IGN

A detective, a robot, and a drag queen walk into a bar. That’s not the start of a joke, it’s an actual level in Murder by Numbers, a charming visual novel/mystery-puzzler that’s chock-full of charismatic characters and colorful locations. It may land just shy of reaching the admittedly high bars set by its inspirations, but I still had a great time solving this series of ‘90s-style whodunnits.

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Murder by Numbers’ premise can be quickly summed up as “Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney mixed with Picross,” and if you’re the kind of person who read that and immediately let out a thirsty “Ooo,” then chances are you can probably just stop reading now and buy this game. It accomplishes that simple brief with flying colors, to the point where I can easily recommend it for either of its parts, let alone the sum of them together.

Rise Like a Phoenix

You play as Honor, a TV actress unexpectedly thrust into life as a detective, accompanied by an adorable, scan-happy robot named SCOUT. Honor is an excellent protagonist: smart as a whip but a touch too overzealous for her own good. Watching her grow into a more confident person and adapt to an unexpected new profession as she helps solve a series of murders is genuinely rewarding. Meanwhile, the way in which SCOUT’s strange story unfurls is a little more hamfisted (it is a robot nonchalantly flying around Hollywood, after all), but their peppy and endearingly naive demeanor brings vital levity to some otherwise heavy scenarios.

E3 Canceled For Good? How It Could Happen

A federal judge has denied Nintendo's request to dismiss the class action lawsuit over the drift problem found with the Nintendo Switch Joy-Cons.

Top Class Actions reports that US district judge Thomas S. Zilly rejected Nintendo's dismissal request but did agree to have the case handled in arbitration for now. That means the issue will be resolved outside of the courts by a neutral party known as an arbitrator.

However, Judge Zilly has only put the case on hold until the arbitrator comes to a decision. Once a decision has been made, the case could still return to the courts. Nintendo and the customers trying to sue the company have to report the outcome of the arbitration to the courts 14 days after a decision has been made, or by December 31, 2020 - whichever comes first.

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The class-action lawsuit was filed against Nintendo by Ryan Diaz back in September 2019. He claimed that Nintendo sold the Switch's Joy-Cons as if they didn't have any defects while knowing that they had a drift problem. He says that Nintendo then charged customers to repair Joy-Cons with the drift issue.

Drift, in this case, refers to the joysticks on the Joy-Cons registering movements despite there being none, causing cursors and reticles to drift across the screen. Diaz claims that Nintendo must have known about the drift in some Joy-Cons as he and other customers contacted the company about it online to get it repaired.

The Last of Us TV show being produced by HBO won't go into full production until after Naughty Dog has finished developing The Last of Us Part 2.

Craig Mazin revealed this on the latest episode of his weekly podcast Scriptnotes now that the news is out that he's co-writing The Last of Us TV show's adaptation. Production can't start properly until The Last of Us creative director and co-writer of the TV adaptation Neil Druckmann is freed from his duties on the game's sequel.

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"We can't start on it right away because they're still finishing up the second game, but pretty soon," Mazin said. "We've been talking about it for months and coming up with little plans and things. But we're going to dig in in full, full earnest pretty soon, just as soon as they wrap up their final work on the sequel. So hopefully more exciting news to come on that front because it's something we're both motivated to see on TV."

Mazin also revealed that he was introduced to Druckmann via a mutual friend, Shannon Woodward, who is Elsie Hughes in HBO's TV show Westworld. Mazin also talked about how he insisted The Last of Us should be made into a TV show rather than a movie, which it was being turned into previously.

"It was going to be a movie for a long time. Neil was working on it as a movie for one of Sony's divisions, and my feeling was that you can't make a movie out of this thing, it has to be a show, it needs length," Mazin said.

Doom Eternal won't support true 4K on Google Stadia as was promised when it was announced for the platform a year ago.

Bethesda, the game's publisher, released new technical specifications for each platform that Doom Eternal is coming to (after leaking them earlier this week). Revealed is that the Google Stadia version of Doom Eternal "will run at 1080p @60 FPS on HD displays and up-sample to 2160p from 1800p @60 FPS on 4K displays."

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For it to be true 4K the game would have to run with a horizontal display resolution of approximately 4,000 pixels, usually 3840 x 2160. Instead, it will run at 3200 x 1800, which means it doesn't have true 4K.

Upsampling the 1800p display resolution simply means that extra pixels are calculated to make it up to around 4K. However, this is an artificial means of hitting 4K and is sometimes criticised for not having as sharp an image as true 4K.

DOOM Eternal is coming to #Stadia.

I’m not ashamed to admit it, I died a grand total of 409 times during my first playthrough of Nioh 2. Every death is a lesson, which is appropriate because there is a lot to learn in this excellent sequel to one of the first great non-FromSoftware Souls-like games. Nioh 2 takes everything the original game built and evolves it magnificently, adding all sorts of new nuances to the combat – but every gift it gives you is balanced with a stiff backhanded slap of difficulty to keep your ego in check.

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While Nioh put you in control of a fictionalized version of real-life sailor and Western Samurai (and professional Geralt of Rivia cosplayer), William Adams, Nioh 2 instead goes the route of the mute, custom-created character. It’s a change that actually works well. William was already basically a mute in the first game, so not much on that front is lost, and the character creator in Nioh 2 is amazing, allowing for some truly impressive looking protagonists.

But while the story fares better than the first, that’s still not a glowing endorsement. Nioh 2 struggles with making its characters anything more than a means for exposition dumps. The only bright spot is the alternate-universe version of real-life Japanese historical figure Toyotomi Hideyoshi, as his journey from goofy adventurer to fearsome leader and his relationship with your character is actually quite compelling.

My experience with the Warlords of New York expansion to The Division 2 started out strong thanks to an excellent standalone campaign and a host of very clever revisions to existing RPG systems. The first dozen or so hours were far and away my favorites with the series to date and I can recommend it on the merits of that time alone. Unfortunately, this excellent momentum was slowed considerably by hordes of comically bulletproof bad guys in the heroic and legendary difficulties later on. So while I can’t see Warlords holding my interest long-term, getting to endgame in the first place was still an enjoyable fight.

Back 2 the Source

A new Panzer Dragoon VR game has been announced today to celebrate 25 years since the first game in the series came out in Japan. This new game reimagines and combines the Sega Saturn trilogy.

It's being made by Japanese game studio Wildman Inc. under the working title Panzer Dragoon Voyage Record. It completely reworks - not remakes - Panzer Dragoon, Panzer Dragoon Zwei, and Panzer Dragoon Saga with new graphics for modern VR headsets.

Sorry, this is not a full VR remake. But you will meet Blue Dragon (TYPE-01), Lagi, Prototype Dragon(TYPE-02), Guardian Dragon, Atolm Dragon! https://t.co/kjvAD5SGVT

— Panzer Dragoon Voyage Record (@PanzerDragoonVR) March 10, 2020

You play as a dragon rider in first-person, armed with a handgun, and shoot enemies with the VR controller as you fly across skyscapes. It's been in development since 2014 and has even been on show at some game events between then and now. When shown the game is at events, players sit on a rodeo seat that emulates the feeling of being sat on a dragon as it flaps as it wings, while a fan blows wind at their face.

This VR game is different to the Panzer Dragoon remake for Nintendo Switch that was announced during a Nintendo Direct in 2019 as that's being made by another studio.

The Google Stadia version of Final Fantasy 15 has exclusive minigames that aren't quite on par with the rest of the game.

Final Fantasy 15 was one of the big launch titles for Google's game streaming service, Stadia, when it launched in November 2019. It came with all the DLC and an exclusive "Crazy Challenge" minigame collection that's meant to entice players to check out the Stadia version.

But a Twitter thread (pointed out by USGamer) containing gameplay videos of two of the minigames shows that they're of... questionable quality.

noctis r u ok#FinalFantasyXV #crazychallenges #Stadia pic.twitter.com/iBmz2ms81m

— Noah Sanchez (@realnoahsan) March 8, 2020

Expert Duel adds fights to the game that were previously only available in the multiplayer expansion Comrades. The Endless Magitek Armor challenge puts you in an exosuit as you try to defeat as many enemies as possible within the time limit.

Gameplay from ESPN NFL 2K5 on the original Xbox.

Doom 64 will have a brand new chapter along with a number of new features and improvements when it is released for modern platforms later this month.

"Persistent players will have the opportunity to unlock a new chapter in the Doomguy's saga, taking place shortly after [Doom 64's] original campaign concludes," Nightdive Studios senior developer James Haley told USgamer.

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"The Mother Demon you defeated in that outing had a sister, and since you've been messing up Hell non-stop, she tries to get rid of you by sending you away. If you can make your way back and take revenge, you’ll be rewarded with a bit of lore that fans of both series, new and classic, should enjoy."

Nightdive's multiplayer developer Edward Richardson also revealed that the Doom 64 rerelease will have autorun toggle, new brightness settings, an option to change the colour of blood from red to green.

The automap can also be navigated with the Switch's touchscreen and the PS4's touchpad. Haley added that the Switch and PS4 versions also let you play the game with motion controls. "Using it to fine tune your aim gives a sense of really being there in the moment," he said.

In the same interview, Doom Eternal's co-director Marty Stratton revealed that Doom 64's most powerful weapon, the Unmaker, will be in Doom Eternal. "You get to unlock the Unmaker if you complete all the Slayer Gates, and those are badass combat encounters," Stratton said.

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SonicFox really just won the Mortal Kombat world championship, came out in fursuit wrapped in the trans flag, grabbed the mic and said "Vote Bernie" Legendary shit pic.twitter.com/Vu63DuWfXo

Ask any survivor horror fan what their favorite entries in the legendary Resident Evil franchise are and you’ll get a multitude of responses from the Gamecube remake, Resident Evil 2 or its remake, the underrated Code Veronica, or Resident Evil 4, which changed the genre as a whole.

How Resident Evil 3: Nemesis Was Conceived

Resident Evil 3: Nemesis, as it exists, was not originally intended to be the canonical follow-up to the massively successful Resident Evil 2 in 1998. After that game’s release, there were multiple Resident Evil projects in active development. Originally, the next numbered entry in the franchise was planned to be a much larger and more complex game in scope and would require multiple years of development. But, since Resident Evil Code: Veronica was booked as a Dreamcast exclusive, Resident Evil Zero was still in its early stages, production on Resident Evil 4 for the next generation of systems had begun, and Sony had announced the PS2, Capcom realized it would be finished much too late with the planned RE3 project for a PS One release. There wasn’t time to upgrade the existing idea for the third game, so it was canceled.

Who Is Taskmaster?

Editors Note: This is a guest editorial written to celebrate International Women's Day, and hopefully inspire a little, too. We're very grateful to Lyndsay, backed by her team at EA, for taking the time to tell her story.

As we approach International Women’s Day, I’ve been answering a lot of questions about being a woman in the games industry. These questions all touch on the same themes – did you find it difficult? What obstacles did you have to overcome? Did you fit in? Did you have blockers or supporters? How did you handle it? All of them perpetuate the idea that women don’t really belong on game teams or play games at all. I started to reflect on my journey into gaming, and I was struck by the fact my exposure to gaming started with women. In fact, I wouldn’t have fallen in love with games was it not for my grandma.