Destructoid

The Game Bakers (of Furi fame) has announced that its sweeping co-op adventure Haven is in development for PS5, and will arrive alongside its previously announced PS4, PC, Xbox One and Nintendo Switch editions later this year.

Originally announced way back in February 2019, Haven is the story of two starry-eyed lovers, Yu and Kay, who have left their own world behind to begin anew on a mysterious and seemingly humanity-free planet. Players will have the opportunity to explore the rainbow-coloured surroundings, engage in combat with strange creatures, and - according the new trailer below - play some naughty card games.

Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night is getting its delayed DLC drop today (on everything but Switch, which is coming at a later date), but there's actually two orders of business: the content itself and an underlying update. We'll get to that.

First, the meat! Boss Revenge and the Chroma Wheel are the main courses. The former allows you to step into the shoes of several main campaign bosses (Andrealphus, Bathin, Bloodless, Gremory) and take on the game's heroes (Miriam, Dominique, Zangetsu). Think of it like a fighting game, where you go room-by-room defeating each enemy, with each "fighter" bringing along their own moveset.

The Chroma Wheel is a lot simpler of a concept: it adds more cosmetic options into the fray, like a hair salon on top of more outfit coloring. To access that feature you just need to go visit Todd the Barber in the main game.

As for that aforementioned underlying update, the Zangetsu progress bug is now finally fixed in a roundabout way. Previously the Zangetsu update annoyingly required players to finish the full game before accessing him as a playable character. The problem is, a lot of folks started a New Game+ run and deleted their endgame save. If you didn't have the time to run the game all over again, tough.

Update: Congratulations to RockyNoHands, our grand prize winner!  A special thanks to all of our contestants and everyone in our community that voted. If you missed the show, check out the replay here. 

Folks, this is not over yet -- a new competition will be announced in the next two weeks as we get ready for this year's Luminosity Gaming Rising Stars tournament, with a prize pool of $30,000. Stay tuned!

--

Over the past month, dozens of streamers – including some familiar (and impeccably sexy) faces from the Destructoid community – battled it out in our first ever So You Think You Can Stream competition.

The prize? $5,000 (American dollars, not Dollarydoos) and a fast-track to the top 32 in Luminosity Gaming’s upcoming Rising Stars competition, where they’ll once more battle it out for an even grander prize; $100,000 and one year contract to stream with these esports titans.

Well, it’s nearly over. Tonight, the top three streamers, and a fan-favorite voted for by the community, will battle it out for the top prize.

Here’s our top three contestants:

• Fifakillvizualz
• RockyNoHands
• RLaw

Alongside those three streamers will be the community’s pick, BadGalShay!

Spike Chunsoft has launched the first episode of "Dangan TV: Hope Keeps On Going!", a new web series looking at creepy/cute murder mystery series Danganronpa. The series has been commissioned in part to celebrate the 10th anniversary of Kazutaka Kodaka's wild world of classroom chaos.

The first episode, titled "How I Discovered Danganronpa", goes back to the first game in the series - 2010's Trigger Happy Havoc - as host and series voice actor Megumi Ogata chats with both Kodaka and series producer Yoshinori Terasawa about Danganronpa's conception and creation.

[Update: The patch is now live, which brings a ton of balance updates along with the new DLC. You can find them below or read them here.]

Minecraft Dungeons launched back in May, and Mojang is teeing off its DLC strategy very soon.

On July 1, the first DLC pack, Jungle Awakens, is set to arrive. Naturally it'll take place in...the jungle, featuring classic Minecraft cuteness (pandas) and terrifying enemies (the Jungle Abomination). In all it seems like a standard extra level to run, which should last you around 15-30 minutes each time you dive in. As a reminder, you can get the DLC free with the $30 Hero Edition, or opt for the "Hero Pass" for the standard/Game Pass version.

Mojang also promises a string of free updates for the game, which adds a new "Lower Temple" dungeon into the mix, as well as new items and balance changes. For 30 bucks (which gets you the announced DLC), that's not too bad. Oh, and the game's soundtrack just officially launched.

Between this and the recent Nether Update for the core game, Minecraft is still on a roll.

Minecraft Dungeons: Jungle Awakens [Minecraft]

Have you checked out Jump Rope Challenge yet? No? I'll wait. Seriously, it's a free two-player 78MB instant-download Switch game: what do you have to lose?

If the idea of jumping rope with your Joy-Con hasn't enticed you on principle, you might want to check out this latest update that adds sweet, sweet pandering nostalgia into the mix. Late last night, Nintendo of America tweeted out a quick update for the freebie, which adds new backgrounds, costumes and the "double-under" technique into the mix.

What costumes you might ask? Well, as usual the Mario series has a lot of reps (Mario, Luigi, Peach, Toad, Bowser, Wario), but Link, Samus, Isabelle, two Splatoon Inklings and even the Arcade Bunny are available to cosplay.

Whoa, the Arcade Bunny?! That brings back 3DS memories. Someone is really looking out for that little dude.

Nintendo of America [Twitter]

Can you spare some room for more fancy limited editions? Limited Run Games is counting on it.

The publisher went out on a limb with its own E3-adjacent press conference a couple of years ago, and 2020 – the year of work-from-home broadcasts – will be no different. Limited Run's show is airing on Twitch at noon Pacific on Wednesday, July 8 "with dozens of physical game announcements."

Above all, they're having fun. I could use some of that lately.

Happy last day of shooting! We trust that none of you will do any goofs with this picture. pic.twitter.com/Pn7uUMfvvv

— Limited Run Games (@LimitedRunGames) July 1, 2020

What are you hoping to see pop up next in the world of digital-to-physical small-batch publishing?

Crashing into an endless brick wall in your 2BC runs of Dead Cells? Same. I have a long way to go.

Motion Twin and Evil Empire patched Dead Cells today on Steam in an attempt to refine the difficulty curve "between Boss Cells." (It's coming soon to consoles.) With the Update of Plenty, basic 0BC runs will be a little more "challenging" so first-time players don't get ahead of themselves without learning fundamental lessons, and 2BC "shouldn't beat you up and take your lunch money anymore."

That's far from the only rework. Update 19 also altered crossbows to be two-handed, adjusted the gold economy and shop to be less "peculiar" (and encourage mid-run character build experimentation), buffed the long-term scaling for DPS mutations, and made damage-over-time effects stand out more.

There's another big adjustment for longtime players to grapple with: "Bonus stats have been removed from ++ and S gears, but to compensate new scrolls have been added in biomes, enemy damage has been reduced, and gear damage has been changed to increase with item level." As the developers explain, "this change was implemented to give back some importance to gear level, and in pair with the economy rebalance, give you more opportunities (and an incentive) to switch gears during your run."

Make no mistake about it: I was very down on Fallout 76 when it launched. Balance issues, inventory tedium, bugs galore, and an experience that just didn't feel much like Fallout -- it added up to a game that I didn't want to play. I was certainly far from alone in that sentiment.

Since then, things have slowly turned around. Some quality of life changes here, a lot of technical fixes there, and suddenly people say it's something of an enjoyable game. The recent Wastelanders update -- the one that added NPCs, dialogue choices, a reputation system, and an overhauled main questline -- did a ton to make Fallout 76 feel like a real single-player RPG.

It's a much different game now, even though it still seems like your mileage may vary when it comes to how much you get out of it. But, for those who have been curious but understandably holding off, there's an upcoming opportunity that might make checking it out mostly painless. Fallout 76 is coming to Xbox Game Pass for console and PC on July 9. Subscribers can hop into the West Virginia Wasteland and see if this irradiated MMO-like is for them. The timing coincides nearly perfectly with the launch of Fallout 76's first season (which, in an unsurprising twist, is off to a rough start).

That's not all for Game Pass additions in early July. Today, Soulcalibur VI joins Game Pass on Xbox, and Out of the Park Baseball 21 rounds the bases on Game Pass on PC. Joining Fallout on July 9, futuristic retro RPG CrossCode joins the party on Xbox.

I hadn't come across Recompile before, but I'm down for a "metroidvania-inspired hacking adventure" with zippy air-dashes, a "sentient virus" protagonist, and a story that branches based on play style.

Recompile is planning a 2020 PC release on Steam, and as of today, it's also aiming for PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X. To put you in the right headspace, Phigames was inspired by Axiom Verge, Hollow Knight, and even The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, among others. Quite the mood board!

"The landscape of The Mainframe is a completely open and explorable seamless experience," Phigames co-founder Phi Dinh explained today in a PlayStation Blog post.

"We've crafted a small yet fully-realized environment bursting with character and details. There are multiple biomes each representing a single function of the mysterious computer system you've been tasked to infiltrate. From the heavily armed security fortifications of The Tet to the authoritarian engineered world of The Hex, each location requires different skills and strategies to master."

As for the branching narrative, it comes down to "your play style, and how you decide to resolve certain narrative situations." Recompile is about the creation of a self-aware AI – if you play too aggressively, you could "end up creating a similarly violent antagonist" – and there are multiple potential endings.

Another fun tidbit: "The game's entire story takes place within one second." I'll be keeping tabs.

Now that the Shiny Zeraora craze is pretty much all over (as far as the reward is concerned anyway), Game Freak has another set of Max Raid battles planned for Pokemon Sword and Shield.

This one is rock and steel themed, with an enhanced focus on Onix, Rhydon, Meowth, Rolycoly and Cufant evolutions. TMs like Heavy Slam, Drill Run or Power Gem will also be rewarded alongside of the rock and steel concept. The event will run through August 1 at 8:59AM JST (7:59PM ET).

As you may recall, this event previously bugged out the game, adding in an item that didn't exist in the game code yet. It's fixed now though!

Pokemon [Twitter]

Yesterday saw action-packed sky-fighting series Ace Combat celebrate its 25th anniversary. Publisher Bandai Namco marked the occasion with the announcement that the series' latest entry, Ace Combat 7: Skies Unknown, has hit an impressive milestone of two million combined global shipments and digital sales.

Releases in January of 2019, Ace Combat 7 offers an advanced dog-fighting experience among the skies of "Strangereal," a continent currently caught up in the embittered "Lighthouse War." Players can choose to battle it out in a single-player campaign or numerous multiplayer modes, piloting a host of sophisticated aircraft and engaging in explosive air-to-air combat.

_{[Check out our previous Smash Ultimate DLC coverage: Piranha Plant, Joker, Hero, Banjo, Terry, Byleth.]}

It's been a while since the last Super Smash Bros. Ultimate DLC drop (January), and there's a few reasons for that.

For one, the current pandemic is causing issues for Sakurai and his team right now.  But it's also a very big transition period for Ultimate as it moves into the second Fighters [Season] Pass. While its debut fighter is seemingly out of left field (we were warned!), Arms deserves to be part of Nintendo's history and immortalized in Super Smash Bros. — Min Min is proof of that.

In true Fallout 76 fashion, things aren't going according to plan at launch of the game's first "season." More frustration than conveniences have popped up, as players are left wondering how much longer it'll be before Season 1 functions as intended.

The most overarching annoyance is that players aren't able to cruise through the battle pass despite completing actions that should help them progress. Season 1's "Legendary Run" board game meta-game has 100 levels with new rewards at each rank. Completing daily and weekly challenges earns you SCORE, which is a new form of XP specifically for ranking up through the season. There are more ways to earn SCORE though, like completing pubic events and leveling up.

The problem is that the public events are bugged right now, and they're generally not awarding anyone with SCORE. The game's subreddit is flooded with complaints about it. It takes 1,000 SCORE to level up once, and it's possible to earn 250 SCORE per day through daily missions. With public events not working, a lot of people are already feeling the inevitable grind of trying to hit the level 100 cap before Season 1 ends in September. Without paying to advance ranks, it was already going to require approximately two-to-three hours per day to get there. That's going to increase proportionate to however long it takes Bethesda to sort out the public events snafu.

The other major complaint is that the long-awaited ammo converter kind of flat-out sucks. It's a good idea in theory. Fallout 76 players are overencumbered with ammunition they never use, and this new gadget makes it viable for them to turn all those .38 bullets into something useful.

Easy Day Studios has released a new trailer for its sandbox skateboarding title Skater XL. The video showcases three brand new locations, all created by community members, that are available now on PC and will be arriving alongside the console ports later this month.

Forget cockroaches. Worms – the Team17 multiplayer game, but also maybe the slimy little fellas too – will outlive us all. The series has been going strong for decades and a new title is on the way in 2020.

Worms Rumble is a frantic 32-player game with real-time platformer/shooter arena combat, cross-play support, and three modes. Deathmatch is a series staple, Last Worm Standing is a battle-royale shootout, and Last Squad Standing – a variant with ten teams – lets players revive their mates.

They're really going for it. In both of the battle royale modes, "not only will you have your enemies to fight off, but the restricted zones will play a big part in the outcome of the battle," according to Team17 producer Danny Martin. "Linger too long in one of them, and you'll start losing health until you move into another. The restricted zones won’t always start or finish in the same location, so you'll need to keep an eye on the warnings when they appear and high tail it out of there to a safe location."

I know this format is extremely played out, but in Worms? It could be a nice jolt. I'm open to it.

Worms Rumble is coming to Steam, PlayStation 4, and PS5 in late 2020, and "the release is just the beginning." I'm sure that'll mean new cosmetic unlocks and seasonal events – two elements that are already confirmed for launch – but hopefully it also means updates with additional game modes.

If you're curious enough to want to try the closed beta, sign-ups are open for July 15-19.

Every Pokemon player has their favorite generation.

The one that really kicks that nostalgia into overdrive above all others. For some, it's Red/Blue, because that's the only set of games they played and they never moved on beyond that. For others, it's Pokemon Diamond/Pearl/Platinum, otherwise known as the "Sinnoh games." I think that's definitely the case for Twitter user Petoke_028.

Amazingly, that fan managed to re-create a classic theme of the Sinnoh games (Route 201) using nothing but two styluses. For those who aren't aware, each badge in the game makes a "ding" noise when you tap it, and Petoke_028 cracked the code, managing to create a tune out of a feature a lot of folks don't even use.

What a great way to start July 2020, which hopefully beats out our previous hellish June. You can check out the video below as well as a comparison to the original.

The three-year wait for Ooblets, a game about farming crops for cash and raising a team of cute little critters, is almost over. Glumberland is starting its Early Access journey for Ooblets on Xbox One (with the Game Preview program) and PC (through the Epic Games Store) on July 15, 2020, for $24.99.

Ooblets is hovering over that highly sought-after Stardew Valley, Animal Crossing, and Pokémon airspace, but not in an overly derivative way. The game should be a feel-good adventure full of chatting, collecting, leveling, and even dancing. (Instead of fights, there are dance battles.) It has a bunch of mechanics I'll enjoy digging into and everything's wrapped up in a pleasant, wholesome package.

"There's still a lot ahead as we work towards 1.0," according to the developers, "but we're very excited to hit this milestone." This may not be your ideal way to dive in, but I can't wait any longer.

If all goes well, we'll have Early Access impressions of Ooblets later this month.

Focus Home Interactive has proudly announced that Asobo Studio's grim adventure title A Plague Tale: Innocence has passed the one million sales mark, shining a light of deserved success on the dark tale of two brave children in one of humanity's darkest hours.

Set against the backdrop of The Great Plague in 14th century France, A Plague Tale is the story of two aristocratic children, Amica and Hugo De Rune, who are forced from their home by The Inquisition under the most violent of circumstances. Out on their own in a nightmare world of fascist rule and national sickness, Amica must rely on her sharp wits to guide herself and Hugo out of the city, away from the blades of The Inquisition and thousands of tiny, razor-sharp teeth.

If you've wondered what a locked-down Devolver Digital press conference might look like, we're about to find out soon. The Devolver Direct 2020 broadcast is set for Saturday, July 11 at noon Pacific.

Devolver Direct streaks toward the future's future on Saturday, July 11 at 12PM Pacific via @Twitch! #checkalook pic.twitter.com/xkDnaWsfGC

— Devolver Digital (@devolverdigital) July 1, 2020

This year's pre-recorded video will be streamed on Twitch and Steam.

The oddball show "continues the tradition of overpromises with new game reveals, gameplay reveals, release date announcements, and special guests from the industry to help usher in these important marketing bullet points. And it's nearly all gameplay because that's what the youths of today demand."

Apart from the annual show's usual mayhem, Devolver is also promising public demos for the death-bringing monster game Carrion, the death-dodging Disc Room, and an unannounced title.

At this point, Stardew Valley has its own lore. If there's a sequel you better believe that developer ConcernedApe will expand upon it, and the fans will demand appearances from some of the more iconic characters and races that inhabit its land. For now, there's this fan-created crossover.

Crafted by Zandrewbert8 over on Reddit, this genius painstakingly brought over every major villager from Stardew Valley into Animal Crossing. It looks like a lot of work, but they snapped a photo of cosplay for all of the big characters doing their thing, including the Wizard creeping it up in their tower among all of their occult items.

They estimate that it took them around 90 hours to finish the project: given that it's provided me with a lot of joy trying to pinpoint everything in his hour of need, mission accomplished. Using this list of Stardew villagers as a key, see if you can spot them all.

I brought the villagers of Stardew Valley to Animal Crossing[Reddit]

The Summer Game Fest is doing what it can to bring the spirit of video game conventions to the stuck-at-home public. Part of that is the Steam Game Festival which brought 900-some demos to PC a few weeks ago. Later this month, Xbox gets in on the action.

Microsoft has announced that it's laying down the beach towel, setting up shop under a comically-big umbrella, spreading sunscreen across the bridge of its nose, and bringing some toys for everyone to play with. A selection of games in the ID@Xbox program will be featured on the Xbox One dashboard with public demos for anyone to try.

Called the Xbox Game Fest Demo Showcase, this event runs July 21 through July 27. That's more or less in line with the second Summer Game Fest stream which premieres on July 20.

We don't yet know exactly how many games or which games will be included. Xbox mentions a selection between 75 and 100 demos that include: Cris Tales, Destroy All Humans!, Haven, Hellpoint, Skatebird, The Vale: Shadow of the Crown, Raji: An Ancient Epic, and Welcome to Elk. Obviously, that's about 10 percent of the final list. There's a lot to come. Xbox turns the summer heat up in three weeks.

Summer Game Fest Demo Event Coming July 21 to an Xbox Near You [Xbox Wire]

Fallout 76 is still chugging along, coasting off of its free Wastelanders update, but there's more work to be done. The game is getting one of its biggest quality of life changes yet alongside of a potential seasonal cash grab, depending on how it's handled going forward (so far it's fairly innocuous, but Bethesda could always pull an Activision with it).

Yes folks, the premium price tag and a subscription service weren't enough: now Fallout 76 is joining the online shooter "seasonal" craze, complete with the option of buying ranks for atoms (premium currency) in a few weeks. The service is free for all right now, but according to the seasonal FAQ, the team "may add Fallout 1st" (subscription pass) options in the future. You can find that full rundown here, including a nice breakdown of the items.

The biggest part of the update for me is public teams. This is huge, as now players can actually group up with an incentive (more XP/bonus stats), allowing the world to feel less lifeless during play sessions. In short all you have to do is choose the public team option from a menu, then search or create your own party based on specific goals (hunting, roleplaying, event-focus, exploration, building or casual play). It's great.

Despite having not yet played Cyberpunk 2077, (still hurts), it appears a relatively snug statement to suggest that CD Projekt RED's Night City adventure is going to have more than its fair share of sex, sleaze, and violence. After all, these are tropes almost inherent to cyberpunk as a genre. No-one ever said an avaricious, collapsed society was going to be Disneyland. Regardless, it seems that the Japanese censor board is readying the scissors, and that Japan's edition of Cyberpunk 2077 will be trimmed of most of its excess.

All sexual content is being "revised." There will be no nudity in the game whatsoever, including the depiction of genitals either on characters or in billboards and architecture. Any fully nude characters will be sporting some brand new underwear. In addition, "selective revisions" are being made to scenes of gratuitous violence, such as the severing of limbs or spilling of useful internal organs.

This is not the first time in recent years that a major video game has seen cuts on its journey east. Back in 2019, Capcom's Resident Evil 2 (and previously Resident Evil 7) was altered to tone down the detail and animation of its gore sequences, in efforts to make its zombie-munching sequences a little less shocking... One of those strange instances of censorship where one has to define where the line between "a decapitation that's too violent" and "a decapitation that's 'safely' violent." Still, that's why they're the censor and I'm the... words writing guy.

Modders are always hard at work adding in various elements of Nintendo's history to Zelda: Breath of the Wild, but this (along with the Inox-to-Bowser enemy model swap) is one of my favorites.

Crafted by Yainskofso, this mod not only transports Samus into the game, but also converts the game's Master Cycle Zero into the Metroid gunship. The idea right now is to fully convert as much of Breath of the Wild as possible with Metroid aesthetics, including background music, other character models and outfits. Amazingly, the mod actually had sounds ripped directly from the Metroid Prime trilogy and the underrated Other M (disclaimer: so long as you make a sandwich during the cutscenes and ignore them) to really give it extra personality.

While there was a YouTube video showcasing every facet of the mod, Nintendo seems to have removed it on copyright grounds. For now, we have screenshots and the mod's landing page.

Samus Mod Gunship [Gamebanana]

[Update: Ask for leaks and you shall receive delays. Or something like that.

Just this morning Crytek has announced that Crysis Remastered has been delayed. We didn't even get the reveal yet officially, but the below information makes it clear that it was originally set for a July 23 release. Now, the trailer premiere is even getting a delay as the team needs a few weeks for "polish." Crytek surprisingly openly admits that the backlash for the underwhelming trailer was a reason for the delay, noting that it needs extra time to get the game up to the "PC-console-breaking standard" the series is known for. Good luck!]

It's been a great summer for people trawling Xbox.com, as they've uncovered a veritable treasure trove of "E3" leaks thus far.

As one of a string of leaks, Crysis Remastered info has been revealed ahead of the Wednesday morning official stream. Plain as day, you can head to the Xbox listing for Crysis Remastered now, which showcases several details about the new re-release.

Today in this endless summer of reveals, Sony gave us a glimpse at a new "PlayStation China Hero Project selected game" that's coming to PS4: F.I.S.T.: Forged In Shadow Torch.

Billed as a "Metroidvania with arcade-style combat," the world has a very grimdark feel to it, with animals, steampunk gear and giant metal robot hands. While this came out of nowhere, the visuals are very impressive: to the point where it probably could have been highlighted in a major showcase or State of Play. "Arcade-style" is underselling it a bit too, as it seems like a full-on fighting game at times in the debut trailer.

Seriously, give the footage below a shot and look at the fur effects on that bear blacksmith. I'm getting extreme Strider (2014) vibes from this, which is great news. Although a lot of Metroidvania games don't stick the landing and can overstay their welcome, this one is definitely on my radar now.

You can also read more info about Forged in Shadow Torch here on the PlayStation Blog.

Action platformer F.I.S.T: Forged in Shadow Torch coming to PS4 [PlayStation Blog]

Resident Evil fans are waiting with bated breath for hot info regarding Resident Evil Village, the next entry in Capcom's blockbuster survival horror franchise. While we're yet to receive even a hint of a release date, the latest issue of Famitsu states that development of the gothic-looking adventure is over 60% complete.

Furthermore, it has been stated that Village's first-person gameplay has evolved considerably over its implementation in 2017's Resident Evil 7, although further details will have to wait until next month's issue of Famitsu. Given how impressive Resident Evil 7 is, thanks in no small part to the immersion provided by its first-person perspective, it's exciting news to hear that Village is apparently taking said tech to new heights.

Resident Evil Village, planned exclusively for PC and next-gen platforms, has the potential to be one of the franchise's most defining entries. Combining the development experience of Resident Evil 7, lessons learned from Resident Evil 2 and 3, the technological power of next-gen consoles, and a brand new storyline that threatens to take the series down dark corridors never ventured before, Village could prove to be a defining moment for the storied franchise, one not seen - arguably - since the launch of Resident Evil 4.

Resident Evil Village is currently in development for PS5, PC, and Xbox Series X. It will launch sometime in 2021.

Yoko Taro is extremely busy these days.

While he was once known as "The Drakengard Guy" ages ago, he's now extremely in demand, overseeing multiple NieR universe titles and even collaborating with Square Enix on a constant basis. But a lot of people are about to get to know him better, as SINoAlice (a mobile game featuring fairy tale characters who fight to resurrect their authors) is on the verge of its release this month.

We got the chance to chat with Yoshinari Fujimoto (producer), Shogo Maeda (producer) and Yoko Taro (director) regarding the western release of SINoAlice, sneaking in a few NieR questions along the way.

Crash Bandicoot fans were whipped up into a tizzy a little over a week ago with the official reveal of a brand new entry in the super-popular platforming franchise. But while the initial buzz around Crash Bandicoot 4: It's About Time was positive, recent murmurs that the new sequel is set to be a microtransaction-heavy release quickly poured rain on everyone's parade.

Yesterday, developer Toys 4 Bob took to Twitter to plainly state that these concerns were unfounded. "We're seeing confusion about MTX in Crash Bandicoot 4 and want to be (crystal) clear," began the tweet. "There are NO MICROTRANSACTIONS in Crash 4. As a bonus, the Totally Tubular skins are included in all digital versions of the game."

No doubt this straight statement will come as a relief to those that thought the Mad Marsupial was about to take players for a spin in more ways than one. Or will it? After all, let's not forget that racing remaster Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled launched completely microtransaction-free, before Activision slapped on the MTX factor post-release. Given this experience, it's understandable that fans remain antsy. "Fool me once..." and all that jazz.

Of course, June 2020 had to have one last wrinkle before it retreated into the mist.

Following the recent shift in Max Raid battles after the arrival of the Shiny Zeraora, folks uncovered a nasty glitch in Pokemon Sword and Shield. Evidently, after fighting certain Pokemon while raiding, their game would crash. The culprit? An item that doesn't exist yet.

In short, people would battle a Pokemon that rewarded them with an item that has yet to be added to the game's database (#1604). When the battle complete screen would pop up the game attempted to gift them the item, then promptly crashed. Dataminers have figured out that the item seems to be a type of Armorite Ore (a new item from the season pass DLC) that is set to debut in the Crown Tundra expansion.

Game Freak fixed the issue several hours after the bug became apparent (roughly yesterday afternoon), so don't worry if you're raiding now.

Kurt [Twitter via Serebii.net]

The 3DS is on its last legs, that much is clear. For months we haven't gotten any 3DS announcements from Nintendo, who keeps parroting that the 3DS is a "gateway device" for the younger crowd. But as the Switch ventures further into more affordable territory with the Switch Lite, that tune has changed considerably.

Another more recent development involves HackerOne: a bounty site that allows developers to post "bounties" for vulnerabilities in the efforts of essentially crowdfunding security fixes. According to prolific Switch dataminer OatmealDome, Nintendo has dropped the 3DS from their program entirely, and may have even admitted that "the current security situation" is untenable.

Based on a message provided directly by Nintendo (through HackerOne's systems), a representative for the company explains that they have "dropped the 3DS from the program," and that as of July 15, 2020, they will no longer be taking any messages regarding the system. Instead, the Switch will be the sole focus going forward.

This is just one more nail in the coffin for the 3DS (Nintendo hasn't picked out a casket yet) and could be the final harbinger horseman of doom. At some point Nintendo will likely formally announce that they will no longer be supporting the 3DS with firmware updates: at which point the Homebrew scene will have a field day.

OatmealDome [Twitter]

Nearly three months ago Square Enix gave us an update on when the next Final Fantasy XIV patch would arrive, but the news wasn't looking great due to the current pandemic situation. Originally it was set for a mid-June release date, but that was subsequently pushed several weeks. As of today, it's set in stone for August 11.

The news comes directly from producer Naoki "YoshiP" Yoshida, who once again apologizes for the delay, which is a bit further out from the original target. Yoshida says that the team did "everything they could" to prevent it, but the YoRHA: Dark Apocalypse raid, which is a follow-up to the previous guest-NieR storyline, specifically needs more time for testing and debugging.

Evidently Square Enix has gone back to their offices to some capacity to keep things moving, trying to follow social distancing guidelines and other regulations to make that happen: which caused a further delay. Unfortunately, although Yoshida is confident that the team can get back to the regular three to four month update cadence, "there is no way" for them to recover from this current schedule. They'll try their best, but everything going forward seems to be pushed back.

It's all completely understandable. An MMO has so many moving parts, not to mention all of the design and vocal work that goes into a project like Final Fantasy XIV. We'll hear Yoshida and his team's next moves on July 22, when the next producer live letter debuts. For now, he left us with a tease, which you can check out below.

Win a copy of Super Soccer Blast in today's contest!

For better or for worse, the world is trying its damnedest to get back to some semblance of normalcy. Restaurants are coming back to life, social gatherings are far less restricted, and organized sports are trying to stitch together some sort of respective season...albeit mostly without fans in the stands.

Well, video games still have digitized spectators, and what better game than the world's most popular sport to pretend the world is back to its regular ways? We're giving away some copies of arcadey soccer title Super Soccer Blast, so come win one for yourself. Nay, win one for the planet.

After 20 hours of lite farming, crafting, sailing, and fetch-questing, I finished Summer in Mara feeling like I'd probably never come back to mop up my final few optional questlines – at least not without updates. The game is wholesome and likable, but at a certain point you've seen the sights, you know the routes, and you're just mindlessly running from Point A to B to Z to give NPCs some new item or recipe.

I checked back in with Summer in Mara this week, and I was pleasantly surprised to find a recent quality-of-life update on Steam that helps cut down on monotony. It makes a huge difference.

The big new feature is something that should've been there on day one: fast travel.

Instead of manually sailing through the same repetitive ocean sections (and loading screens) to reach particular islands only to come all the way back again, it's now possible to pop open the map, click on a quadrant, and pay a small fee to fast travel. The price varies depending on how many "screens" you're going to bypass, and you can only jump to islands you've explored, but it's a great solution.

Better yet, you don't even need to be in your boat to use fast travel – it's a true time-saver.

There's a pretty linear, one-way path for game development. Very broadly, it goes something like: conceptualizing, prototyping, alpha, beta, 1.0 launch, post-release support. Amazon's Crucible is walking back a step.

Approximately a month after its launch, Amazon is moving Crucible back into beta. It, evidently, needs to cook a little while longer. Chris took a long look at Crucible last month, and found the design to be compelling but the execution to be lacking. That's not going to cut it when there are already so many good hero shooters on the market.

So, we're left to wonder whether Crucible bombed because it wasn't polished enough or whether it bombed because it was never going to be the hot new thing. Sometimes games with huge backings and sound premises just never catch on. Regardless, something needed to change because, as GamesBeat pointed out, Crucible's peak concurrent player count over the past 24 hours was 159 people. That's abysmal for a game that's only a month old and for a game that needs a decent player count for matchmaking.

So, it's back to the drawing board starting tomorrow. Developer Relentless Studios is going to be regularly hopping into Crucible with the players to take their feedback and suggestions. There's a whole roadmap of improvements and fixes that are being addressed too.

Shortly after the Switch launched, folks started to experience the dreaded "drift."

It was a seemingly innocuous issue at first, but quickly became more widespread, indicating a clear flaw in the Joy-Con design. For years fans requested that Nintendo do something about it but the publishing giant was silent: instead opting to fix impacted Joy-Con on an individual basis after pressured by users. Now, someone high up in the company is finally commenting on the fiasco publicly (rather than a vague "recent reports" faceless company statement) by way of an investor Q&A this month.

Directly commenting on the Joy-Con issue, Nintendo of Japan president Shintaro Furukawa noted that he "apologizes for any trouble" that the hardware has caused, but is prevented from speaking on the matter further due to a United states class-action lawsuit that is currently ongoing.

That lawsuit, filed in 2019, is still underway under arbitration after a Washington court denied Nintendo's dismissal. The main claims involve Nintendo obfuscation of how widespread the Joy-Con defect really was, on top of the contention with Nintendo charging many users with repairs for over two years. Since July of last year following the lawsuit, the company finally opted to repair defection Joy-Con for free.

General Meeting of Shareholders Q&A [Nintendo via Sephazon]

Harmonix's Fuser had had two discernible effects on me thus far. The one Harmonix is aiming for is me thinking "Wow, it'd be neat to hear some combination of these tracks mashed together." The other is me thinking "I want to hear that song right now." Am I listening to The Clash's Combat Rock as I write this? Reader, you know I am.

Fuser looks to capture the summer festival experience (which, ironically, certainly isn't happening this summer) by letting players remix parts of songs against one another. It seems like it's driven by the very impressive tech of DropMix. However, unlike most of Harmonix's most popular games, it won't require any additional peripherals apart from a standard controller.

Today, alongside the announcement that Fuser pre-orders are live, Harmonix revealed some more tracks on the final setlist. This puts us at 34 out of 100-ish. Here's the list thus far:

Nintendo is always experimenting with weird-yet-cute content, which definitely includes their latest creations: "Can YOU Guess that Game?"

Debuting on YouTube, "Episode 1" (hinting that there's more to come) is now live, which showcases three Nintendo games. Sequentially, Nintendo provides you with a look at an extremely pixelated screen, prompting you to "guess that game" before the timer runs out. The entire clip is under a minute long and a very fun way to spend about 60 seconds today if you're feeling down.

For those of you who don't want (or can't) watch the video, we clipped all three mystery games in image form so you can guess below. Good luck! I can see #3 tripping up people.

Batten down the hatches and hide away your cattle, as we are just under a month away from the launch of THQ Nordic's Destroy All Humans! This remake of the 2005 action title - built from the ground-up by Black Forest Games - will beam down on PS4, PC, and Xbox One in July.

A new video from THQ Nordic sees our ray-wielding hero Cryptosporidium 137 (you can call him "Crypto") visit the humble Americana of Santa Modesta, where he indulges in some human-zapping, restaurant-destroying and tank-obliterating mayhem. Whether on foot, donning a jetpack, or taking to the skies in his UFO, Crypto is making a healthy living making life unhealthy for the residents of '50s suburbia. And if all that wasn't enough, he can screw with your TV reception too. Little bastard.

Destroy All Humans! launches on PS4, PC, and Xbox One July 28.