Destructoid

In Olija you play as Farady, a man marooned in mysterious and dangerous land. Using an ancient harpoon that you can use to fling yourself across the level and pull yourself towards your enemies, you along with your fellow survivors will try to escape before you are lost forever.

When I first saw the game I got serious Sword and Sorcery EP vibes from it, then all the killing started and I knew I was in for quite a different experience. To get a feel for the game yourself, you can waltz on over to Steam to check out a demo which should hold you over until release.

While it was originally announced that the game is available now during the not-so-E3 Devolver press conference today, it seems that wasn't the case. Olija is scheduled for release later this year on Switch and PC. This just goes to show that you can never trust your Uncle who works at Nintendo...

Devolver Digital rounded off its wild Devolver Direct presentation with a goofy new game, satirising the marketing migraine that is the E3 experience. DevolverLand Expo is available to play, free of charge, right now on PC via Steam.

Seemingly a psychedelic-nightmare-come-first-person-shooter, DevolverLand Expo lets you experience the perils and pitfalls of the E3 experience without the massive crowds, empty cans of energy drinks, and plethora of Drake's Cakes. So if you fancy Checking Another Look at some of the titles that appeared in this afternoon's presentation, head over to Steam and download DevolverLand Expo now.

Devolver admits that it kinda blew its load prematurely with Serious Sam 4 information. It's coming to Steam and Stadia, and it'll get here in August. We've known that since May! We're not blowing any minds here.

But, there's a new trailer and maybe that'll get your adrenaline pumpin' and your blood flowin'. Just look at all the things that can kill you and all the things you can kill. Serious Sam is not the most sophisticated of formulas.

Anyway, it looks good and you'll have your hands on it next month.

Carrion has caught my eye since the first time I saw its creepy meat monster slaughter its way through soldiers and scientists. It's the perfect game for a publisher like Devolver, and it turns out, we won't have to wait that long to play it. Carrion launches on July 23 for Switch, Xbox One, and PC. If you subscribe to Xbox Game Pass, you can find it there on launch day as well.

Xbox's Phil Spencer showed up at the Devolver Digital showcase to help announce a release date for Carrion. That's not what's important here.

Spencer shared a screen with a demon beast monster and it makes for a wonderful visual. I'm compelled to write a post about it entirely so this picture shows up on Google Images whenever someone looks for a professional shot of Phil Spencer.

Like, they're gonna be so confused. This is the long con. This is the good shit.

Can you imagine a better game than Shadow Warrior to kick off Devolver's annual showcase? It's kind of the perfect blend of crude, wacky, and violent that defines the Devolver brand.

The first Shadow Warrior 3 gameplay trailer is here and it doesn't disappoint. Buckets worth of demon blood is spilled, and some encounters look like they belong inside a carnival. There's a significant emphasis on locomotion, as wallrunning and a grapple hook brings more speed and movement to the fighting. It seems like a direction that's both better and more fun.

Shadow Warrior 3 is coming sometime in 2021. Platforms are still a mystery (although PC is assumed), but it's probably coming to whichever consoles won't make compromises on the number of dick jokes it allows.

During today's meta-beyond-meta Devolver Direct presentation Sony Interactive Entertainment's Shuhei Yoshida delivered a new trailer for its madcap looking title Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout, which was first revealed during last year's E3 festivities.

In addition to the new video, Yoshida also revealed that Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout will launch on PS4 and PC via Steam August 4. This news was supposed to be brought to you by two Fall Guys, but according to Yoshida they ate each other. Tough times.

The "new" E3 (Endless Entertainment Expo) season continues this weekend with not one, but two live streams dedicated to two major publishers within the video game industry. Tomorrow is the turn of Ubisoft, but the real action arrives an hour from now, with the latest bizarre installment in the Devolver Digital Cinematic Universe.

The irreverent indie publisher has made a name for itself in recent years with a string and bizarre, hyperactive, and disturbingly violent press conferences, as hosted by unkillable PR rep Nina Struthers. Armed with eyes of steel, lethal hands, and The Big Book of Buzzwords, Ms. Struthers has given us previews of some of the best indie titles the scene has to offer, in stage presentations that have culminated in surprisingly high body counts. Can Nina still deliver the bottom line in today's socially-distanced climate? I wouldn't bet against it.

This year, we can expect to see a fresh line-up of weird and wonderful titles - as is Devolver's forte - as well as the first gameplay footage of Flying Wild Hog's Shadow Warrior 3. You can watch along with us via Twitch below. The Devolver Direct presentation goes live an hour from now.

A word of warning to the first three rows: You may get wet.

It's been a few years since EA Sports dropped a new UFC fighter on fans, but Saturday morning, the publisher revealed EA Sports UFC 4 is on its way to PS4 and Xbox One consoles soon. Like, really soon. In fact, it's launching just over a month from now on August 14.

UFC 4 will feature fighters Israel Adesanya and Jorge Masvidal on the cover, and if you preorder, you'll gain access to Tyson Fury and Anthony Joshua. The game is introducing two new fighting arenas: the Backyard and the mythical Kumite. No word if UFC Fight Island, or UFSea, will also make the cut.

As of right now, there is no definitive list of UFC fighters that will be included in the game, though in the trailer above, I'm sure you can see some familiar faces. According to the game description, UFC 4's career mode will let you go from an amateur to an all-star with a unified progression system throughout all modes. And because this is an EA Sports title, there will be optional in-game purchases as well.

EA Sports UFC 4 launches on August 14 for PS4 and Xbox One.

UFC 4 [EA Sports]

A few years ago, I wrote a review for The Pokémon Cookbook, an instructional book designed for kids that teaches you how to shape your food into Pokémon. It did not go well. I didn't make edible Pokémon so much as I created food so horrific looking that even Andrew Zimmern wouldn't touch it. Turns out, making food art is, well, an art.

Making dishes that look like my favorite pocket monsters is certainly out of my reach in real life, but it's something I excel at in Pokémon Café Mix.

It's easy to be dismissive of the Grand Theft Auto franchise because it's the biggest fish in the pond and has been for quite some time. And as we prepare to take our adventures in San Andreas to the next generation, let's not forget one of the reasons why these games, particularly GTAV, are as beloved as they are: the stories they tell are actually quite good.

That's one of the topics CJ, Charlotte, Occams, and Chris cover on this episode of Podtoid. In addition to GTA, the crew recounts their favorite movie shootouts, the appeal of British sitcoms, Riki-Oh, next-gen game pricing, and movie musicals. All that, plus mac and cheese dispensers, on Podtoid Episode 450.

Atlus has announced that the PC port of Persona 4 Golden has surpassed 500,000 players since its launch on the Steam platform last month. The publisher announced the milestone on Twitter, accompanied by cute new artwork from character designer Shigenori Soejima.

Originally released on the PS Vita in 2012, Persona 4 Golden is the expanded edition of 2008 PS2 release Persona 4, and tells the story of a young group of friends who are thrust together when a series of gruesome murders befall their rural town of Inaba. With help of bizarre sidekick Teddie, and the strange parallel dimension known as The Midnight Channel, the self-appointed Investigation Team set out to unmask the killer.

The PC port of Persona 4 Golden includes high-definition visuals, graphic options, English and Japanese voicetracks and support for achievements and Steam Trading Cards. It is available to purchase on Steam now, and you can read Chris Carter's thoughts on the port right here.

The one can't be without the true other. So let's get together, see what we can uncover.

Hello folks and welcome back to our own little corner of this ker-azy globe. I hope that life is treating you and yours very well, and that you continue you find your own quantum of joy as we move well into July. We're pretty much halfway through the year exactly, and while it hasn't really been one for the photo album you, as a community, remain an absolute pleasure to be a part of. Keep it up, friends!

This week I haven't played very much in the way of modern games at all. I've continued to push on through schoolyard murder mysteries Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc and Persona 4 Golden, but I've also spent a lot of time neck-deep in some of my favourite titles from my formative years. These include games such as Time Gal, Chase H.Q., Double Switch, and WWF WrestleFest, the latter of which remains as playable today as it ever was. Am I burying my head in nostalgia? Quite possibly. But there are no rules, we all do what we need to do to keep the ol' brain cells kicking, ya dig?

How have you been spending the week? What games have been helping you to while away the hours and find your smile like 1997 Shawn Michaels. We, along with the rest of the Destructoid community, love to hear what you've been playing. So drop us a note below and fill us in on the rad action - particularly if you've been playing Rad Action.

Have a safe and pleasant weekend, from all of us at Destructoid.

In today's contest we're giving away free Star Trek Online: House Divided content, and you can also win a premium ship pack!

Star Trek Online is back at it with its newest expansion to the hit MMO: House Divided. And you know what that means -- we're giving away from see codes so you can bolster your fleet!

Ubisoft finally gave up this morning and admitted that Giancarlo Esposito stars in Far Cry 6 as villain Anton Castillo. After rumors and leaks and leaky rumors, it was enough for Ubisoft to throw its hands up in exasperation mere days before the official reveal on July 12. An unnoticed detail is that Esposito's Better Call Saul co-star might appear alongside him.

The Far Cry 6 promotional art shows Castillo with a boy named Diego, and that child might eventually grow up to be Far Cry 3's Vaas. IGN's Joe Skrebel's did some important scar forensics work and uncovered a startling similarity:

How many days until Ghost of Tsushima? "Too many."

That's the answer I've landed on after catching this latest trailer uploaded by PlayStation Japan – a must-watch for fans of Kazuya Nakai, Akio Ōtsuka, and Tsutomu Isobe. Thanks to the beauty of dual audio options, they'll be playing (protagonist) Jin Sakai, Shimura, and Khotun Khan, respectively.

I also just learned that the game can be pre-loaded today, which isn't helping my impatience. If you're low on space these days, the Ghost of Tsushima pre-load is a 35GB download, although there's talk of a day-one update and the PlayStation Store page mentions a "50GB minimum save size."

One more week to go. I'm ready to explore the ever-loving shit out of this island map.

Fallout 76 is a game with multiple currencies and an established endgame grind for those currencies including Gold Bullion, Scrip, Atoms, and Caps. Well, Bethesda has introduced a whole other grind and currency to go along with it in the form of its very first "season." Introduced with update 20 on June 30, Season 1 takes the Fallout 76 meta and progression into not-new and not-at-all-exciting territories.

You'll immediately notice The Legendary Run on the main menu when you start up Fallout 76. Once clicked, it'll bring up a mock game board that also acts as the roadmap for progression. You can click on various places on the board to see what awards are available (which we'll get into later).

Progression is spread across 100 ranks, each of which requires a set amount of "SCORE," the new currency used exclusively for ranking up. Each rank you achieve adds 25 more to the required amount for the next rank. So, for example, rank 2 requires 1025, rank 3 requires 1050, and so on.

Triband took the gameplay-as-comedy premise of What the Golf? to its (il)logical extreme, but the team hasn't run out of outlandish ideas for golf at its most abstract. The Apple Arcade version of What the Golf? got a Sporty Sports Special update today with 30 extra track-and-field-themed levels.

In retrospect, archery golf seems like a no-brainer. It's the sport of champions.

Today's Apple Arcade update also includes faster load times, performance improvements, and a "Golf Menu 2.1 with enhanced GPS (Golf Positioning Service)" to help you explore the overworld. There's no word on an equivalent update for Nintendo Switch and PC other than "maybe...if people like it."

Even if you're not an Apple Arcade subscriber (and even if you skipped What the Golf? altogether), you've gotta hear to the catchy song in the trailer. I'm tempted, but I don't think I'll renew just for these levels.

The very recent Crysis snafu just took another confusing turn. On July 1, blowback from a leaked gameplay trailer caused Crytek to indefinitely delay the game. It was so underwhelming that even the official trailer was delayed. Now it seems as though one of the four platforms wasn't actually delayed at all.

Crytek has just announced that the Switch version of Crysis Remastered will launch on July 23, which was the original release date:

Deadly Premonition 2 is back again with another obtuse, progress-gating quest.

Here's how to snag some anaconda skins and pressed white guara.

Despite Deathground very clearly trading in Jurassic Park vibes, this dinosaur death romp might have more in common with Alien: Isolation than anything else. Hold onto your butts.

Just watch that reveal trailer. Look at how the raptors stalk the humans just like the Xenomorph cleverly pursues Amanda Ripley to all corners of the Sevastopol. Check out that motion-detection scanner that's extremely reminiscent of the one in Alien: Isolation. Hell, there's even a mechanic for hiding inside lockers until the threat takes its hunt elsewhere.

Similarities, there are many -- but they only ratchet up my excitement for Deathground. Six years ago, Alien: Isolation was one of the finest video games I've ever played. It's the rare piece of Alien canon that felt like it accurately captured how imposing and frighting and absolutely terrible a Xenomorph should be. I'll revisit that but with the inspired choice of dinosaurs. I'm finally ready for a game to be oppressively stressful again.

Deathground works a little different than Alien: Isolation, of course. Most notably, it's a cooperative multiplayer game. It can be tackled solo, but it can also be played in groups of three. Also, there's a class component to add an RPG-type feel. The three classes are engineer, scout, and hunter. 

Well, this is something no one could have guessed...and some may not have wanted?

After some "when are they going to reveal the new WayForward project" foreplay, the Nintendo Treehouse Live segment swapped over to the big reveal. And almost as if the "it isn't a first-party project" warning from yesterday was meant for this moment, it is indeed a third-party project for Switch from WayForward: it's Bakugan: Champions of Vestroia arriving on Switch on November 3.

It's an RPG with an original story, complete with a campaign and online PVP. Combat plays out a lot like the most recent Yokai Watch, with a slight free-roaming real-time battlefield, with players controlling Bakugan creatures during a fight. 

Bakugan, a physical toy-and-card-based game and anime, is still going strong in several regions, so a Switch project and possibly an expanded toy line are genius moves. Just last year I witnessed a gigantic Bakugan booth at MomoCon 2019, complete with an actual cage for head-to-head players to fight in and an announcer. Wild, right?

A few people actually expected Shantae in Smash. Lower your expectations, folks!

Bandai Namco has dropped a devastating trailer for DLC character Vinsmoke Judge, who is headed to its RPG brawler One Piece: Pirate Warriors 4. Vinsmoke will arrive as a part of the "Whole Cake Island" character pack this summer.

Vinsmoke Judge is the feared leader of the Vinsmoke Family, a feared clan from the Germa Kingdom who have used their wealth, status, and extraordinary physical strength to conquer the North Blue. Vinsmoke values power over all - directly equating strength with status - and as such has even gone as far as to mutate his own children into ferocious warriors. Dad of the year, he ain't.

Leave it to Deadly Premonition 2 to make such an innocuous quest so difficult.

Here is one of the least-spoiler-filled guides of 2020. Here's how to find a can of spinach: a key quest item in a critical path story mission in Deadly Premonition 2.

[Update: Of all possible things, WayForward's game turned out to be Bakugan: Champions of Vestroia.]

The Nintendo Direct format may or may not be transforming – time will tell – but Treehouse lives.

During a just-announced Nintendo Treehouse: Live stream scheduled for 10:00 a.m. Pacific on July 10, 2020, Nintendo will debut a new WayForward game and preview Paper Mario: The Origami King.

Here's the curious part: the mystery game is "a title in a franchise new to developer WayForward." Am I reading into that too much, or are the implications really exciting? I hope they're borrowing an IP.

[Update: Nintendo clarified that WayForward's new game is "based on a third-party property."]

You could put WayForward on just about any series and I'd be stoked to check it out.

Just recently Bethesda kicked off the first "season" of Fallout 76, and things didn't exactly go as planned.

Amid the ever-present bugs (some of which popped up from the seasonal kickoff) there was also the issue of the ammo converter: a much-hyped item that allowed players to literally convert ammo that was useless for their build into something they could actually wield. Instead, the conversation rate was woefully handled to the point where it was tedious to even use the mechanic. That changes soon.

Bethesda notes that going forward in the next major patch, the converter will allow you to swap multiple stacks (10x or 100x [!]), which is a very welcome and very-MMO-like quality of life change. The studio promises "few button presses" as well as the ability to save up 100,000 AmmoPoints: a stark increase over the prior cap of 2,000. These alterations are both swift and welcome, though one wonders why it wasn't caught before it went live.

As a reminder, anyone with Bethesda Launcher access to Fallout 76 can get in on the PTS (public test server), which is now a proving ground for Update 21. The big draw this time is the "Colossal Problem" public event that centers around nukes; which has been teased for weeks now. 15 new Legendary Perk cards have also been added to the PTS environment.

It seems like the game is constantly one step forward, two steps back. Perhaps when active development has ceased and the team catches up to the last major patch: then we'll have peace in our time.

Inside the Vault [Bethesda.net]

Heroes of the Storm is coming up on its second year of "maintenance mode," an era in which Blizzard has greatly reduced the number of people on its development team and has dropped all official esports support. It's also still one of my most-played games in spite of that shift.

Other than the cadence of new heroes, it's kinda hard to tell that Heroes is operating with a smaller team. The current outfit has done an amazing job at re-imagining existing events or forging new experiences these past few years, providing balance patches and many character reworks; and when the time came to actually deliver a new hero, they kind of knocked it out of the park.

Well, four positions for the Heroes of the Storm development team just popped up on the official Blizzard career site (three Senior Software Engineers, one Senior Technical Artist). While this could be the company filling current positions, Blizzard employees have been very vocal about leaving the company though (including Kevin "Cloaken" Johnson, the former "voice of Heroes"), so it seems as if these are augmenting the current team.

In any case, it still shows that the game has fight left in it.

Careers [Blizzard] Thanks Rick!

Destiny 2 has had a good run this year in terms of Twitch bonuses. Rather than dabbling in the program every so often, Bungie pulled a full-Riot-Games and decided to dive in with both feet.

Each month Destiny 2 players (who are also Twitch Prime subscribers) can access a bundle of free stuff, which includes Exotic weapons and cosmetics. It was set to come to an end soon, but Bungie seems to be happy enough with the program that they've extended the partnership by four more months.  No further details were provided, but you can expect them to be in line with previous offerings.

If you haven't redeemed this month's pack yet, you can find all of the instructions here. In short: link your accounts, press a button and find your stuff at The Tower with NPC Amanda Holliday. You can find a full list of previous promos below!

This Week at Bungie [Bungie.net]

Kingdom Hearts III, Dark Souls III: is there a connection here? Now there is.

Although poor Kairi didn't get her shot to kick nearly as much ass as she should have, she can take out the trash all-game-long in this Dark Souls III mod from creator iwtexplode.

The mod itself is pretty dazzling in that it not only transposes Kairi into the game, but also provides players with a "custom Keyblade-like moveset" at the start. In other words, within the framework of the game (the Knight and Cleric classes), Kairi can already utilize several spells and abilities that make her feel like her Kingdom Hearts counterpart. It also provides unique voicework and animations.

Hilariously, the trailer below actually looks like a dark Kingdom Hearts game at times! Somehow, this all just fits.

Kairi Mod [Nexus Mods]

Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon 2 is out today, and it's packed with several modes and a heap of playable characters. Its list of gametypes is only getting stronger next week.

Revealed by Inti Creates on YouTube, Curse of the Moon 2 will be getting a Boss Rush mode as early as next week on July 16 via update 1.2.0. Shown in the clip, you can select any character available from the full roster (using the game's in-level swap mechanic) and any weapon type. Like Kirby Super-Star, there's a little holding area where you can pick your loadout and heal up between bosses.

Note: the trailer below contains a semi-gameplay-spoiler in that it reveals the full cast of the game moments in. Funnily enough, the video also showcases a few effective boss strategies throughout and outright highlights most of the major encounters.

Stay tuned for our review later today!

[Update: Ubisoft has tweeted a very short teaser featuring Anton Castillo, the new villain revealed in this morning's leak. We can expect the full reveal of Far Cry 6 during Sunday's Ubisoft Forward presentation.]

Eagle-eyed video game fans over on Resetera have spotted a leaked listing for the next entry in Ubisoft's newest open-world adventure, Far Cry 6. The listing appeared on the Hong Kong PlayStation Store earlier today, way ahead of Sunday's "Ubisoft Forward" presentation.

Players will take up the role of Dani Rojas, a local guerilla fighter battling to free a small nation under ruthless dictatorship. A gameplay description boasts the largest map to date and promises "makeshift weapons, vehicles, and Amigos, the new Fangs for Hire to burn the tyrannical regime to the ground." A single splash-art image features main villain Anton Castillo who, as recently rumoured, will be portrayed by Breaking Bad's Giancarlo Esposito.

"Welcome to Yara, a tropical paradise frozen in time," reads a roughly-translated blurb. "As the dictator of Yara, Anton Castillo is intent on restoring his nation back to its former glory by any means, with his son, Diego, following in his bloody footsteps. Their ruthless oppression has ignited a revolution."

Evil landowners and a civilian-led uprising? Yep, sounds like Far Cry.

[Update: You can find the full English patch notes for 1.1.2 below. Note that there are light spoilers present (mostly locations) if you do decide to dive into them heavily.]

Xenoblade Chronicles: Definitive Edition is pure joy, but given how huge it is, players have uncovered a number of bugs this past month or so.

Monolith Soft has been working on rapidly patching them up (it's basically the sole purpose of 1.1.0 and 1.1.1, but now there's another update to download that fixes even more (mostly minor) issues. The crowning achievement of 1.1.2 deals with cutscene visuals and musical glitches, as well as the propensity for unique enemies to flee easier than it was intended.

An auto-attack delay animation was fixed as well, on top of the ability to turn off all tutorials: including casual mode pop-ups, a quality of life upgrade. As a trade-off, the "Tephra Cave Skip" glitch is now patched out. 

1.1.2 [Nintendo via Reddit]

In today's contest you can win a PS4 or Xbox One copy of hit RPG CrossCode.

If you're a console pleb like me and have been eyeing CrossCode for a while, then you're in luck! We've got some PS4 and Xbox One copies of the hit RPG to give away so you can experience what PC players have had for nearly two years now. Those showoffs.

Methinks there's something wrong here. Through slick deduction skills learned from games like Mario is Missing, I'm able to surmise that all is not as it should be in the Mushroom Kingdom. 

GameXplain uploaded the five-minute intro cinematic to the upcoming Paper Mario: The Origami King and someone has a lot of explaining to do! The Origami Festival is a ghost town and Princess Peach's castle is a prison. Then Peach comes stomping out of her lair asking creepy-ass questions like "Shouldn't the Toads be silenced for all of eternity?" and "Will you crease yourself and be reborn?"

We already know the impetus for this adventure: King Olly has some sort of stranglehold on the castle. There's brainwashing at play or someone's in a disguise made of papier-mâché. Either way, sound the alarm! This is too culty to be wholesome.

Paper Mario: The Origami King is out on July 17 on Switch. However, we'll find out more tomorrow during a surprise Nintendo Treehouse live stream. In the meantime, here's (mostly) everything we know about Origami King at this point. Then, in a week or so, we find out whether these folds are gold or tearable.

We know what we're getting with Deadly Premonition 2: A Blessing in Disguise, and I've accepted that fate, but maybe some of its many technical setbacks can be overcome. I'm not asking for perfection – this is Deadly Premonition, you know? – but even a slightly better frame rate could go a long way.

Following a bit of back-and-forth about the game's post-launch update plans, here's the latest word.

Thank you all for your feedback regarding #DeadlyPremonition2!

We would like to officially clarify that the development team are constantly working on improving the title and patches are in the works.

More news soon!

— Rising Star Games (@RisingStarGames) July 9, 2020

As publisher Rising Star Games puts it, the developers at Toybox Inc. are "constantly working on improving the title and patches are in the works." It's a vague reassurance, but a reassurance all the same. I figure plenty of you are going to show up on day one regardless. I would, but July is packed.

If you're wondering about the bowling alley, listen to this important message from Swery.

Contrary to popular belief, Valve was working on the three-numbered games in those franchises that everyone loves. It wasn't laziness, disinterest, or prioritizing Steam that kept Valve from finishing those games. Instead, it was a problem with the very foundation they were being built upon.

Geoff Keighley's Half-Life: Alyx -- Final Hours documentary released today for $10 on Steam. It's a look back at the past 10 years of Valve, all framed against the recent launch of Alyx and what it took to get that game finished. As promised, there are some interesting nuggets about projects that never came to fruition.

IGN has already watched through the doc and reported on a few canceled games of interest. For instance, at least five Half-Life projects were started and then scrapped between Half-Life 2: Episode 2 and Alyx. One of those was formally meant to be Half-Life 3.

The reason Valve never persisted and saw Half-Life 3 through was because the Source 2 engine wasn't finished and development was unworkable without it. However, it's said that Half-Life 3 was going to be a procedurally-generated game where the story beats were preset, but the gameplay would turn out differently because building layouts and enemy placements would always be randomized. Apparently, Valve was aiming for a game that was highly replayable. It sounds novel back in 2013 (which is when Half-Life 3 was in development) but not so much anymore.

Publisher Modus Games announced today that Remothered: Broken Porcelain will no longer meet its August 25 release date. The Stormind Games-developed survival-horror sequel will now arrive on PS4, PC, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch on October 20, 2020.

"We are incredibly excited to invite you into this wonderfully realized chapter of the Remothered story," said Modus Games in a statement on its website. "It's important that we deliver the experience you deserve. Having additional time for polish and to accommodate unanticipated longer timeframes due to the current global situation will help us do exactly that... This also means that you'll be able to explore the Ashmann Inn for the very first time during the spookiest time of the year, Halloween! We cannot thank you enough for your patience and enthusiasm."

Remothered: Broken Porcelain launches October 20 on PS4, PC, Xbox One and Nintendo Switch.

No more kidding around with grunts. Team Rocket isn't complete without Jessie and James, and while they didn't blast off at the speed of light to reach Pokémon Go, they're here now, ready to be trounced.

You'll want to keep an eye out for a (fittingly) conspicuous Meowth hot air balloon that's floating around town for a limited time. Tap the gaudy vessel, pummel Ekans and Koffing in a battle, and know you did your part. Today's Pokémon Go update also includes Team Rocket avatar outfits in the shop.

Officially, lore-wise, "Team GO Rocket has assigned Shadow Pokémon to protect Jessie and James as they seek to create more Shadow Pokémon." In reality, the unbreakable duo secretly loves the endless Tom and Jerry routine that always ends in defeat. It gives them purpose. They'd be lost without it.

Battle Jessie and James by finding their Meowth balloon [Pokémon Go]

The team behind Superhot has been working diligently over the past few years on an expansion for their innovative shooter called Mind Control Delete. What started as a roguelike add-on has shifted into a full-fledged (non-VR) standalone game with more features and story to expand the original's content.

It has been lingering in paid Early Access for a while, but all along the devs have told those who don't wish to pay for an Early Access game to be patient. Patience will be rewarded on July 16 as Superhot: Mind Control Delete launches on PC (including GOG), Xbox One, and PlayStation 4. Nintendo Switch users will have to wait, but a port is coming.

The best part is that so long as you pay for Superhot before Mind Control Delete launches on July 16, then you will get the new game for free. The keyword here though is "pay," so previous Twitch Prime or Games with Gold giveaways don't apply. Eligible Superhot buyers will automatically have Mind Control Delete appear in their library on Steam, GOG, and the Epic Games Store "immediately after release," while PS4 owners will see the game "within a few days after the release" and Xbox One players will get a system-level message containing their game key likely within seven days of the July 16 launch.

Those who are not part of the giveaway will have to pay $24.99 once Mind Control Delete launches. Most questions you have can more than likely be answered by the FAQ on the official site.

Fans (fangs?) of Vampire: The Masquerade will be pleased to hear that The Creatures of the Night are set to continue their nocturnal activities on next-gen platforms. Publisher Nacon has announced a new title, Vampire: The Masquerade - Swansong, which is headed to PS5, PC, and Xbox Series X in 2021 (alongside current-gen consoles).

In Swansong, players will step into the role of three Bostonian vampires, whose lives and fates become intertwined with the arrival of a new "Prince of the Boston Camarilla," Hazel Iverson, aka "The Swan." While Iverson has designs on staunchly enforcing the long-kept laws of The Masquerade, murder, betrayal, and sect in-fighting soon lead to blood and mayhem on the streets of Boston.