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Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 Remastered is out now on PlayStation 4, but it's only the campaign that's received a visual upgrade. There is no multiplayer in the package.

In a blog post, Activision said it decided against releasing Modern Warfare 2 multiplayer as a standalone pack and instead favored the idea of launching additional "classic map experiences" within Modern Warfare over time.

"Rather than release a separate, multiplayer experience as a standalone pack, Activision and Infinity Ward are looking to bring more classic map experiences to new life within the Modern Warfare universe as it continues to grow and build over time," the publisher said.

Last month, Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary was released as a part of the roll out of Halo Master Chief Collection on PC. While there isn’t another main title release this month (apart from the Halo 2 beta test), we did get a big developer blog update with everything going on with the re-release of Halo 2: Anniversary for PC as a part of the collection.

On PC, the MCC is an ever-evolving platform, with titles in the franchise being released over time and updates constantly being reworked in conjunction to community feedback.

The Halo 2: Anniversary beta/flight content is going to be packed with an all-new challenge system, customization options, theater mode, and campaign missions all being revamped for the eventual PC release. Those who have opted in for the early access play sessions, and are selected, will be able to play the beta or “flight” editions of the title releases before the full edition release dates. For more on how to opt in to this program check out the community website.

Death Stranding developer Kojima Productions has sent its developers home to work remotely after an employee tested positive for COVID-19. A March 30 memo from the Japanese developer confirms that the affected staffer was at home since March 20 and had not been in the Kojima Productions office since then.

The developer said it has been working closely with public health officials who informed the studio that because this person did not display symptoms until they were at home, away from the office, the rest of the developers are not labeled as "close contacts." Therefore, officially, Kojima Productions could stay open. However, the studio has itself decided to close down and shift to a work-from-home setup in the interest of keeping its developers and the community safe.

As such, the Kojima Productions office is now closed. Additionally, the company is sanitizing its office. "Kojima Productions will continue working closely with our public health authorities and enact additional precautions as necessary to prevent further spread in any way possible," the developer said.

In March, Halo developer 343 Industries released a gigantic update for Halo: The Master Chief Collection. The update was 60 GB, which makes it much bigger than some brand-new games. Some people expressed frustration over this. After all, even a blazing-fast internet connection would require quite a while to download such a large update.

The studio has now shared more insight on why that update was so large and what fans can expect in terms of file sizes going forward. Design director Max Szlagor said said in a blog post that the studio is always trying to make file sizes smaller, but it's not always possible.

"With such a large surface area of game, and the scope of changes that need to be made this can make them rather large," Szlagor said. "Whenever core game data files are updated, this usually means a larger update. We manage this process very carefully to minimize the amount of times this happens. But it is one of those things that can come up."

Limited time clothing items return in this week’s Red Dead Redemption 2 Online update, with some big bonuses and discounts on in-game items included.

The following limited time release clothing items will be available in general stores in-game until April 13:

• Gator Hat
• Squat Stovepipe Top Hat
• Winter Shotgun Coat
• Benbow Jacket
• Ortega Vest
• Tied Pants
• Strickland Boots
• Calhoun Boots
• Vaquero Baroque Spurs

Along with the re-release of various clothing items to the Wheeler, Rawson & Co. catalogue, an all-new scoring system for kills has been implemented. The new update will reward players for more difficult or trickier kills with more points. All new volatile weapon loadouts, point values, and more explosions have been added, so head over to Fort Mercer, Heartlands Oil Field, and Tall Trees to rack up some serious points.

Sonic the Hedgehog ended up being a good-looking movie thanks to a significant character redesign for the blue blur, but it's hard to forget the haunted eyes and human teeth of the original design. But now a deleted scene from the film has reminded us of just how iterative a process it is creating a CGI film like this--and at a certain point in production, every scene in the film is going to look awful.

To promote the film's early digital release (it's available now), Paramount has shown off an early version of a scene where Sonic arrives on earth, alongside his owl companion Longclaw. Sonic, still a baby, is warned to keep a low profile--and he immediately runs off.

The scene itself isn't anything remarkable, but the extremely early CGI renders of Sonic, Longclaw, and their environment are haunting. While the character models improve dramatically towards the end, this video also gives us some insight into what a bad PS2 tie-in game might have looked like. Check them out below.

One small feature added to Persona 5 Royal is a series of crossword puzzles. Throughout the course of P5R's year, you'll find a book on the table furthest from the entrance door in Leblanc. Interact with the book and you'll then be prompted to solve a crossword. If you're successful in figuring it out, you'll be rewarded with one knowledge point for free, and it's worth doing because it doesn't consume any in-game time.

Note that when you initiate a crossword puzzle, you only need to solve for the line that's highlighted in blue. All other words around it serve as hints by letting you whittle down the number of letters you have left to work with or fill certain letter for the line in blue.

So, here are the solutions for the crossword puzzles we've found in P5R (note that there be more we have yet to discover).

2020 is barely three months in, and it has hit the world with a nonstop stream of surprises, both good and bad. In this perilous time of unpredictability, Atari delivers another haymaker with Pong Quest.

Pong Quest puts the player in the role of what could be the first-ever video game hero, the paddle from Pong, in an epic quest through themed worlds based on classic Atari titles. Players will be able to customize their paddle as they take on the main adventure, multiplayer modes, and a treasure trove of game modes.

Master Chief voice actor, Steve Downes, has pledged to donate all proceeds from any paid message recordings he receives this month to Project C.U.R.E. For those who may be unaware, Master Chief is the main character of the Halo franchise, and is known for having a deep and gruff voice.

Downes can be commissioned on Cameo to record a personalized audio track or video. He uses the platform to make videos celebrating or just providing fans with some cool voice lines. This has been a stream of revenue for the voice actor, but now he intends on donating all his proceeds for the month of April.

Project C.U.R.E focuses on strengthening health systems in under-resourced countries and is currently working on obtaining safety equipment like masks and gloves to health workers across America.

Untitled Goose Game was one of the big success stories of 2019, selling over 1 million copies and winning multiple game of the year awards. A large part of the game's success is due to its excellent, reactive soundtrack, and now you can listen to it anywhere.

The previously-announced Untitled Goose Game soundtrack is now available through Decca Classics, and it's available to stream on multiple platforms, or to buy on iTunes. You can preview each of the tracks below.

CD Projekt Red, the developer of the upcoming title Cyberpunk 2077, donated four million PLN ($950,000) to the Wielka Orkiestra Świątecznej Pomocy charity in their home country of Poland to help the battle against the COVID-19 pandemic.

The studio made its donation public via LinkedIn and its Facebook page, as reported by IGN Poland. The board of directors and high-end shareholders split the donation with CD Projekt Red.

"We would also like to thank the entire medical service and everyone involved in the fight against the virus. Risking your own health, you fight for ours every day -- your hard work is our inspiration," said CD Projekt Red in a statement. "We also have an appeal to everyone who reads this message: take seriously what is happening around us. Listen to the recommendations of those who know about public health. Stay at home and don't let the virus spread further."

Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord is now out in early access. And like many games that initially launch this way, it's got a few bugs and issues to be ironed out--which developer TaleWorlds Entertainment has already begun to tackle with a day two update.

The patch notes for the update showcase that this entire hotfix is geared towards bug fixes, including quite a few that address game crashes. Of note, the update takes care of several problems surrounding the Rival Gang quest, which has been causing issues for Bannerlord players since the game released in early access.

With this update, you should no longer have to worry about the bug that was causing Bannerlord to crash when attempting to do the quest or--if you managed to accept it--complete the quest. However, in the patch notes, TaleWorlds does warn that if you've already managed to complete Rival Gangs, "there is a chance your save is already broken." The developer is already working to address any future problems that a broken save might create.

Gears 5 multiplayer design director Ryan Cleven has announced he's leaving Gears developer The Coalition to go on a sabbatical after what he described as six years that took a toll on him.

Writing on Twitter, Cleven said he's enjoyed his time at The Coalition but he has chosen to leave due to "personal issues" and the toll that his time at the studio took on him.

"The last six years have been amazing. Gears 4 and 5 have been the highlight of my development career, but those six years have also taken a toll," Cleven said. "Due to personal issues, I can't continue to work the way that I have. I need to [take] time for myself."

Call of Duty: Warzone is taking a strong stance against cheating in the free-to-play battle royale game. In a blog post, developer Infinity Ward said it has a "zero tolerance" stance for cheaters.

Infinity Ward has already permanently banned more than 50,000 players worldwide since Warzone launched. The company employs security teams that monitor gameplay and data around the clock to investigate and identify cheaters. These security teams "review all possible cheats and hacks," including aimbots and wallhacks, among other things. Looking ahead, Infinity Ward said it is aiming to improve its in-game reporting system to help speed up the process of wiping out cheaters.

Players can expect a "streamlined" UI in the future that should allow for a "more seamless reporting experience," Infinity Ward said. The studio did not share the full specifics of its plan, of course, as that could allow offenders to game the system. However, the developer said it analyzes and filters reports of potential cheating "based on key data."

With social distancing measures in place in many parts of the world due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Pokemon Go developer Niantic has been making numerous tweaks to make the game easier to play. The studio will soon allow players to participate in Raid Battles from home, but before that option rolls out, it is temporarily letting you interact with Gyms from much farther away.

As Niantic explains in a new blog post, the studio is doubling the distance from which you can interact with Gyms, allowing you to spin Photo Discs and take part in Raid Battles while keeping a safe distance from other players. This change, however, only applies to Gyms; Niantic is not increasing the distance from which you can interact with PokeStops.

In a blog post, Lab Zero announced that a new free update is coming to Indivisible, the developer's metroidvania-inspired action platformer, on April 2. The update will add two new modes to Indivisible: new game plus and couch co-op.

Once you've completed Indivisible's campaign at least once, NG+ allows you to replay the story from the very beginning with all the abilities, weapons, and incarnations you unlocked in your previous playthrough. This will allow you to discover hidden secrets much earlier in the campaign as well as access shortcuts that require late-game abilities. Enemies and bosses will be a lot stronger though.

Couch co-op mode allows you to tackle Indivisible's campaign with up to three other players. Player 1 will always be protagonist Ajna, but the other three can take control of any of the other members of your party. While exploring, each player will be able to move independently of each other. In battle, you'll each control your individual character in the game's hybrid of turn-based and real-time combat.

Developer Team Ninja has dropped a brand-new update for Nioh 2 on PlayStation 4 that makes various adjustments to the game's difficulty in some areas. We've compiled the full patch notes below.

A bunch of Nioh 2 sub-missions have had their difficulty altered in order to assuage the game's nail-biting challenges. In addition to the sub-missions, some of Nioh 2's enemies have also been tweaked to make the experience a little more forgiving. Further, the drop rates of Smithing Texts and The Art of Combat tomes, items used to upgrade your created character and equipment, have been increased.

The update also makes a number of quality-of-life adjustments. These include fixing duplication item problems, addressing Yokai Realms and status effects that would not dispel, tweaking skills that would not activate, ironing out other bugs, and much more.

The Division 2 has released another Rogue Agent as part of Warlords of New York Season One. The latest target you're tasked with hunting down is Venus, the second of five total targets that are set to appear throughout the season.

Taking down the first four Rogue Agents will lead to the discovery of your prime target, Jupiter. To draw Venus out, you'll need to head to Downtown East, Federal Triangle, Judiciary Square, and the Pentagon to complete missions, control points, and bounties. Once all of the objectives in each area have been cleared, you'll receive a new bounty leading to a fight with your newest adversary.

From her profile, we learn that Venus was a doctor in the Division before turning rogue. On her way out she stole some supplies and killed the Division agents that were sent after her, so not exactly the greatest bedside manner.

Update: Despite having no discount whatsoever, the $450 Nintendo Switch starter bundle at GameStop is now sold out, which just goes to show how high demand is for the console right now. The Switch Lite starter bundles are still available. We'll update this story if we see the Switch bundle back in stock.

Original story follows.

Developer Ubisoft Montreal has dropped a new Rainbow Six Siege update on the PC test server that makes several adjustments to the tactical FPS' operators and more. We've compiled the full patch notes below.

Many of Siege's operators have been tweaked for balancing purposes. Characters like Buck and Ying have seen their claymores replaced with other throwable explosives, while Caveira has a new customization item for her M12 SMG and Jager has been changed to make him "a bit less oppressive in-game." Further, Mozzie's "Super Shorty" secondary has been removed, and the TCSG12 shotgun's damage has been decreased.

Elsewhere in the patch, Ubisoft addressed a number of bugs that continue to plague the game. These include barricade replication issues that cause rubberbanding, minor menu and shop visual problems, clipping issues, and others.

Activision has officially released Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 Remastered--though it's just the campaign and it's only available on PS4 for now. If you're looking to play the game on Xbox One or PC, you'll have to wait until April 30.

A limited-time PlayStation exclusivity deal for a Call of Duty game isn't anything new, this has been the tradition for the franchise since 2015. Normally, however, the PlayStation exclusivity is only in regards to multiplayer--either a certain mode is limited to PlayStation at the start (like Spec Ops Survival in 2019's Modern Warfare) or PlayStation gets access to certain content updates first (like in 2018's Black Ops 4).

Persona 5 was a very long game even by RPG standards, and the updated version Persona 5 Royal is even longer. It earns its lengthy runtime by integrating social sim elements and RPG dungeon crawling to tell a heavy story and develop its characters. With a brand new story arc that includes an extra palace (dungeon) and series of events, P5R will be taking up a lot of your time.

I'm currently in the process of reviewing the game and have finished it, including all the new story-critical content. According to the overall play time on my save data at the very end, Persona 5 Royal took 125 hours to finish.

The aforementioned story-critical content alone (the new palace and semester of events) added about 18 hours to the original game's runtime. This could range between 15 to 20 hours depending on your own pace.

Ubisoft announced today that it plans to provide people with free games, trials, and more throughout April as a way to support those who are stuck at home during the COVID-19 pandemic. The first bonus is a free copy of Rayman Legends on PC, which is available to claim until April 3. You can find this offer as well as all future ones at Ubisoft's free giveaway page.

All you need to claim Rayman Legends is a Uplay account--you can sign up for one at Ubisoft's website. Once you've done that, head over to the free giveaway page and click "Get Free Game." You'll be directed to a page where you can choose your platform (PC is the only option for Rayman Legends), after which the game will be added to your account. Rayman Legends is a fantastic 2D platformer that you can play alone or with your friends. Ubisoft says that this is just the first giveaway of many, with more trials and offers on the way from series like Assassin's Creed and Just Dance.

Ubisoft recently took part in the massive Twitch Stream Aid livestream that raised $2.8 million for the COVID-19 Solidarity Relief Fund. Ubisoft itself pledged $150,000 to the cause and stressed in a press release that it hopes its initiatives will encourage people to stay home in these uncertain times.

It's Tuesday, which means Destiny 2's weekly reset is now in full effect. Aside from rotating in a couple of Crucible game modes and giving you the chance to earn extra Infamy in Gambit, there's also a new hotfix update to download.

The headline change in Hotfix 2.8.0.2 fixes an issue in Trials of Osiris where challenges were not being reset properly. Now everyone should receive their rewards as intended, allowing you to hop back into the hardcore PvP event without worrying about your hard-earned loot not dropping.

Bungie's patch notes list other changes, ranging from fixing an issue where players weren't getting the correct amount of planetary materials from Seraph Bunker upgrades, to fixing an issue with Raiju's Harness that allowed players to hold Whirlwind Guard indefinitely. Due to an issue, however, there are two fixes that aren't included in today's hotfix and have instead been pushed back: a fix where bunker upgrades on the Season Pass are only unlocked on one character, and a fix where the first weekly clear of a Legendary Lost Sector won't award a powerful drop.

Sony has declined to sell Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 Remastered in Russia, according to Activision. Though the company didn't specify a reason for the declination decision, it may be that the controversial "No Russian" mission could have caused concerns of cultural sensitivity. The game was surprise-released in most other territories.

"Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 Campaign Remastered is a remastered version of the fictional, single player campaign experience originally released in 2009, now fully restored in HD," read a statement from Activision to GameSpot. "Sony Interactive Entertainment has decided not to sell Modern Warfare 2 Campaign Remastered on the PlayStation Store in Russia. We are looking forward to releasing Modern Warfare 2 Campaign Remastered digitally in Russia on Xbox One and PC via Battle.net.”

No Russian caused waves upon its initial release. The mission centers on a Russian terrorist group killing civilians in an airport. The name comes from a line of dialogue from the terrorist leader, reminding the others not to speak Russian--since their plan is to frame American intelligence operatives for the attack. As an undercover agent, you have the option to participate in the plan and kill civilians. The game also allows you to skip the sequence altogether.

QuakeCon, the long-running annual convention held by video game investor ZeniMax Media to promote its subsidiaries' projects, has been canceled due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak, Bethesda Softworks and id Software announced in a statement on Twitter.

"In recent weeks we have spent a lot of time discussing how we might still move forward with QuakeCon this year, particularly given that it's the 25th year of the event," the statement reads. "However, with all of the logistical challenges and uncertainties we currently face due to the COVID-19 pandemic, we have made the difficult decision to cancel this year's QuakeCon.

"The health and safety of our employees, volunteers, vendors, sponsors, and players will always be our top priority, and in these times it felt wrong to be talking about a gathering when gathering is the last thing any of us should be doing right now."

Ninja Theory has released a new update for Bleeding Edge, and it addresses a few of the major problems that the MOBA-like game faced at launch. The update is now live for both Xbox One and PC; the full patch notes are listed below.

Of note, the update addresses a rather annoying bug that allowed enemy players to still see you while you were invisible. At launch, if you were in stealth and an enemy player managed to ping in your direction, Bleeding Edge's ping system would still register that as a hit--pinpointing your location to the entire enemy team. Thanks to this update, that should no longer be the case.

Additionally, this update addresses the issue that's preventing players from grabbing all of Bleeding Edge's Achievements. Since launch, several of the updates that are progression-based (kill a certain number of players, for example) have bugged out and thus haven't been tracking what a player has been doing accurately. The patch notes for the update list that this issue has been fixed, and noted that the Steam version of the game now supports Achievements as well.

Following a series of leaks, the remastered campaign for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 is out now on PS4 for $20. There was no advanced official word from Activision; this was seemingly meant to be a surprise release, but that was spoiled in a number of ways--including the full campaign being published on YouTube before the game went live. It's available first on PS4 and will release for Xbox One and PC on April 30.

As noted above, this remaster consists solely of the campaign--there's no multiplayer functionality, presumably in part to avoid siphoning players away from the likes of 2019's Call of Duty: Modern Warfare and Call of Duty: Warzone.

With April just around the corner now, Pokemon Go developer Niantic has outlined some of the events that will be going on in its hit AR Pokemon game next month. Due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, which has forced much of the world into lockdown, April's schedule seems lighter than March's, but there are still a few noteworthy events happening in the game over the next few weeks.

First, Niantic is extending March's Team Rocket Special Research story quest, The Shadowy Threat Grows. You will now have until the end of April to finish this quest and rescue Shadow Entei from Team Rocket leader Giovanni.

Niantic will also offer a new batch of Field Research tasks in April, along with a new Research Breakthrough reward. Each time you achieve a Research Breakthrough next month, you'll get a chance to catch Alolan Exeggutor and earn some bonus Stardust as well.

Similar to other scheduled events like E3 and WonderCon, the organizers behind Combo Breaker confirmed that this year's tournament has been canceled due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak.

The organization announced in a detailed blog post that the fighting tournament will return in 2021 with help from its sponsor Astro Gaming, and refunds for competitor and community passes will begin on April 20. Instead of the scheduled tournament from May 22-24, "a three-day retrospective broadcast featuring marquee matches, special moments, and stories from past attendees covering Combo Breaker's five-year history" will air in its place. The organization didn't specify where the Combo Break Retrospective will livestream.

For those who managed to grab a hotel room at the Schaumburg Renaissance Marriott in Illinois, the tournament's organizers said these rooms have been transferred to Combo Breaker 2021 to avoid any hassle. However, they can also be canceled by calling the hotel directly starting April 3, and deposits will be returned in full should rooms be canceled.

Overwatch has always provided a steady stream of free updates that add limited-time events and new characters, but the latest may be the greatest yet. A new April Fools' update to the game appears to keep all the regular gameplay and systems intact, but adds a little something special to each character: googly eyes.

Yes, like the little plastic ones you get from a craft store.

Each character has a googly-eyed makeover, making them look much sillier than their usual selves. In fact, the more aggressive and threatening the original character, the better they look with googly eyes. Take a look at Doomfist, for example:

This month's free offerings for Twitch Prime members have been revealed, and if you're into classic first-person shooters, adventure games, and enigmatic puzzlers, then you're in for a treat for the month of April. Twitch Prime, which is included with any Amazon Prime member, is giving away five free games in April: the Turok remaster, Kathy Rain, and Etherborn as well as indie RPG Earthlock and first-person puzzle game Lightmatter.

Plus, there's still time left to claim March's free games: Bomber Crew, Whispers of a Machine, Mugsters, Furi, and Epistory: Typing Chronicles. These offers end tomorrow, April 1.

Twitch Prime's next batch of free games will be available to claim starting April 1. Once you own them, you'll have to download the Twitch client, where you can install and play said games. They're available throughout the entire month, so be sure to claim them before April ends. (Plus, check out our full roundup of all the free games you can claim right now--there are tons of freebies floating around these days.)

The team behind the roguelite shooter Risk of Rain 2 has released a major new update for the game. This patch introduces the "Artifacts" system from the original Risk of Rain to its sequel, rare items that modify play significantly. For example, in the original Risk of Rain, the Artifact of Honor caused only elite enemies to spawn. According to the patch notes, the developers expect these artifacts to radically increase the game's replayability.

The update also overhauls the game's UI and fixes a bundle of bugs, including some unfortunate late-game crashes. The team also overhauled some of the game's playable characters by introducing new variant skills and skins. The patch is currently live only on PC--according to the notes, it will be coming to consoles in the near future.

This new patch follows the game's last major content update, which caught up the console versions to the PC update that rolled out in December. That patch added the melee-focused character Acrid, as well as some new biomes, enemies, and loot.

Minecraft Dungeons, the action-adventure spin-off featuring co-operative dungeon crawling, has been delayed out of April. It's now launching on May 26, for Xbox One, PC, PS4, and Nintendo Switch. It will also be part of Game Pass on Xbox One and PC.

Developer Mojang apologized for the delay, citing the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic as the reason for the slight reshuffle. "Around the world, the Minecraft team has been adjusting how we work and taking new precautions in light of COVID-19, with health and safety as our top priorities," writes Mojang on its official website. "These measures have unfortunately had an impact on our development schedule for Minecraft Dungeons, and we have decided to release the game on May 26."

You can pre-order Minecraft Dungeons on most platforms starting today, with pre-loading already available. Online play will be supported at launch, but Mojang says cross-play between all platforms will only be available sometime after.

Kojima Productions has introduced a new Death Stranding update, which adds a photo mode to the open-world game. The 1.12 update is now available on PlayStation 4, letting you capture snaps of the oddly lovely post-apocalyptic world.

According to Kojima Productions, the photo mode will let you change angles, adjust the color settings and frames, and change the expression of Sam Bridges. Death Stranding is set in an open world and by default it lacks infrastructure, so your photo log could represent the sparse time before Sam helps connect the world, or the after once you've helped rebuild society.

The word of a photo mode was first announced for the PC version, which is set to come in June. But studio head Hideo Kojima recently announced that PS4 owners will be able to try the photo mode too with this free update. The PC version will also include a high frame rate option and ultra-wide monitor support. This represents a trend of PS4 games heading to PC along with Horizon: Zero Dawn, but Sony says we shouldn't expect that to always be the case.

PUBG has unveiled its April Fools' joke ahead of schedule this year, and it's a doozy. Fantasy Battle Royale is a third-person squad-based gamemode where you play as classes from D&D-esque fantasy games, like a wizard or a barbarian. However, since you can't exactly find chainmail on Erandel, these classes are creatively-assembled from what they could find lying around--for example, the paladin's shield is a trash can lid, and the barbarian's sword is a repurposed saw.

According to the announcement, these matches will be fast and furious, with the so-called "blue-zone" moving much faster than in regular matches. These classes each have special weapons, too, with the paladin's Mendingstar healing your allies when you whack them, and the barbarian's Kick-Ash Longsword increasing your movement speed with every hit. The special Fantasy Battle Royale event will run from April 1 to April 7.

Wasteland 3 has been set for a May 19 release date on PC, PS4, and Xbox One, but the difficulties introduced by remote work caused by the COVID-19 outbreak has pushed the game back to late summer. In a development update posted on Twitter, studio head Brian Fargo said that it will now release on August 28, 2020.

"As with most companies, we moved to a work-from-home environment some weeks ago, and that's of course introduced new challenges that many of us throughout the world have been learning to manage," Fargo said. "We've been excited to see the Wasteland 3 Beta so well received, but the reality is that with these new logistical challenges our release was going to be impacted."

He said the extra time will allow the studio to react to beta feedback, and generally optimize and polish the game. In particular, he said the extra time will allow for extra work on the co-op experience. "We're pouring our hearts into this game, and the last thing we want is to have anything but an amazing launch for a product we truly believe in."

Persona 5 Royal is releasing on PS4 at a very opportune time. With many holed up at home while practicing social distancing, passing the hours with a gigantic role-playing game has never felt more doable. Persona 5 Royal is an expanded version of the beloved 2017 entry in the series, featuring roughly 20 hours of new content and a wealth of changes and optimizations. If you're getting your copy of Persona 5 Royal today, we'd like to remind you that you can also nab all of Persona 5's DLC for free from the PlayStation Store.

The add-on content isn't loaded on the disc or baked into the install; you have to actually seek out the Persona 5 Royal Legacy DLC Bundle on PSN. Most of the add-ons are costume sets such as the Christmas and Swimsuit Sets, but you can also summon characters from previous Persona games such as Kaguya and Thanatos.

E3 2020 has already been canceled, but Gamescom 2020 may still survive. The event's organizers are still planning to hold it this August, though it could be a digital-only event in order to avoid exposing attendees to coronavirus (COVID-19) infection.

In a joint statement to Gamesindustry.biz, German industry association game and Gamescom venue Koelnmesse said it's possible there still could be an in-person event. Gamescom will be held as a digital event from August 25 to 29 at the bare minimum, and the organizers will make a decision in May to determine if it will take place in its normal home of Cologne, Germany. Regardless, they're preparing to expand digital coverage to reach more viewers.

"If an on-site event is possible, there will also be more information at that stage with regard to which changes need to be made in order to fully ensure the health of all visitors," the organizers added.

While April's PlayStation Plus freebies for PS4 leaked early, Microsoft's Games with Gold lineup announcement arrived at basically the latest possible moment. As always, the newest batch of four games will be staggered across the month, with the first two games unlocking tomorrow, April 1. Xbox One users get to keep Games with Gold free games in their library as long as they have an active Xbox Live Gold or Game Pass Ultimate subscription.

Slightly Mad Studio's 2017 racing sim Project Cars 2 will be free throughout the whole month of April. Project Cars 2 features a staggering collection of more than 180 vehicles to choose from and 140 tracks across 60 locations. The realistic sim earned a 7/10 in GameSpot's Project Cars 2 review for its fine-tuned physics, dynamic weather system, and sheer variety of racing formats, which includes off-road contests with rallycross cars.

Xbox 360 title Fable Anniversary is also up for grabs on April 1. A remastered version of the original entry in the Microsoft series, the action-RPG also earned a 7/10 in GameSpot's Fable Anniversary review. While the original Fable never truly lived up to its pre-release hype, it's still a fun game that's worth checking out if you've never visited Albion. Fable Anniversary will be free for subscribers through April 15.