Doom Eternal's first single-player expansion, The Ancient Gods, Part One, will be available as a standalone game.

This means players can jump into the new DLC - which is part of Doom Eternal's Year One Pass and sees you travel to new realms in the Doom universe and face new enemies - even if they don't have the base game, or haven't completed the main campaign.

"When we look at how many people have played through the game we have a large percentage - higher than 2016 - that have completed it, so you're always looking at that and seeing how far players make it through your game," executive producer Marty Stratton told PCGamesN. "It's important as we want the DLC to reach as many people as possible. In fact, you don't even need to own Doom Eternal to buy the DLC and play it."

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In a post-Arkham Asylum world, it's easy to forget how Batman was the victim of decades of poor-quality video games. While Gotham City, a rogues' gallery of great villains, cool gadgets, and the Batmobile seemed custom-designed for gaming, fans suffered through years of abominable titles starring The Dark Knight before Rocksteady finally captured the essence of the DC Comics universe, ultimately delivering one of the greatest games of all-time.

The Fast & Furious franchise has a similar curse. The billion-dollar film series seems like a "can't miss" prospect for interactive entertainment. With wild, ridiculous action, caricatured stud-muffin dudes in open shirts, hot women having Krav Maga throwdowns, crashing jet-planes, submarines, and all the excesses of a bombastic franchise that's thrown reality to the curb, it seems almost impossible not to sculpt this action series into a massively entertaining adventure.

And yet, like Batman before it, the adventures of Dominic Toretto and his "family" just haven't been able to make the transition into a quality video game title. Unfortunately, with the release of Bandai Namco's Fast & Furious Crossroads, it seems this series' "Arkham Asylum moment" is still a long, long way away.

During Thursday's gamescom Opening Night Live presentation, developer Proletariat offered up an impressive trailer for its free-to-play magic melee title Spellbreak, which launches September 3 on PS4, PC, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch.

The hybrid cinematic/gameplay trailer featured a cast of mysterious magic-weavers, battling it out with an array of mystic attacks, substituting the typical gun-and-grenade play of such battle arena titles with an altogether more ethereal arsenal of spells, hexes, and curses.

There's nothing quite like seeing justice properly served, and Twitch viewers certainly saw that when a Call of Duty streamer accidentally revealed himself to be a cheater. This caught the attention of Twitch itself, which banned him. Justice has been served, at least in this instance.

While bragging about how good he was at Call of Duty: Warzone earlier this week, streamer MrGolds had his screen showing a Windows task manager, but underneath it was the cheating program EngineOwning. It's bold to be that careless while bragging about how good you are. This didn't go unnoticed, and his Twitch account is no longer available.

EngineOwning advertises itself as an "undetected" cheat system for big-name shooters. That might be true for the game software itself, but eagle-eyed viewers weren't going to let him get away with it. The program has several settings related to "aimbot" tools, making it rather funny that he was bragging about his gunplay in the clip at the time his cheating was discovered.

Some people just want to set the world on fire. Or drown it, or cover it in goblins, or unleash ruinous magicks upon the land. Such is Ruinarch, a villainous fantasy sandbox that lets you meddle in the meticulously-modeled lives of tiny hapless townsfolk. Released earlier this week on Steam early access, your devilish dabblings can be found at a discount until this coming Tuesday

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Kids 3-Ply Face Mask (50 ct) | $34 | MQ Direct | Use code KINJAKIDS
Kids 3-Ply Face Mask (200 ct) | $63 | MQ Direct | Use code KINJAKIDS

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I feel obligated to approach this review from two angles. First and foremost, it's a review of a Control expansion. That's the obvious angle. You're here to find out how this DLC serves as a supplemental story to Control.

But, let's be real, you want to know about the Alan Wake stuff. You want to know how Remedy brought Bright Falls to The Oldest House, and you want to know if this is the triumphant return of everyone's favorite tortured writer after he had gone AFK for the better part of a decade. You've been building it up in your head for so long, and you just want to know if AWE makes good on the mental buildup.

AWE doesn't fully deliver on either front. It's a bit of a mishmash of ideas -- albeit an understandable one -- that prevents this expansion from being what everyone wants it to be. It's still pretty incredible, though.

God of War (PlayStation Hits) | $14 | Amazon

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Apple has terminated Epic Games' App Store developer account.

It's the latest development in the two megacorps' public spat that ignited when Apple blocked Fortnite from the App Store after Epic Games circumvented Apple and Google's system to retain 100% of the funds generated by its in-app microstransactions. Microsoft also filed a statement in support of Epic and Unreal Engine.

Terminating the account prevents the developer from updating its published games or submitting new ones. It comes just days after Epic snuck one sneaky update in to add the evil Tart Tycoon character seen in the game's #FreeFortnite video.

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Fancy a walk in the woods, readers? Werewolf: The Apocalypse – Heart of the Forest, a howling World Of Darkness narrative written by former Witcher devs and Wanderlust creators Different Tales, has opened its winding, text-based trails with a limited demo this weekend. Just try and stick to the paths while hiking, yeah? I hear there are beasts aplenty in the darkest depths of the forest.

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Ever wondered what it’d be like if Pokemon’s perpetually-childish heroes settled down to start a farm? Lucky for you, that’s exactly the premise of Monster Harvest. Sowing its first seeds this week, Maple Powered Games’ upcoming crop punctuates Stardew Valley‘s pastoral life sim with brutal fights between half-plant, half-animal hybrids called Planimals. Geddit?

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Marvel's Avengers post-launch DLC characters will each have their own $10 battle pass.

In a lengthy and complex post in which Square Enix details how the game manages gear and cosmetics, the $10 passes - called Hero Challenge Cards - "allow players to earn Resources, Units, Credits, and Cosmetics for completing in-game challenges".

The premium Hero Challenge Card rewards have already been unlocked for the six starting heroes, something Square Enix says "prevent[s] content gating and guarantee that you and your friends can experience these exciting additions together". However, to unlock all rewards for any new heroes introduced post-launch, players will have to unlock premium rewards for each one separately with 1,000 in-game credits.

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DC FanDome was quite the fun showcase of all things DC Comics despite being just a glorified Zoom call. There were a lot of great trailers for upcoming movies, some exciting comic book news, and the reveals of what will hopefully be two awesome games. Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League may have the pedigree behind it with its developer but Gotham Knights is giving something I've wanted for a very long time: a massive action-adventure game where I can play as my main squeeze Batgirl.

That's just one of the topics on this episode of Podtoid. Charlotte, Chris, Dan, CJ, and Occams are here to talk superhero games, The Batman, delicious snowfall, Bury Me, My Love, 13 Sentinels, and Fast & Furious: Crossroads. All that, plus CJ fails basic high school Spanish, in Podtoid Episode 456.

Devolver Digital has dropped another absolutely wild trailer for its upcoming shooter sequel Serious Sam 4. The new preview sees our chunkhead hero visit, of all places, Vatican City in Italy, where he takes possession of a rather... erm... abstract interpretation of the "Papamobile," or "Popemobile."

This is both a busy weekend and a lazy one. While the big announcements of Gamescom 2020 came during Gamescom Opening Night Live on Thursday, the German games show is still rolling online this weekend. And for us here in the RPS treehouse, it’s a long bank holiday weekend. We’ll have a few posts coming, but return in full force on Tuesday. See you then!

What are you playing this weekend? Here’s what we’re clicking on!

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Erasure - the experience of being rendered invisible - is a depressingly common facet of queer experience. For those who live and love beyond the boundaries of cis-heteronormative society, recognition, be it legal, social, or cultural, can be hard to come by, and visibility, when it does come, is often plagued with risks. This experience can be particularly pronounced in a culture like Ireland, which, for much of its existence as an independent nation, premised its national identity upon an often noxious blend of piety and purity. It is perhaps not surprising then that If Found..., the new interactive visual novel from Dublin-based developers DREAMFEEL and Annapurna Interactive, should take erasure as its core gameplay mechanic. What is pleasantly surprising, however, is how the developers have implemented that mechanic, and the story they have used it to tell.

So yeah, last week's "Whatcha Been Playin'?" was a little deep and I really appreciate the kind comments I received in return. The simple fact of the matter is that it's important to me that y'all know you're important. I don't dally about and I certainly don't bullshit anybody. Sometimes you just gotta let people know they matter. Life's too short - and currently far too unpredictable - so be sure to pass it on and let those that you care about know that they matter.

I've been really busy this week, which has put paid to a lot of my gaming opportunities. I've spent most evenings squeezing in sessions on Easy Trigger Games' Huntdown, which remains a solid contender for my favourite game of 2020. I'm currently trying to 100% the game on Hard, which is understandably a pretty wild ride. But with that soundtrack, those visuals, and a cameo appearance from Snake Plisskin, it's easy to keep walking the mean streets. If you haven't checked it out yet, don't sleep on it.

You know the score by now, we're just as interested in hearing what you've been playing lately. So whether you're rocking recent releases such as Ghost of Tsushima, PGA Tour 2K21, or Battletoads, or whether you're just jamming away at your backlog or replaying an old favourite, jump into the comments and share your gaming escapades with us.

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

The Desert Rose is coming to Summoner’s Rift

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The Black Panther star had been battling colon cancer for four years

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The Associated Press has just revealed actor Chadwick Boseman has passed away from cancer at just 43 years old.

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Today Sega released a detailed Q&A about the future interaction between the original Phantasy Star Online 2 and the recently-announced Phantasy Star Online 2: New Genesis. 

We hear more details about what will be shared between the two games, how the engine of the original game will be changed, cross-game chat, finger movement, and more.

You can read it all below.

QUESTIONS FROM THE COMMUNITY

Amingo was an original character introduced in Marvel vs. Capcom 2. He was part of a gentle race of plant people. He was good and he was my friend. Capcom killed Amingo in Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3, and I will never forgive it.

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A new trailer for Call of the Sea premiered during Future Games Show, discussing the themes of Out of the Blue Games' debut title. According to Out of the Blue Games co-founder Tatiana Delgado, Call of the Sea takes inspiration from H.P. Lovecraft's stories, albeit with a twist.

"But as you can see, although our game is heavily influenced by his tales, Call of the Sea is a twist on the traditional H.P. Lovecraft works," Delgado said. "We're trying to focus on the surreal and the oneiric more than the horrific and the grim. In short, Call of the Sea isn't a descent into madness but a rise to sanity. Losing your mind makes you see a dream-like, colorful world."

Previously, Delgado said the team wanted to specifically "target the next gen" with Call of the Sea, which is scheduled to release for Xbox Series X, Xbox One, and PC later this year. The game will be available through Xbox Game Pass as well.

Note: This post contains some spoilers for Control and some tiny story tidbits. If you want to uncover it all on your own, you might want to come back after you've completed Control and the AWE DLC.

When Control was released, it was fascinatingly weird and full of mystery. As we tried to fight the extra-dimensional Hiss, we learned about the strange entities in charge of the Federal Bureau of Control, discovered supernaturally Altered Items, and uncovered story tidbits linking Control to a Remedy cult classic, 2010's Alan Wake. But the game's greatest secret was hidden away in its best sequence, the Ashtray Maze. Listen carefully to the song that plays there, and you could hear a secret message that seemed to hint at hidden content buried somewhere inside Control.

One year later to the day, Control fans have discovered what that secret message was all about. It did hint at hidden content--but it was content that didn't appear in Control until the release of its final DLC expansion, AWE. Discover the right nook of the Oldest House in AWE and you'll find the puzzle's solution, unlocking a tiny tidbit of a story Easter egg--and what seems to be the game's greatest piece of gear.

Fortnite players have jumped on the Fall Guys bandwagon. They've created all sorts of mini-games, including ones copied from Ultimate Knockout and completely original creations, in Fortnite's creative mode.

Players have remade Door Dash, Tip Toe, Slime Climb, and many other games. They come with pink slime that immediately kills your character to make the resemblance with the game show battle royale complete.

Other players have crafted the Fall Guys characters themselves in Fortnite in order to try and replicate the rag doll physics from Ultimate Knockout. Fall Guys is itself something of a battle royale, only with the obstacles on each stage killing players instead of weapons doing the job.

The next generation of consoles is pushing hardware power further and faster, but the gulf of noticeable graphical and technical upgrades between generations is shrinking. Microsoft, for example, is consciously blurring the line by promising cross-generation support going forward with the launch of Xbox Series X. That makes quality-of-life features more valuable than ever, including at least one that's more significant than it may seem: multi-game suspension.

The feature has largely flown under the radar, part of the suite of new features casually announced when Microsoft first revealed its next-gen plans. It was announced alongside other ambitious plans and quality-of-life features for new hardware, like an SSD to support faster load times and a new version of its standard wireless controller.

Sony has not detailed specific plans for multi-game suspension, but it stands to reason that the feature could be included into the PlayStation 5. The company has already talked about a similar feature, reportedly to be called Activities, that will let you jump into individual game modes straight from the console dashboard without needing to load into a game's standard menu. It's conceivable that both console manufacturers could borrow these ideas from each other.

Moana’s Auli’i Cravalho stars in this high school drama

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In the more 20+ years since the original released on PC and the original PlayStation, there have been nine mainline Resident Evil games - not to mention a few remakes and plenty of weird ports and wild spinoffs. Now that Netflix has announced a Resident Evil Series, we thought it was worth providing an up-to-date summary of the franchise’s story and take a look at just how Netflix’s eight-episode arc, focused on “the Wesker sisters”,  could fit into the established lore.

They said they were going to do it, and they did it.

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Plus, Auli’i Cravalho stars in the newly available Netflix drama All Together Now

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A new trailer for Cris Tales debuted during Future Games Show. It provided a fresh look at the upcoming stylish RPG. You can watch it, below.

In Cris Tales, you take control of the titular Crisbell (unless the title is actually in reference to her ally, Cristopher--yup, there's more than one Cris), a young orphan who becomes a time mage. Each time mage can affect time in a unique way--in Crisbell's case, she can see the world in the past, present, and future all at the same time. Using this knowledge, she can change the flow of time and influence the course of events.

For example, early-on in the game, Crisbell sees that in the future, two shops in town will fall on hard times after their respective store fronts mysteriously collapse. The means of preventing their collapse can only be achieved by mixing a potion from a rare fruit.

Sonic Sound Station Selection Vol. 1 is one for the fans of GBA Sonic games.

The post Sonic Sound Station Selection Vol.1 Features Tracks From Sonic Games Released from 2001 to 2004 appeared first on Siliconera.

It seems like one of the best parts of Watch Dogs Legion‘s whole “play as anyone” thing will be all the wacky different kinds of NPCs you’re able to sign on. In a new video, Ubisoft show off a recruitment mission in which DedSec agents help out a beekeeper. Why the heck would you want a beekeeper on your squad? They can shoot out a swarm of nanobees that blast enemies with an electrical discharge, obviously.

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Mega Evolution has finally arrived in Pokemon Go, giving players the ability to power up certain Pokemon into new forms. In order to Mega Evolve a Pokemon, however, you'll first need to collect that monster's Mega Energy, and the primary way to obtain that is through a new type of Raid Battles called Mega Raids.

These new Raid Battles having you facing off against a Mega-Evolved Pokemon, and they're quite challenging. To help you out, we've put together this rundown on Mega Raids and rounded up some tips to help you conquer each of the new Mega Raid bosses.

What Are Mega Raids?

Mega Raids are a new tier of Raid Battles that will periodically occur at Gyms. These are roughly equivalent to Legendary Raids in terms of challenge, except they feature a Mega-Evolved Pokemon as the Raid boss.

Plus, Capcom finally purr-fects Palico armor

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When someone first starts playing a long-running video game, a ritual begins. Friends who’ve spent considerably more time with the game immediately start asking “Have you gotten to [part that is so iconic as to have become revered]?” You reply “No” repeatedly, but that only builds anticipation. Will the moment live up…

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Today during the Future Games Show, we saw a new gameplay trailer for the upcoming first person shooter Serious Sam 4.

The new trailer shows off some of the combat in the game through Serious Sam’s mech as he navigates hazards and shooting enemies through Vatican City. The gameplay looks fast-paced with stunning visuals.

According to the developer Croteam, here’s what you can expect from Serious Sam 4:

Humanity is under siege as the full force of Mental’s hordes spread across the world, ravaging what remains of a broken and beaten civilization. The last remaining resistance to the invasion is the Earth Defense Force led by Sam “Serious” Stone and his heavily-armed squad of misfit commandos.

Croteam returns with a high-powered prequel to the Serious Sam series that scales up chaos to unprecedented levels. The classic Serious Sam formula is revamped by putting an unstoppable arsenal up against an unimaginable number of enemies that requires players to circle-strafe and backpedal-blast their way out of impossible situations.

Serious Sam is a franchise that’s been around since 2001, and this upcoming game is a direct sequel of the one that was released back in 2011. It’s been a long wait for the latest entry in the series, but luckily Serious Sam 4 is right around the corner.

The game will launch first on PC and Stadia on Sept. 4 and will release in 2021 for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One.

If you’re interested in learning more about Serious Sam 4, you can watch the trailer that was revealed earlier this month or read more about it on the official Croteam website right here.

Much of Bright Memory Infinite is still shrouded in mystery, but a new trailer shows that its action and aesthetic strive to be top of the line.

Streamed during Gamesradar’s Future Games Show held during Gamescom on Aug. 28, the trailer starts off slow with hints of a story. The game’s protagonist, decked out in futuristic gear, takes a call from someone before heading out toward an unknown objective.

Things quickly amp up though, as the trailer quickly cuts to footage of her dropping into a battlefield before sneaking, slashing and blasting her way through a number of armed soldiers. Some carry the same futuristic tech and equipment as her, but others appear to be out of different eras or points in time entirely.

Regardless, she takes them all on, utilizing a number of firearms, a sword and a grappling wire to take them out in quick succession.

It all culminates in a battles between her and a masked swordsman who moves around at inhuman speeds. The two clash swords again and again, with the protagonist utilizing her gunplay and maneuverability to its full extent, before the masked figure vanishes and the trailer cuts to black.

One can’t argue that it’s a stylish trailer, even if thefiner points of the game’s story still remains heavily shrouded in mystery. Fans of first person shooters and action titles will definitely want to give the full trailer a look for themselves down below.