Switch. This week, I spent an unfortunate amount of time scouring the internet, looking for all those limited edition units that passed me by. That Pikachu Yellow Edition 3DS in the headline photo is one I didn't even realize existed until it popped up in my Google search.

I never really got into special edition console collecting until Nintendo started dropping limited edition 3DSs like it was having a fire sale on them. That's when I realized for basically the same price as an ordinary console, I could get an extraordinary one. When the New Nintendo 3DS was announced, I traded up to the beautiful Majora's Mask edition of the handheld. As stunning as it was, it was horribly designed, and eventually, I switched over to my current Poké Ball New Nintendo 2DS.

3D-printing is incredible.

It feels like nearly every day, as a board and video game player, that I see something that's not only useful, but something I never even would have thought of. That includes this Switch cart holder shaped like a warp pipe that came across my desk this morning.

Crafted by whopperlover17 and shared on Reddit, the pipe actually opens up into a smaller cart holder. It's a simple, elegant, and effective design that is also functional. The version pictured in the header holds 14 carts in total. It also has a "locking mechanism" to avoid loose carts flying around.

Although they couldn't share the direct link on the subreddit, we tracked down their Etsy store where you can grab one for yourself if you want.  The creator says that "since this has gone viral," they have "quite a backlog of orders to fill." They are "also looking to make a DS version."

Get a look at how the smaller version works below!

Look at these Nintendo Switch game cases I made [Reddit]

It's a great tragedy that with the unstoppable success of the Nintendo Switch, we haven't seen hide nor hair of Mario Golf on the hardware. Mario Tennis made a decent enough comeback following its severe stumble on the Wii U, but there hasn't been a peep out of Nintendo or Camelot Software about Mario's return to the links.

Its absence has been noticed throughout the pandemic. Since I went into work-from-home mode -- or as it's better known, trapped-at-home mode -- I've been putting in some time on the greens with my 3DS and Mario Gold: World Tour. But even with all the purchased DLC, I've been feeling the urge to move onto something new. Maybe that's why I fell so hard for Birdie Crush this past week.

It's another Nintendo-friendly week in the UK Charts this week, as social adventure Animal Crossing: New Horizons retains the number one spot for a third week running, leading a slew of sales on a wide range of Nintendo Switch releases.

The adventures of Tom, Nook, Isabelle, and all the critters of Nook Island sit proudly in the number one spot, followed up by Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, still shifting physical copies some four years after release. Lounge workout Ring Fit Adventure moves up to number four, while the Switch edition of Minecraft is nestled in at number five. Just Dance 2021 moves up one place to number seven, while retro compendium Super Mario 3D All-Stars retains its seat at number nine. A very good start to the year for the House of Mario.

E3 was in a weird spot before the pandemic. After a year off, it's taking a different direction in 2021.

As reported by Video Games Chronicle, plans are forming around a digital-only E3 2021 that would take place over three days in mid-June, similar to the Before Times – but it still needs to gain traction.

The ESA's proposed event is trying to line up support from major publishers, but the idea for a remote E3 would potentially include "multiple two-hour keynote sessions from games partners, an awards show, a June 14 preview night, and other smaller streams from games publishers, influencers, and media partners," as VGC summarizes. Throughout 2020, publishers offered playable previews of upcoming games through streaming apps like Parsec; that would also be the case for this new E3.

"We can confirm that we are transforming the E3 experience for 2021 and will soon share exact details on how we're bringing the global video game community together," the ESA said in a statement.

The cancellation of E3 2020 and lack of a digital-only replacement opened the path for Geoff Keighley's Summer Game Fest alternative – to say nothing of smaller and mid-tier publishers rallying with their own one-off streams and showcases. We can expect Summer Game Fest to return in 2021.

Thankfully, the next iteration will be shorter – "less than one month," according to Keighley.

Like many major names in the industry, Konami posted its financial earnings report for the third quarter of 2020, which showed an overall minor decrease of 0.6% year-on-year, with only the company's video gaming sector seeing any growth on the previous year.

In the field of digital entertainment, Konami has fared well, raking in ¥144.6 billion (roughly $1.3 billion USD) in revenue over the previous year's ¥108.7 billion (around $1.03 billion USD). These figures represent an overall growth of around 33%. For the most part, the success is driven by Konami's mobile gaming catalogue, particularly its popular sports titles such as Professional Baseball Spirits A and eFootball Winning Eleven 2021.

However, in other sectors, Konami saw a decline on the previous year. Konami's Amusements division saw a decrease in 31% - not helped by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic - while Konami's Sports and Gaming & Systems divisions saw a revenue decrease of 43% and 48% respectively. While the overall drop in revenue is minor, it does seem that Konami - despite the numerous hats it wears as a holding corporation - continues to find the most stability in the sector for which it has always been most closely associated. Whether the publisher will ever go "all-in" on gaming again - perhaps recapturing its prolific glory years of the 1990s - remains to be seen.

Games keep Konami afloat as revenue dips [GamesIndustry.biz]

With the Monster Hunter Rise demo done and dusted, Capcom is ready to share some stats of the goings-on of players these past few weeks. And surprisingly, a large amount of folks rallied around the long sword.

Sharing the stats of the top three weapons played during the Monster Hunter Rise demo, the game's director Yasunori Ichinose notes that the long sword took a huge lead with 19.1% of all players utilizing the loadout. In second place is great swords with 9.7% (which makes sense), and in third place is the hunting horn with 9.6%, right behind second. Here are all 14 weapons available in the game if you want to get a quick look at the competition.

Swords have long been a very popular weapon for newcomers and veterans alike, so seeing these numbers in print isn't too surprising. And with the huge install base of the Switch and a lot of new players funneling into Rise from World, it stands to reason that they'd gravitate toward a lot of existing sword archetype guides.

As a reminder, you can still play the demo if you have it, even past the "limit." Just try it on another profile or delete your save data and you'll be good to go offline.

Incoming remaster Mass Effect: Legendary Edition will feature a whole host of overhauled features from the admittedly aging original releases. The off-road vehicle MAKO will have tighter controls, combat will be sharpened up, the default Femshep model from Mass Effect 3 is now available in the first two games, and the trilogy's visuals as a whole will be given a lovely modern sheen.

Speaking in a recent interview with Metro, project director Matt Walters has newly noted that Legendary Edition will tweak a selection of cinematic camera angles, particularly ones that may present some of the characters in a gratuitous or unflattering light. Cerberus officer Miranda Lawson - who is quite the polarizing character among fans - will be a beneficiary of such changes, with the camera's occasional leer over her posterior adjusted.

"I do think a lot of things have evolved since [original release] but I don't know if I would say we were ultra-concerned about it or anything like that, but there were considerations," said Walters. "Kevin [Meek, character director] actually called out some camera cuts that were just… Why was that focusing on Miranda’s butt? So in some cases we said, 'Okay, we can make a change there.'"

Activision has been killing it in terms of remasters lately.

I mean, to be more concise, studios like Toys for Bob and Vicarious Visions have been killing it, with re-releases like the Crash trilogy and Tony Hawk 1 + 2 (both done by the latter). But with Vicarious Visions down for the count and absorbed into Blizzard, what will become of the fate of more remasters? According to a recent Activision earnings call, things still look promising.

Dennis Durkin, Chief Financial Officer of Activision, stated that the company has "a few other things up [their] sleeve in terms of remastered content." That content will be revealed "in due course," and will "provide further opportunity for [the company] this year." It's an innocuous sort of comment, but it implies two things: that more remasters are coming (obviously), and that it's coming soon, potentially with a soonish reveal.

Activision owns a lot of properties at this point, and could even get involved with any number of licensed games from their past: as they have with the Ultimate Alliance series and the like. As long as the quality is there, I'm excited to see what they have planned. 

As long as we eventually get Tony Hawk 3 + 4.

Activision Blizzard (ATVI) Q4 2020 Earnings Call Transcript [The Motley Fool] Thanks Rich!

Terraria co-creator Andrew Spinks has said that he has cancelled all ongoing plans for a Stadia port of the popular crafting adventure following continued frustration regarding his studio's Google account.

The fallout began when the YouTube account for Spinks' studio Re-Logic was disabled for an alleged Terms of Service violation. Speaking on Twitter, Spinks said that he has since lost access to his connected Gmail account and his Google Drive, as well as "thousands of dollars worth" of apps on the Google Play service. Spinks clearly ran out of patience with the situation earlier today, following three weeks of efforts to restore his account.

"My account has now been disabled for over 3 weeks," Spinks said in a series of tweets at Google. "I still have no idea why, and after using every resource I have to get this resolved you have done nothing but give me the runaround. I can take this no other way than you deciding to burn this bridge. Consider it burned. #Terraria for @GoogleStadia is canceled. I will not be involved with a corporation that values their customers and partners so little. Doing business with you is a liability."

Having sold over 30 million copies since launch, the loss of Terraria is nothing to be sniffed at, whether these brash tactics will finally get Google to address Spinks' plight - we'll have to wait and see - but the Stadia service could probably use all the positive vibes it can grab hold of right now.

The saga of Schrodinger's Bayonetta 3 has been ongoing for some time now, and we're finally starting to see the big picture in terms of why we haven't seen anything from the project.

Multiple times these past few months, Platinum (most notably Hideki Kamiya) has jokingly implied that we should "forget" about Bayonetta 3, and pleasantly be surprised when we hear from it again. The reason for that is heavily implied to be Nintendo's doing.

Speaking to VGC, Platinum head Atsushi Inaba clarifies that "[they] don't have much say over projects [they're] not publishing." Inaba notes that they "respect the publisher's decisions," and then explains that they "hope to be more open" for titles they're publishing themselves, like Project G.G.

Kamiya goes on to say that "I’ll be sharing things online, putting up screenshots whenever I like," for stuff like Project G.G., since "no publishers [can] get mad" at him.  Tapdancing around the subject, it appears as if Nintendo wants a very specific PR campaign for this game, and may have even been involved with Platinum showing it extremely early.

It's a big case of Square Enix-level early reveals, in any case.

Platinum on PS5 [VGC]

Warner Bros. Interactive has officially secured a patent on its "Nemesis" mechanic, first introduced in 2014's Lord of the Rings-adjacent adventure Middle-earth: Shadows of Mordor and its 2017 sequel Middle-earth: Shadow of War. The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office notes that the patent goes into effect on February 23, with an option to extend until 2035.

Developed by Monolith Productions, the Nemesis system is a mechanic whereby NPC characters recall interactions with the player, and thus react or grow accordingly for further possible encounters. For example, in the Middle-earth games, the Nemesis system allows Uruks who defeat or escape protagonist Talion to "remember" the battle, perhaps referencing the encounter in dialogue when the pair next meet on the battlefield. In addition, the victorious Uruk will be promoted within its unit for causing Talion's demise, receiving a stat boost and perhaps even a change in physical appearance.

The Nemesis system patent - very loosely summarized - is a patent for a hierarchy of procedurally generated NPCs that can be promoted or demoted by their in-game success and failures, whilst retaining "memories" of their previous encounters with the player.

"Essential business" GameStop is at it again with their old tricks.

This time it actually is an old trick, as the retailer is trying to get people into their stores for a Pokemon distribution. During a global pandemic. A shiny Pokemon, no less.

As Serebii reports, GameStop signage for a shiny Toxitricity event has been implemented, hinting that the distribution will begin on February 19. As is the case with previous activities, you'll need to go inside of a GameStop and utilize the Pokemon Pass app to acquire a serial code.

No matter how people feel about certain pandemic procedures, I'm sure they'll all unite together to stand against GameStop. But The Pokemon Company is also to blame for allowing this to happen at all, and not changing the distribution model to a safe, at-home mystery gift.

Serebii.net [Twitter]

Sony China has confirmed that it will release its next-gen gaming platform, PlayStation 5, in Mainland China during the second quarter of 2021. The news was broken by analyst Daniel Ahmad following a New Year's greetings video by SIE Shanghai President Tatsuo Eguchi and Vice Chairman Soeda Takahito.

While Sony's powerful new console hit global markets back in November 2020, China is yet to see its release. Although the sale sought and received approval back in December, in the interim a lucrative import market was established, with private sellers distributing consoles within the territory at hugely inflated prices. Microsoft's own next-gen hardware, Xbox Series X/S is also currently unavailable in China, though it has undergone a similar approval process.

While a release window is happy news indeed for Chinese PlayStation fans, there remains to be seen if any further restrictions will be applied to the console, its services, and its software within China. Ahmad predicts that the Chinese version of the PS5 will very likely be region-locked. Every game will seek approval from China's advisory board before it can be made available for sale. While this is obviously the case for game certification in most countries, China is famous for its particularly strict control of mass-market media.

[Update #2: Eggman is still in.

Voice actor Mike Pollock, who has been the voice since basically since 2003, is not being replaced. Their statement on Twitter makes this clear: "You know what they say: the more the merrier! You've not yet heard the last of me as Dr. Eggman in Sonic the Hedgehog video games! Kindly prepare your ears accordingly. If you guessed otherwise, SURPRISE!!!! Now if you'll excuse me, I have to stock up on lozenges."

They also go on to comment on all of the recent casting shifts, diplomatically stating: "On a personal note, I know you'll want to speculate about what happened, and possible casting choices, but please bear in mind that, IRL, actors' careers are steered by auditions, callbacks, bookings and rejections. It's a bit more complicated than choosing sides for kickball."]

[Update: Amy is out too, it seems. The voice of Amy for around a decade announced that she is not going to be working on Sonic Prime with the rest of her crew. As she puts it: "It’s true. I’m loading out with my brilliant compadres."]

As you may have heard, there's a new Sonic show in town called Sonic Prime, and it's headed to Netflix in 2022. But it will be moving forward without Roger Craig Smith, the former voice of Sonic.

Square Enix has announced that the anime adaptation of hip JRPG The World Ends with You will premiere in Japan on April 8. The publisher released a new music video, which features a rap remix of the show's original opening theme "Teenage City Riot" as performed by ALI and guest vocalist R-Shitei.

The hype-looking series is a joint production of Domerica and Shin-Ei Animation and is a straight retelling of the narrative from the stylish 2007 DS/Switch release. The plot details the twisted tale of protagonist Neku Sakuraba, who awakens on an unnerving alternate plane known as The Underground (UG). Journeying through this split reality, Nebu will encounter a host of friends and enemies as he attempts to make sense of his situation and uncover the truth behind the events that lead to his incarceration.

While The World Ends with You: The Animation is set to officially make its debut on April 9, a "Pre-Broadcast Special Program" is set to air a week prior on April 2. No doubt this preview will offer a sneak-peek at the stylistic series, stoking the hype fires one final time before its official release.

Any Brit of a certain age well remembers GamesMaster, the Channel 4 television that lit up our screens on Thursday evenings during the 1990s. Hosted by Dominik Diamond, and then Dexter Fletcher, and then Dominik Diamond again. kids and celebrities gathered on a selection of creative sets in order to battle it out in the latest and greatest games, all under the watchful eye of the titular "GamesMaster," played with charismatic indifference by the late Sir Patrick Moore.

And it appears that - nearly 25 years since the show left our screens - GamesMaster is getting set to return. Channel 4 has announced that it is rebooting the iconic series, which will arrive later this year as a "social first" show before transferring to the station's on-demand platform E4. An image on Channel 4's website depicts actor Sir Patrick Stewart, but strangely there is no mention of him at all in the format's blurb.

The new show will feature only a handful of episodes as five celebrities fight it out, elimination-style, to be crowned the winner and take home the famous Golden Joystick... I might be out already, folks. The show will also feature a number of "social segments" including "Meet the Gamer," "The Contender," "Speed Runs," and tips from the GamesMaster themselves - hopefully in the "Consoletation Zone."

After being delayed out of the PlayStation 5's launch window, Destruction AllStars is rolling onto the scene at an opportune time. This hero-based destruction derby game would've struggled to catch on as a full-priced release, but as a PlayStation Plus pack-in, it might build enough of a recurring player base.

For those of us lucky enough to secure a PS5, slowly but surely, we've been running out of new things to try. Personally, my list is dwindling. As brilliant as it is, and as much as I adore it, Demon's Souls can only last me so long. My PS4 backlog has been doing a lot of heavy lifting so far – especially with some of the performance-boosting updates that are popping up for older games – but there's something special about a built-for-PS5 title that looks sharp and plays well. Destruction AllStars fits the bill.

My first night with the game was encouraging – the cars have breezy handling, the rules and controls are easy to learn, and getting into an AI or even online match is snappy. In other words, Destruction AllStars is the kind of chill game I could pick up again after a six-month break without feeling lost.

At the same time, I worry about its longevity. It's surprisingly light on content and that's a big problem.

Y'all are straight-up thirsty. The recent craze over Lady Dimitrescu from Resident Evil Village has really exposed a lot of folks for their giant vampire lady fetish, showing that yes, gamers can and will get turned on by anything.

Well, this is what it's like when worlds collide. My fetish, stupid fast food-based video games, is meeting yours with KFC Dating Simulator 2.

"You can't stand in the way of progress" is a favored motto of your resident capitalist, and no company knows that better than Endron, the energy corporation currently sucking the life force directly out of our dying planet. But this ecological matter goes far beyond your average Wall St. executive's portfolio. The greed, recklessness, and inconsideration of this particular conglomerate's schemes are far more frightening, going beyond the bottom line.

Endron is one of the many humanistic fronts for The Wyrm, a terrifying spiritual entity that greedily drains civilizations of their very life force, leaving behind inhospitable husks, destroyed wilderness, and millions of broken lives. While the snake suits and shark smiles of its executives are avaricious enough, at its heart The Wyrm is a more ancient and primeval force, one that has currently focused its endless thirst on the greenery of Washington State woodland Tarker's Mill.

Hope is not lost, however, as Tarker's Mill is home to a pack of equally ancient, but far more noble Garou: men and women born of man, wolf, and spirit. The Warriors of Gaia. The werewolves. While the outside world merely sees another case of Endron's inhumanity visited upon Mother Earth, the Garou are more attuned to The Wyrm's machinations, vowing to stop the evil spirit from destroying their homeland, their people, and the planet itself.

I never thought I'd be the type of person who'd enjoy a game where you pump high school girls full of pheromones to satisfy their needs, but here I am reviewing my third Gal*Gun title. Despite clearly not being in its target demographic, I've always enjoyed the absurdity of it all. It's nice to have something downright outlandish to revel in while the rest of the industry pushes toward that homogenized center.

Of course, that absurdity and outlandishness come at a price, and the Gal*Gun franchise has always been in the middle of one controversy or another. Gal*Gun Returns is no different as a few weeks ago, we learned the Xbox One port of the title had been canceled after some "productive discussions" with Microsoft. 

Having seen what this series can do, the move didn't surprise me. But now that I've played it, the cancellation seems even more ridiculous as this is easily the tamest entry in the franchise.

In today's contest you can win Journey to the Savage Planet on Steam!

I almost typed out Journey to the Sausage Planet, which would be pretty funny, but not quite accurate. It's Journey to the Savage Planet, and it just hit Steam! That means it's time to give away some copies, because that's what we do best.

To say Rock Band revolutionized the admittedly short-lived plastic instrument phenomenon would be an understatement. This is a series that spawned not only a knockoff series from its biggest competitor but three direct sequels, multiple band-specific spinoffs (including the elusive Beatles license), and even a friggin' LEGO collab -- this thing had a full-blown zeitgeist. Like many niche interests, the genre crashed and burned, but a stalwart few still break out the cheap guitars and flimsy drum kits for some fake rock 'n roll on a drunken Tuesday night.

I'm amongst those ranks.

Whether or not you ever got into the series, it's proven to really have some legs. During its 13-year run, the series has featured some 2,800 songs, spanning every genre from the titular rock to rap, to country, and even parody tracks from South Park and Steven Colbert. Even to this day, the devs are still releasing DLC every Thursday to keep the series fresh.

It's hard to complain about what the devs have done...but complaining is my business, and business is good. And gosh darn it, it's time to put "You Get What You Give" in Rock Band.

Cblogs Recap: Week 5

-CorruptAI125 shares his thoughts on The Medium.

-Lord Spencer reviews Clock Tower as part of his PS1 REVIEWS blogging series.

-Arkane9 suggests 10 combat fixes for Yakuza: Like a Dragon.

-OmegaNate reviews the indie game TheDawn.

-GoofierBrute shares his thoughts on a game the time forgot, The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap.

-Exber responds to January's Band of Bloggers prompt with this blog about his favorite RPG party members.

-Kerrik52 reviews Sleeping Dogs as part of his Traveller in Playtime review blogs series.

-Shoggoth2588 shares his gaming journal of 2021.

-Black Red Gaming shares this list of his most anticipated games to be released in February.

-HoneyCrisp reviews a number of games he played in 2021.

-Gamingnerd attempts to explain the reductive nature of gaming labels.

-Beatlemaniaxx thinks that Link should remain mute even if The Legend of the Zelda series starts using more voice acting.

Hamster has released the latest  offering in its record-breaking Arcade Archives range. After a series of recent shmups we return to classic, side-scrolling action, as Jaleco's Ninja Kazan makes its platform-hopping return on PS4 and Nintendo Switch.

Released in arcades in 1988 at the very height of the ninja gaming craze - which saw Tecmo's Ninja Gaiden, Sega's Shinobi, and Taito's Ninja Warriors all hit in the same period - Ninja Kazan is hack 'n' slash platformer, following a young warrior's inexplicable world tour, slicing and dicing his way through the U.S., Greece, India, Africa, and finally Japan, while on a quest to regain some stolen ancient scrolls.

Check out the action in the video below, courtesy of YouTuber SidMania.

While it may have been analogous with our beloved Nintendo Entertainment System, the world of the Famicom was far different than the one we saw in the west. From the freedom explored by a Konami in its prime to the read/write frontiers of the Famicom Disk System, the gaming landscapes seen by Japanese gamers had far different peaks and valleys than we saw in the western world.

So allow us to be your tour guide in exploring this alien land filled with unusual heroes and bizarre concepts. We'll shed some light on what you may have missed simply by living on the wrong side of the ocean and, if it's possible, let you know how you can get your hands on these foreign artifacts.

I've had so-so luck over the past year and a half collecting all the free Mystery Gifts Nintendo and the Pokémon Company have sent out for Pokémon Sword and Shield, and there's a good chance I would have missed this one too if I wasn't in the right place at the right time.

Following the South Korean Crown Finals, a new Mystery Gift has been made available as of Saturday morning for anyone looking to evolve their Galarian Slowpoke into a Galarian Slowking. It's called the Galarica Wreath, and you have less than 24 hours to claim it.

All you need to do to add this to your collection is use the code "CR0WNF1NALS" and it's yours.