Game Informer

Mortal Shell served as a solid offering to Souls fans when it launched in August 2020. The game bleeds Dark Souls through and through, but features a unique twist by allowing players to take control of various bodies to use in combat. In a similar manner, the game has found new platforms to inhabit: the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X. Mortal Shell is coming to Sony and Microsoft's new-gen consoles on March 4 (that's tomorrow!). This upgraded edition introduces new visual and performance improvements to make an already respectable experience even better.

Mortal Shell: Enhanced Edition boasts upscaled 4K visuals with improved textures and targeted 60fps gameplay. The game also takes advantage of the DualSense’ haptic capabilities for greater immersion while cutting down all manner of monstrosities. Players will feel subtle sensations including heartbeats and whispers, as well as the haptic feedback of arrows and other projectiles whizzing by. The trailer below provides side-by-side comparisons between the original game and the Enhanced Edition.

The Mass Effect Trilogy: Legendary Edition is just a few short months away, and to celebrate the musical stylings of the fully calibrated remaster, SpaceLab9 has revealed a brand new trilogy vinyl collection box set for N7 fans to enjoy. 

The company took to Twitter to share our first look at the vinyl set with its white backdrop and cutout N7 logo emblazoned on the front. The collection is set to go live to pre-order on March 4 at 1:00 p.m. Eastern and will include 85 tracks from the trilogy specifically tailored to the vinyl format: 

MASS EFFECT TRILOGY: VINYL COLLECTION 4LP BOX SET – Presale begins March 4th @ 1pm EST at https://t.co/ln0ybwPDhz - Massive collection features 85 tracks from the critically acclaimed game trilogy, painstakingly curated by the BioWare sound team and specially mastered for vinyl. pic.twitter.com/BoS6iqiCeh

Toshihiro Nagoshi has worked on some of the most influential games of all time, including Virtua Fighter and Shenmue. These days, he’s most well known for his work on the Yakuza series. We caught up with Nagoshi to learn more about his life, career, and why he thinks Sega should’ve fired him. 

Toshihiro Nagoshi knows how to make an entrance. He’s seven minutes late after a smoke break, wearing a $2,700 Louis Vuitton jacket. Coy yet honest, reserved and flashy all at once, somehow, he fits his 30 years of game-development history into an hour-long Zoom call. It’s a story that encompasses childhood trauma, Yu Suzuki, and drunken meetings that turned into one of the biggest cult franchises in video game history. But it all starts far away from where he’s sitting right now in Tokyo.

Nagoshi grew up in the small, rural prefecture of Yamaguchi. When you talk to him about his early life, he doesn’t have a lot of positives to share. Nagoshi came from a poor household, his parents victims of sizable debt, and his father in particular had a gambling problem. Despite saying he recognizes that what he went through with his family was a necessary learning experience that got him to where he is today, he has a lot of complicated feelings about the household he grew up in.

A common misconception about seizures is that they only happen to people with epilepsy. That's not true; seizures can occur in anyone. There is also no "one type" of epileptic episode, which means learning about triggers can be a tricky process. With accessibility in gaming becoming more of a priority within the gaming space, studios are finally beginning to look at the impact of certain effects on those susceptible to neurological episodes beyond simply slapping a warning label on games and calling it a day. 

As someone who has seizures due to an injury from my time when I was active duty, the years following this new development have been a steep learning curve for me when navigating some of my favorite and most anticipated games. I no longer can enjoy titles like Dead Space freely as I used to, which opened up an entirely new world of development that never even entered my scope of awareness. Since seizures have become my new norm, I often make sure to pay special attention to certain design choices that can be harmful to those sensitive to neurological traps. That way, I can decide for myself if something is safe to play, and see if there is a way to work around those obstacles and try to offer some navigational tools for others that may be facing similar roadblocks. For those who experience any type of seizure or those who live in the same household with someone with epileptic tendencies, here is our Epileptic's Guide to Gaming. 

Now that Lucasfilm is allowing more publishers and developers to take a crack at making Star Wars games, I'd love to see a handful of Star Wars "classics" get reborn as interactive experiences. I put "classics" in air quotes because Star Wars' history is so complicated and messy that some its greatest stories no longer exist in the universe's ongoing continuity. Yes, you can still buy and read these stories, but most have been retconned. Lucasfilm now calls them "Legends," treating them like "what if" alternate timelines or dreams.

Seeing amazing creative works get reconned is awful, but I understand why Lucasfilm did it from business and storytelling perspectives. With dozens of stories hitting each year, the Star Wars universe quickly became a mess of confusing plotlines and crossed wires; there was just too much happening at once and not enough checks were in place to ensure quality content was being delivered. When it came to creating a new sequel trilogy with Luke, Han, and Leia, they all had lived full lives in novels and comics. Communicating their character developments to theatergoers would have been a monumental task, a task that would need to be nailed down to every small detail. Could it have been done? Yes. Should it have been done? Yes. Did Lucasfilm's decision to turn the Death Star's laser on these stories pay off? I think the answer is also yes.

Song in the Smoke is a new VR title by 17bit, the team behind Galak-Z and Skulls of the Shogun. The game tosses players into the wilderness to fend for themselves, and given that this is all in VR, it aims to offer a more immersive take on classic survival for gamers to enjoy. 

Survival aficionados will have a good idea of what to expect. Players must manage their food and water intake to survive as well as build campsites in safe areas to stay warm and out of harm’s way. Crafting tools, clothing, potions, and weapons becomes key to lasting another day, especially against the aggressive wildlife. Song in the Smoke seems unforgiving, but that doesn’t mean there won’t be pensive moments of beauty as players take a moment to admire the scenic environments. 

Don't let your dreams be dreams, kids, because Dead by Daylight's new killer is a K-Pop star with a serious grudge. Be that musically-included murderer you've always wanted to be with the newly announced Trickster killer. 

Revealed exclusively via IGN, the newest chapter on the way for Dead by Daylight fans is called All-Kill and its setting centers around a K-pop star that is overcome with jealousy. He wants to be front and center and he's not above murdering his fellow bandmates to get to where he wants to be. 

Is this a very different direction for the game, especially following the Silent Hill chapter? Absolutely. Is it kind of neat they went this far left field? You betcha! Part of what keeps this game alive is every chapter is different. Some chapters bring in iconic faces from the archives of horror legends, while others — like this — show off the more adventurous side of the team. 

We've got a small look at what's ahead with the teaser trailer seen below: 

It's been a long road for Madden NFL 21's franchise mode. On the heels of a community campaign to "#FixMaddenFranchise" when it was revealed that the latest edition of the game featured franchise changes that read more like patch notes than upgrades worthy of a new game, EA Tiburon unveiled a long-term vision for the series' franchise mode.

Now, following previous updates that added things like smarter CPU trade logic, playoff brackets, revamped player-stats cards, and additional commissioner tools, EA Tiburon and EA Sports have announced the final franchise update to Madden NFL 21's franchise mode. This latest update delivers on the promise EA Tiburon made to go further down the CPU trade logic and evaluations path, while also adding additional historical context to your league.

Xbox Game Pass is adding six new titles to the rotating library later this month and going into April, and the latest additions are especially great for sports fans. The Game Pass offerings change every single month, rotating older titles for new entries, allowing for new play experiences

The latest lineup is unusually themed, sticking heavily to sports games with the exception of Star Wars: Squadrons (though, that's racing, so if you squint your eyes...). For the full lineup of what's coming next, here's what Xbox had to share: 

Rip and tear, virtual reality fans, because Sony has just announced that Doom 3 VR is on the way for PSVR players. What's more terrifying than a usual trip to Mars to fight for your life? Taking a trip to Mars to fight for your life in VR. 

In a recent PlayStation Blog post, Bethesda's associate content manager Parker Wilhelm detailed what players can expect with Doom 3: VR Edition when it arrives on March 29. The title itself arrives later this month for PlayStation 4 players with a backwards compatible version for those that own a PS5. 

Doom 3: VR Edition comes with a completely revamped base game, both the Resurrection of Evil and The Lost Mission expansions, and a completely retooled experience specifically made with VR in mind. For those that have played the original, remember all of those itty bitty claustrophobic areas? Yeah, now you can feel like you're there in real life with VR, and Bethesda promises that it will be amazing. 

5th Cell (Scribblenauts) is back with Castlehold, a free-to-play competitive strategy game that combines aspects of collectible card games and strategy board games. In 1v1 battles, players can create armies of different factions and attempt to take over each other's keeps. A vast number of different kinds of troops and factions are available, such as samurai, pirates, Wild West, future soldiers, vikings, medieval, and more. Take a look at the trailer below to see exactly how it all plays out!

You can choose to go right for the opponent or attempt to control various points on the board so that you can deploy better, more powerful units.  You may be able to win the game quickly by beelining to the opposing castle and using a tricks to infiltrate and win the game right away, but many strategies involve expanding out across the map to take over the outlying villages and gain board control. Smaller, agile units are perfect for moving across the board quickly to capture territory, but will lose in battle easily. 

Hironobu Sakaguchi and Mistwalker are back with another JRPG title, Fantasian, coming to Apple Arcade sometime in 2021. Mistwalker's last few releases on mobile, including Terra Wars (Wow, I reviewed this one!) and Terra Wars 2, were gacha grinders with a lot of style, so we'll see where Fantasian lands on the cool scale after it releases.

For now, there's some really coot art and assets to gawk at while we wait, including handmade dioramas that form the background for big environments. Based on some of the characters we can see in the trailer, one could very easily take a peek and say "Yep. That's definitely a JRPG." Why not give it a watch below?

Apparently the story takes place in a multi-dimensional universe where the balance of Chaos and Order is in flux. You begin as a character who has lost his memories and must set off on a journey to discover them. These memories along with other finds like notes and journals along the way as you explore become a sort of storytelling device that flesh out the characters, realms, and more. Along the way you'll probably save the world or something, maybe end up battling a deity while you're floating in the cosmos. Hey, I'm just guessing here.

Final Fantasy VII Remake for PS5 includes a special, exclusive Yuffie episode that features a beloved party member from the 1997 original game. Yuffie is an adorable powerhouse that offers her own unique spin on combat and now that she's making her way to the PlayStation 5-specific title with Intergrade, Square Enix is teasing a few new screenshots of this character alongside some new details. 

Square Enix took to the game's official Twitter to share off three adorable new images of Yuffie, fully equipped with the cheeky grin we all fell in love with: 

▪️ A ravishing beauty
▪️ A world-class materia hunter

Yuffie Kisaragi styles herself as both, but she'll need to use all of her skills as a member of Wutai's elite corp of ninja operatives to sneak into Midgar... pic.twitter.com/R8yLw1lzY0

— FINAL FANTASY VII REMAKE (@finalfantasyvii) March 2, 2021

We here at Game Informer also have a few more images to share from Final Fantasy VII Remake Intergrade, showing off even more enhancements made to the game: 

Click image thumbnails to view larger version

A new Destiny 2 hotfix has been pushed through for Season of the Chosen, and while it tackles much-needed fixes for Battlegrounds and the Dead Man's Tale Presage exotic quest, it also — thankfully — leaves the hilariously awesome 12-player raid bug intact. 

Bungie took to the game's official blog once more to detail what sort of changes the latest hotfix brings to the table. While some of the tweaks are minuscule, others tackle the more prominent problems, such as the spawn points in Presage and the lack of pinnacle drops. 

Battlegrounds changes

The latest update tackles Battlegrounds, a new activity introduced in Season of the Chosen. One highly reported issue centers around beneficial modifiers not working the way they are supposed to when taking on the different phases within the PvE instance. Hotfix 3.1.0.2 addressed the issue that prevented specific modifiers from functioning properly during the Battlegrounds-specific activities.

Mondo, an online retailer that has become a beloved pop culture haven through the years, has just announced that the previously sold-out Silent Hill and The Last of Us vinyl soundtracks are back in stock come Wednesday. 

This site has offered a ton of gaming soundtracks in vinyl form but with all of the reboot rumors afoot regarding a possible new Silent Hill, it's easy to see why so many fans would be looking for anything to grab onto. I missed out myself on the first round of Silent Hill vinyl grabs, so when the company shared its latest restock alert, we just had to share: 

This Wednesday.

Restocks of our best selling videogame soundtracks – THE LAST OF US PART II, THE LAST OF US (Vol 1 & Vol 2), SILENT HILL, SILENT HILL 2, and more. https://t.co/w97sKwoH9x pic.twitter.com/DyjgoMjys3

Valheim is a charming survival game that allows players to transform themselves into Vikings as they explore a vast and beautiful open-world. While the game is deceptively simple when looking at aspects like character creation and building, this adventure has so much more to offer than what meets the eye. It also gives players a chance to flex those creative skills and one Skyrim fan did just that when they embarked on a multi-thread journey of recreating Whiterun within the world of Valheim. 

Reddit u/Djchieu has uploaded a few different parts of their journey into recreating Whiterun and honestly? I just thought it was really neat. I've been playing the game myself since launch and while I thought my humble abode right on the water's edge was spiffy, seeing other player creations out there suddenly has me feeling like I have a lot of catching up to do. 

The first update shows off the bare bones of making Whiterun crossover into the land of Vikings. Fellow Redditors were quick to reply with a request for constant updates as the work on this continues, and it's easy to see why! Check it out: 

Epic Games has announced it has acquired the development company behind the gameshow-style battle-royale hit, Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout. Tonic Games, the parent company of developer Mediatonic, joins Epic Games less than seven months following the launch of Fall Guys on PlayStation 4 and PC via Steam. The title is currently slated to arrive this summer on Xbox and Switch.

According to both Epic Games and Mediatonic, the gameplay of Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout isn't changing and the company will continue to invest in the title across all platforms. Fall Guys will still be available for purchase on all currently existing and announced platforms (yes, including Steam), and all versions will continue to receive future updates. 

"At Tonic Games Group we often say that 'everyone deserves a game that feels like it was made for them,'" Tonic Games Group co-founder and CEO Dave Bailey said in an Epic Games blog post. "With Epic, we feel like we have found a home that was made for us. They share our mission to build and support games that have a positive impact, empower others, and stand the test of time and we couldn't be more excited to be joining forces with them."

When Pokémon Go first released back in 2016, the world was unanimously happy for about two weeks as fans of the pocket monster franchise took to the real world to "catch 'em all" with the geocaching game. Eventually, the hype died down and the game evolved quite a bit to keep players invested by including things like raids, trading, and even more highly desirable features. Now, the mobile adventure is making its way to the world of HoloLens and if this demo from Microsoft and Niantic is anything to go by – it's a good move to make. 

HoloLends is a pair of mixed reality smartglasses from Microsoft that aims to take reality as we know it and make it even more integrated with the tech all around us. In this demo, Microsoft shows off how the mixed reality peripheral pairs with Pokémon Go to take the caching game to an entirely new level for dedicated players. 

Last month, Paradox Entertainment announced that it fired Hardsuit Labs from continuing to work on the upcoming Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines 2 game. This month, that studio is now facing mass layoffs. 

The studio in Seattle has downsized tremendously following the news that Hardsuit will no longer be heading Bloodlines 2. A variety of roles were impacted, including the entire narrative team (as confirmed by Hardsuit's Samantha Wallschlaeger and Nicole Standford). 

Sony has pivoted quite a bit going into this generation, including going backwards compatible, more PC jumps for exclusives, and changes made to the ecosystem as a whole. Part of that change going forward includes the removal of movie and TV purchases and rentals from the PlayStation Store. 

Vanessa Lee, head of video business at Sony Interactive Entertainment, took to the PlayStation Blog to provide the latest update on what's new. In an effort to "strive to provide the best entertainment experience for PlayStation fans," the team has decided that the continued evolution of the PlayStation Store has outgrown both film and television experiences. With so many subscription options available now, including the much-talked about Disney Plus service, the consumer need for movies and TV just isn't there like it has been in the past on PlayStation. 

The post continues by saying that the store has seen immense growth through the years thanks to subscriptions and ad-based entertainment services but that Sony wants to focus its efforts on what players want the most: games. Because of this, movie and TV purchases, as well as the ability to rent, will be going away on August 31, 2021.

MLB The Show 21 is establishing several firsts for the franchise. Not only is it the first game in the Sony-developed baseball franchise to appear on Xbox platforms, but it is also the first game in the series to make the leap to the new-gen hardware. Today, the development team at Sony's San Diego Studio released a trailer showcasing the list of upgraded features that new-gen players will enjoy.

We already knew that MLB The Show 21 is coming to both current and last-gen consoles with cross-platform play, but the new trailer also gives us additional details of what to expect from the newer hardware. Those who have a compatible headset on PS5 can enjoy 3D Audio, while all PS5 owners will experience special DualSense controller features. Regardless of which new-gen console you play on, you'll experience 60 frames-per-second performance. But that's not all; in addition to the performance and fidelity boosts, players on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S also get to quite literally build a home for their dynasty in the new stadium creator. 

If you'd like to see the new-gen version in action (plus see a couple of puppets, including one voiced by cover athlete Fernando Tatis Jr., in a very silly skit), check out the trailer below.

What do you think of when you hear the name Josef Fares? Is it his moment during The Game Awards where he gave his...candid opinion about The Oscars? While the man is responsible for one of the more memorable moments in TGA history, he and his team at Hazelight have also been pioneers in the field of co-op video games. It Takes Two, the studio's upcoming release, follows in the footsteps of A Way Out in that players are only able to play together if they hope to achieve success.

This time around, the story follows May and Cody, a couple on the precipice of divorce who get turned into dolls through the youthful magic of their daughter. The two must work together to get their lives back to normal and (hopefully) mend their relationship while fighting all manner of squirrels, insects, and (checks notes) sentient toolboxes?

The enemies in It Takes Two are diverse from level to level. That also includes the bosses you'll square off against. Join Jeff Cork, Blake Hester, and me as we take you through some of the game's earliest boss fights and discuss how the different encounters feel unique and challenging in their own way.

Hazelight Studios likes to make games about collaboration. In Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons, players controlled a pair of characters simultaneously to play through an interactive fable. A Way Out gave two players a chance to break out of prison and experience life on the lam. The studio’s latest project, It Takes Two, is a romantic comedy featuring more split-screen co-op, and also an insane amount of variety. In this episode of NGT, I share my experience playing three hours of the game with Blake Hester and Alex Stadnik – and how it nearly tore my family apart.

OK, that’s a little bit of hyperbole. I dragged one of my sons along with me for the co-op session, since we had a fun time playing through A Way Out together. Besides, who wouldn’t want to participate in an interactive romantic comedy … with their … dad? He was exactly as enthusiastic about the idea as you might expect. Once we started playing, however, he was fine (thanks for asking). 

Alien fans got their moment in the sun with Alien: Isolation, Creative Assembly’s exquisite homage to Ridley Scott’s 1979 film. Folks who lean more toward the bombastic action that James Cameron’s 1986 sequel Aliens provided have had to be more patient. We haven’t gotten a truly great Aliens game (sorry, Colonial Marines), and while it’s absolutely too early to assess its quality, the newly revealed Aliens: Fireteam looks like a combat-booted stomp in the right direction.

Cold Iron Studios is using Aliens as a launching point, but the development team is determined to carve out its own path. One way it’s doing so is by setting Fireteam in the year 2202 – 23 years after the events of the Alien trilogy. In other words, don’t expect to see cameos from familiar characters or to revisit locations that we’ve explored time and time again. Instead, players will be experiencing an all-new storyline that spans four campaigns (each containing three missions). 

King Digital Entertainment has announced Crash Bandicoot: On the Run will come to mobile devices on March 25. The latest mobile auto-runner game sees the titular bandicoot running through a variety of colorful environments, drawing inspiration from the myriad titles in franchise history.

As Crash and friends run through the stages of Crash Bandicoot: On the Run, players will encounter classic characters, bosses, enemies, and levels. In the story, Crash's old nemesis, Dr. Neo Cortex is back to try and conquer the multiverse alongside his menacing henchmen like Scorporilla, Nitrus Brio, Dingodile, and more. As usual, it's up to Crash and his sister Coco to put an end to the shenanigans. The stages players can expect to run through include Temple Ruins, Turtle Woods, and Bear It. In addition to the platforming challenges, you can look forward to weapons crafting, customizable characters, and asynchronous multiplayer runs.

When WandaVision began its weekly run on Disney+, I enjoyed being reunited with two of the Avengers, but didn't have any idea what I was watching. By the third or fourth episode, it all started to make sense, and it just kept getting better from there. I'm now singing its praises as one of the best shows you can stream; once again cementing my believe that the Marvel Cinematic Universe can do no wrong. Okay, Thor: The Dark World is of a much lower quality than every other MCU film, but it still has some great moments and character development. I recommend watching it to connect all of the MCU tissue.

The one thing you shouldn't do is scroll below if you haven't watched any of WandaVision yet. This is your spoiler warning. The first season of WandaVision hasn't concluded (we're waiting on one more episode that hits this Friday), and yet Funko has already introduced a sizeable line of collectible Pops that give away some of the show's biggest twists and turns.

If you've kept up with the weekly delivery of episodes, take a look at the figures below. Funko has pulled out all of the stops, with a handful of different Wanda and Vision Pops, one for almost every time period they experience. The black-and-white figures for the first two episodes are a nice touch.

The publishing dispute surrounding The Sinking City has practically eclipsed any conversation about the game itself (which is just okay). Developer Frogwares and publisher Nacon have been embroiled in a very nasty battle over, among other things, the distribution rights to the game.  Last week, The Sinking City launched on Steam only for Frogwares to implore players on Twitter not to purchase that version of the game, raising a lot of questions as to why. Frogwares has since posted a lengthy blog post explaining that Nacon allegedly had employees “crack, hack and pirate” a version of The Sinking City to release on Steam.

Bungie has temporarily removed Trials of Osiris from Destiny 2: Season of the Chosen due to an issue with win-trading. The brutal-yet-satisfying (when not faced with cheaters) PvP event has always been hit or miss with players, but now it's a miss for all players because it has been removed from the game entirely. At least for now. 

Bungie took to Twitter to share the news that Trials has been disabled, though the tweet didn't go into specifics other than "an issue." It was later discovered on a now-removed post on Reddit that the removal had to do with the Hakke emblem. 

Due to an issue, Trials of Osiris has been disabled for the remainder of the weekend.

— Bungie Help (@BungieHelp) February 28, 2021

Even though the original Reddit post is gone, a responding comment helped fill in the blanks regarding what was taken down. Since then, the post has been locked and no further comments can be added at this time. 

Just because you can do something doesn't mean you should, but that didn't stop one Spore player from playing a messed up version of god anyway by recreating Pokémon in terrifying detail. While not exact replicas by any stretch, the Pokémon-ified Spore creations are just too horrifyingly perfect to keep to ourselves. 

Spore is an adorable open-world game that basically lets players live out their godlike fantasies by creating entire universes for some single-player fun. With great power comes great responsibility and apparently great meme-ability, because that's what one player did when they attempted to bring that "gotta catch 'em all" energy into the world of Spore. 

Click image thumbnails to view larger version

Most people seem to agree that Super Mario World 3D + Bowser's Fury is a good game. One of the major features of the new Bowser's Fury campaign is that Bowser is now enormous – far bigger than his usual forms. You may think it's neat that Mario must confront a mountain-sized nemesis, but not everyone feels that way. How does former United States President Donald Trump feel about it? Truthfully, he probably doesn't care. But if he did care, and if he decided to go on a rant about it, it would probably sound something like the video below.

Twitter user James Austin Johnson (@shrimpJAJ) has a unique ability to impersonate the former president's voice, which he has used in the past to create a series of videos that approximate unlikely speeches from Trump. The latest one hits close to gamers' hearts, focusing on the Super Mario 3D World re-release on Switch, and the new Bowser's Fury content. You can give it a listen for yourself: 

OMG TRUMP UNLEASHES 'FURY' ON BIDEN ADMIN IN TRIUMPHANT CPAC SPEECH: "UNDER [BIDEN], BOWSER... TOO BIG, [SUPER] MARIO CAN'T KEEP UP!!" pic.twitter.com/cv7lqEkldf

While the gaming community anxiously awaits for any sort of confirmation about whether or not those Silent Hill reboot rumors are true, modders have been keeping that horror love alive in their own way for years nows. We've written about a few different Silent Hill-like mod experiences in the past, but one that I've been covering for years just got a major new update that takes the world of Whispering Hills and breathes new life into it in Fallout 4. 

Whispering Hills, for those that may not be familiar, is a total overhaul mod for Fallout 4 that is designed specifically to deliver a Silent Hill-like experience in the Commonwealth. This mod has been in development for quite some time now, with a prototype version also available to play. Now the team has shown off episode one, "Welcome back to school," and it takes this project to a whole other level. 

The video above shows off what the first episode brings to the table, including a fully voiced questline for players to take on. As is the nature of many spooky stories, episode one will take players deep into the heart of Midwitch Elementary School, a school based off of the Midwhich facility in the first game. Queue up the fog, the rain, and the general horror vibes, and Whispering Hills just got a whole lot better and worth checking out.

The cast for Eli Roth’s Borderlands movie has beefed up in short order, already boasting the likes of Jack Black (Claptrap), Cate Blanchett (Lilith), Jamie Lee Curtis (Patricia Tannis) and Kevin Hart (Roland). The latest character to find its performer is fan-favorite Tiny Tina, who will be played by Ariana Greenblatt.

For those of you asking “who?” Ariana Greenblatt may be most familiar to mainstream audiences (especially Marvel fans) as the actress who portrayed child Gamora in Avengers: Infinity War. Yes, she’s one half of the famous scene that launched a thousand memes. You know the one. 

The Binding of Isaac is a roguelike classic for a reason, thanks to its gripping gameplay, fun powerups, and the infinite loop of "one more try." Now, about a decade after the original's release, creator Edmund McMillen and developer Nicalis are ready to close out the saga with The Binding of Isaac: Repentance. This new version of the roguelike classic adds a ton of upgrades to the base game to deliver an experience Nicalis has branded as "bigger than any sequel." 

Despite releasing a decade after the original version, Isaac is still a tearful toddler exploring the horrors of his basement. In this new, enhanced version, Isaac can travel to unexplored depths, encountering new places, enemies, and bosses. However, he'll also have new weapon combos and items to use in his quest for answers and survival, as The Binding of Isaac: Repentance adds more than 130 new items to bring the total tally to more than 700. 

The Binding of Isaac: Repentance also includes a full alternate path with new chapters, a new final boss, and a new ending, as well as true four-player cooperative play. Players can also expect to encounter more than 100 new enemies, 25 new bosses, seven new challenges, and more than 5,000 new room designs. 

Last week, Guardians noticed an interesting new glitch in Destiny 2 that allowed players to double the number of teammates in certain instances like raids, dungeons, and more. When testing it out myself this weekend before writing up about it, I had more fun than I have had in a long time teaming up with my clan. After diving all-in with the different ways this glitch worked, I'm convinced that this is the way Destiny is meant to be played. I've never wanted a glitch to remain in-game as much as I do with this one and while I know it's fruitless, I hope that it stays forever. 

The Destiny 2 12-player glitch applies to raids and any instances requiring 6 players. Some have reported being able to swing the double bug for PvP events like Crucible, but no one in my clan was able to replicate this (not that we wanted to, this type of glitch would destroy the PvP experience). 

Last Fall, another Battlefield game was confirmed to be in the works. The title is slated to push the boundaries of previous Battlefield innovations while staying true to the franchise's definitive multiplayer experience, “DICE is creating our next Battlefield game with never-before-seen scale,” stated an EA representative. “The technical advancements of the new consoles are allowing the team to deliver on a true next-gen vision for the franchise. We have hands-on play testing underway internally, and the team’s been getting very positive feedback on the game as we’ve begun to engage our community.”  The next chapter in the franchise is set to launch in the latter half of 2021.

Ever since the retro-style R.B.I. Baseball series returned in 2014, it has benefitted from being the only MLB game in town for multiple platforms. This year, however, that changes, as the critically acclaimed, longtime PlayStation-exclusive series, MLB The Show, is finally making the jump to Xbox consoles for the first time. With added competition, R.B.I. Baseball 21, hopes to double down on the pick-up-and-play sensibilities of its title while expanding the feature set of its on-and-off-the-field suite.

Developer and publisher Major League Baseball Advanced Media has released a first look at gameplay. This year's title features more customization through the Create-a-Player mode, as well as additional options so you can choose the batting controls and camera angles you want. This year also adds industry-standard features like play-by-play commentary and Statcast data for pitchers for the first time in series history.

In recent years, EA has had difficulty connecting with gamers; with so many studios under its umbrella, that has caused a lot of concern for major franchises. With the recent report that EA is abandoning the live service model for BioWare's anticipated Dragon Age entry (a series known for its single-player adventures) and following the cancellation of Anthem, EA's own Laura Miele has confirmed that the publisher is making a drastic pivot for the foreseeable future.

Miele is currently the chief studios officer for EA and she recently sat down with IGN's Rebekah Valentine to talk more about her work and the future of the company. Within her role, Miele oversees over 6,000 gaming developers from all kinds of backgrounds working on all sorts of projects. Through her work, she tells the site that she's developed an incredibly intricate understanding of the "complexities and sophistication" of game development, and that insight has furthered her love for the craft immensely. 

According to the official PlayStation Blog, four games are coming to PS Now subscribers this month following the reveal of the PS Plus additions revealed last week. From superhuman powers to slow-mo shootouts, the upcoming games coming to PS Now this month include Infamous Second Son, World War Z, Ace Combat 7: Skies Unknown, and Superhot. 

Sucker Punch’s Infamous Second Son follows Delsin Rowe, a Seattle-based street artist turned superhuman power sponge that fights against the sinister Department of Unified Protection (DUP); an all-knowing division of suits committed to putting “conduits” like Delsin behind bars and branding them as bioterrorists. Players will work to take down DUP and its harmful philosophies using Delsin’s array of unique skills that are siphoned from a variety of energy sources including storefront neon signs.