Here’s info on Patch 2.4 A new Diablo 2: Resurrected balance patch is in town, and is making history as...
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Microsoft is developing a program that will help to bring in-game advertisements into free-to-play games on Xbox, according to a new report from Business Insider.
The goal, according to the report, is to provide a new revenue stream for developers--Microsoft itself would not be taking a cut of the ad revenue generated. Examples of how ads might be placed include billboards in a racing game.
While that might sound somewhat natural, it's noted that Microsoft is aware of the potentially off-putting nature of advertising in games--something that is still rare in PC and consoles games. (Past implementations, such as the infamous billboards in Battlefield 2042, have gone over poorly with players.) That apparently is not enough to dissuade Microsoft from pursuing this avenue, but the report states that a "private marketplace" could be created so that only certain brands can participate.
Microsoft did not specifically address the report, saying in a statement, "We are always looking for ways to improve the experience for players and developers but we don't have anything further to share."
According to Business Insider, this program could be ready later this year, though it remains to be seen whether or not it will come together. Advertising on Xbox has largely been relegated to the system's dashboard, rather than inside of games themselves.
The upcoming comic crossover between Marvel and Fortnite may offer more than just a new story, if a recent social media leak is to be believed.
Back in February, Marvel announced Fortnite X Marvel Zero War, a collaboration between Epic Games' battle royale and the comic book titan, debuting June 8. One month later, special variant covers for the series were announced featuring characters from both sides of the collaboration. Now, news has broken that these variant covers may be teasing new skins and other cosmetics that players can gain through purchasing the real-world comics.
Free cosmetics for each Fortnite/Marvel comic issue:
— Shiina (@ShiinaBR) April 15, 2022
- Outfit (Comic 1)
- Wrap (Comic 2)
- Pickaxe (Comic 3)
- Spray (Comic 4)
- Loading Screen (Comic 5)
You'll receive an additional OUTFIT if you redeem all of the codes!
According to prominent Fortnite leaker ShiinaBR on Twitter, the line of comics will offer players a special cosmetic with purchase of each of the five issues including a skin in issue 1, followed by a wrap, pickaxe, spray, and loading screen in issues 2-5 respectively. An extra skin will also be available, according to the leak, to every player that redeems all five codes.
Everyone's favorite Lovecraftian Santa, Xûr, is now live in Destiny 2 for the weekend until next week's reset. If you're looking to get your some shiny new Exotic armor or weapons for your Guardian, look no further.
Each week, Xûr has a random assortment of Exotic armor, one for each Guardian class, as well as a random Exotic Weapon and an Exotic Engram available for purchase. In addition to his Exotic wares, he's got a random collection of Legendary weapons and armor to deck out your Guardians.
We've rounded up all the info on Xûr for the week including where to find Xûr, which Exotic weapons and armor are available, as well as which Legendary weapons you should pick up, either for PvE or PvP.
Xûr can be found at The Tower on April 15 through April 19. To reach him, travel to the landing point at The Courtyard and make your way to the Hangar. You'll find ol' snake-face chilling near the stairs at the back of the Hangar area.
Publisher XSEED has announced they will be bringing previous Nintendo Switch exclusive No More Heroes 3 to PC, Xbox, and PlayStation 4/5. The announcement doesn’t have an accompanying release date besides “this fall.”
XSEED announced the release in a Tweet, writing:
Our favorite otaku assassin returns! Travis Touchdown has been forced out of retirement to defend not only Santa Destroy, but Earth itself! Bring on the beam katana and take on Travis’ toughest challenge yet in #NoMoreHeroes3, coming this fall to PS4, PS5, Xbox, and PC!
XSEED Games announced plans to publish No More Heroes 3 on next-gen consoles in Fall 2022.
No More Heroes 3 was originally released exclusively on Nintendo Switch, but the action-adventure game will be coming to PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, and PC in North America this fall.
Its arrival on new platforms will also come with some upgrades, including “improved HD visuals, framerates, and faster loading times to keep players dishing out eye-popping ultraviolence” according to an XSEED press release.
XSEED Games, which previously handled PC ports for No More Heroes 1 and 2, announced pre-orders for the new upgrade’s Day 1 Edition on Friday. News about a digital release isn’t quite ready yet, though.
The announcement comes months after Grasshopper Manufacture, the Japanese studio behind the No More Heroes series, became a subsidiary of China’s NetEase Games.
PC, PlayStation, and Xbox versions are due this fall Whether you intentionally held off getting the one and only Nintendo...
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More than a dozen Bethesda titles are now discounted on the Switch eShop through April 28. Most of the catalog consists of Doom titles, although you'll also find Skyrim and a few Wolfenstein entries available at great low prices.
Doom Eternal is getting one of the steepest discounts, with a markdown to just $20. And despite Switch's underpowered hardware compared to its Xbox and PlayStation cousins, the visceral, over-the-top action looks great on the hybrid console. It also runs at a stable 30 frames per second--an impressive feat for such a demanding title.
Friday 'Nite is a weekly Fortnite column in which GameSpot editor Mark Delaney takes a closer look at current events in the wide world of Fortnite, with a special emphasis on the game's plot, characters, and lore.
Like a lot of the world's most popular stories, Fortnite's saga essentially boils down to "good guys" versus "bad guys." For years, we've come to understand that the island's shadowy militia, the Imagined Order (IO), acts as the latter. An aggressive, even ruthless group, the IO has never been shown in a positive light, but if you've read my Friday 'Nite column before, you may already know where I'm going with this: I'm not so sure the IO, or at the very least Doctor Slone, is as bad as they seem to be.
I've written before about how I don't think we can trust The Foundation, and how the Imagined Order may derive its power from its own misplaced sense of entitlement. Those theories play into one I want to share today: Slone isn't the bad guy. She's just misunderstood.
Today the Pokemon Company released another of its “Soratobu Project” trailers created to encourage tourism in Japan.
Like the previous one released a few weeks ago, it features the Okinawa-based band “HY” performing their song “Sorairo” which translates into “Sky Color.”
This time around, the theme of the trailer is Miyakojima, one of the southernmost islands of Japan, located in the middle between Okinawa and Taiwan.
The trailer showcases the island itself and its natural beauty and tourist attractions, on top of the first Pikachu Jet operated by Skymark (another will debut in may) linked to the project, and the dedicated Pokemon-themed features and even buses.
We also learn that a live show featuring HY and Pikachu will be hosted in May in Chatan, one of the towns on the main island of Okinawa.
You can watch the trailer below.
Kojima rebuffs the PlayStation rumors A theory running around got a little traction last night, before being put down by...
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Fanatical is making it easy to score a bunch of great indie games at a low price this weekend with the Build Your Own Easter Bundle event. You'll have the option to pick up ten games for just $5, choosing from a catalog of 20 titles such as N++, Kunai, Kill It With Fire, They Bleed Pixels, and more.
Three tiers are offered for the promotion. 10 games for five bucks is the best deal, but you can also pick up a single game for a dollar or five games for $3. All bundles come with a 5% off coupon for your next purchase and all 20 titles are offered as Steam keys.
Diablo III continues its seasonal updates as we move closer and closer to the launch of Diablo IV, and the latest of these, Season 26, kicks off today at 5 PM PT / 8 PM ET. It sounds like it's going to be pretty spooky, so you best play with light on if you're worried about getting scared. Maybe.
The theme for Season 26 is Echoing Nightmare, which is also the name of a new activity that has you fight through a "densely packed, increasingly challenging event" that shows what happens if you fail in your mission as a Nephalem. Cosmetic rewards are returning items originally featured in Season 14, including portrait frames and a Justice pennant.
Diablo III Season 26The update comes as Blizzard also continues making tweaks and additions to Diablo II: Resurrected, its remake of the classic dungeon-crawler. Patch 2.4 updates each class, acting as the first gameplay update for Diablo II in over a decade.
Full patch notes for Diablo III are below. Alongside the changes across all platforms, the Xbox Series X version now also runs at native 4K, while the Series S version remains at 1080p.
Resident Evil 4 fans can hit the ground running Save Room isn’t affiliated with Capcom, but its creator, Fractal Projects,...
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Season Four of Video Gameography is officially wrapped and in the archives after exploring the history of the entire Bioshock series as it stands today. For the next season, hosts Marcus Stewart and John Carson wanted to do something a little different with the series. If you listened to our Bioshock Infinite episode (which you should! We had former GI editor Bryan Vore on for a great discussion), you already know what's in store for next season. For those who didn't have the chance to listen yet, we'll spill the beans here and now:
As an experiment, Season Five of Video Gameography will cast aside the plan of detailing the span of one video game franchise and instead cover the catalog of one development studio. Introducing Season Five's subject: Supergiant Games
Supergiant Games has been around for well over a decade now and in our eyes, the team hasn't fumbled yet. The core group of developers has been involved with the company since making its first game Bastion and has only grown in talent since then. Because the studio hasn't released any sequels, and the entire catalog is important, it made more sense to see how this studio has grown and evolved over the course of releasing the four titles in its Gameography instead of doing standalone one-episode seasons.
On April 12, top Twitch streamer and content creator Kaitlyn “Amouranth” Siragusa announced her intention to quit OnlyFans this June. She tweeted that she had made a $350,000-$400,000 investment in Twitch, and that she had plans for “moving “influencer” and “creator economy” into what is traditionally the domain and…
Green Man Gaming's Icon Sale is slashing prices on hundreds of games until April 29, including Fallout 76, Assassin's Creed Valhalla, Deathloop, and more. The sale revolves around offering "iconic games at iconic prices," so you'll find a deep catalog filled with some great games.
Today Square Enix released a new trailer of its live-action mystery-adventure game The Centennial Case: A Shijima Story.
The trailer focuses on revealing the main theme song titled “Drifting Fruit,” composed by Yuki Hayashi and performed by Jennifer Sumire.
We also get a list of the cast involved in the game:
You can check out the trailer below.
The Centennial Case: A Shijima Story is coming for PS5, PS4, Nintendo Switch, and PC on May 12, 2022.
If you’re unfamiliar with the game, here’s an official description from Square Enix:
The Star Wars universe is filled with a long, ever-growing list of scoundrels, droids, aliens, and other characters. Many of them have gone on to become fan favorites, famous villains, or iconic heroes. However, for every Darth Vader or Luke Skywalker or Rey, there are a dozen nobodies and obscure weirdos hiding out…
332,000 sold in Europe in March 2022 Switch Europe sales continue to predictably crush it, as 332,000 consoles were sold...
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Diablo 2 Resurrected was built to be a faithful recreation of the original game, but Blizzard is also making some tweaks to the fundamentals for the first time in a decade. The latest patch, version 2.4, makes balance changes to the classic action-RPG.
As detailed in the patch notes, the 2.4 version makes fairly substantial changes across all seven classes. Some, like the Amazon and Druid, got lots of buffs. Others like Assassin and Sorceress received more minor tweaks. The Barbarian, in particular, got double-digit buffs to several of its weapon masteries.
Those balance changes come among several other bug fixes and quality-of-life adjustments. The patch promises better pet AI, performance and settings adjustments, and more options for how you appear online and message friends. This patch also paves the way for the first ladder season to begin later this month. You can find the full patch notes below.
"It's why, unlike Diablo III, I don't foresee myself spending a lot more time with Diablo II: Resurrected," Alessandro Barbosa wrote in GameSpot's Diablo 2 Resurrected review. "That's not to say the adventure was without merit, and it's certainly great to have a way to play one of Blizzard's classics with a coat of paint that does its visual aesthetic justice so many years later. But outside of players already well-versed with the game's aged design choices and imbalance, there's not a lot here outside of a history lesson for new players to enjoy. A lot of the time spent playing Diablo II: Resurrected, I just longed to return to Diablo III."
AMAZON
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Welcome back to IGN Game Scoop!, the ONLY video game podcast! This week your Omega Cops -- Daemon Hatfield, Tina Amini, Sam Claiborn, and Justin Davis -- are discussing Breath of the Wild 2, one game's "devastating" experience with PlayStation Plus, The Witcher, and more. And, of course, they play Video Game 20 Questions.
Watch the video above or hit the link below to your favorite podcast service.
Listen on:
Guerrilla Games is already thinking about the Horizon: Forbidden West sequel.
Speaking to VG247, creative director Mathijs de Jonge said that, just like how Horizon: Zero Dawn set up story beats for Forbidden West, seeds have been planted for the third game too.
"This game ends with another big cliffhanger where we're setting up some things for the next game once again," he said.
De Jonge didn't give much else away but said there are several story elements the otherwise unconfirmed third game can pull from.
"Horizon is really about mystery; each of our stories has been about uncovering mysteries in both the old world and the present day, when the game takes place," he said. "Indeed, there is plenty of backstory that we can tap into to develop new storylines and create new mysteries from what we’ve already established."
The same happened in Forbidden West, as de Jonge explained that the terraform system needing to be repaired was a good starting point for the story to jump off from.
"On top of that, we had storylines from the past, from the Old World, that we wanted to tap into. So we had a lot to work with, as well as knowing how we wanted to evolve Aloy’s story arc, and it all just mixed together from there," he added.
Gimme a Break(er) Halo Infinite Season 2 arrives on May 3, and with it, two new maps for multiplayer. Today, 343...
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It's strange now to think that, until May 2020, there were no Dread X games. Indie publishers DreadXP have become so synonymous with tightly curated, intriguing horror experiences that it's hard to believe the original demo anthology that kickstarted that reputation is only approaching its second anniversary.
Regular RPS readers may already be aware that (a) I'm a huge horror nerd, and (b) I think the games published under the DreadXP banner are something pretty special. I was equal parts grossed out and charmed by the Lovecraftian dating sim Sucker For Love: First Date when I reviewed it back in January, and was pleasantly surprised by my time with the My Friendly Neighborhood demo at the recent Steam Next Fest. So when I was offered the opportunity to interview Ted Hentschke, Head of Productions at DreadXP, as part of a digital event at last month's GDC, you can hardly blame me for jumping at the chance.
Yesterday, CD Projekt Red held a presentation wrapping up the 2021 fiscal year, boasting new sales totals for the Witcher and Cyberpunk 2077 franchises. Included in the slide deck is a full-page summary of what the company is set to work on in 2022, some of which we knew already, but some new information is to be gleaned from it.
“We aren’t actively working on any additional patches at the moment” Ghost of Tsushima support has seemingly come to a...
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Spies and assassins aren’t a new concept when it comes to entertainment, as there are many great shows and movies that explore the fascinating and thrilling life of espionage. However, what if that twist was a Mr. and Mrs. Smith comedy romp where the mission revolved around playing house? That is exactly what you get with the Spy x Family anime.
If that idea has piqued your interest, then check out the three reasons that Spy x Family is this season’s must-watch anime.
It has been some time since we last heard anything about the reboot of Saints Row, but that is all set to change in the coming days. Volition and Deep Silver will be showing off the customization aspects of the game this coming April 20 at the Ultimate Customization Showcase, but that is not all.
Alongside this showcase will be a brand new trailer for the game, interviews with the developers, and more info about Saints Row will be shared.
Here is what fans can expect when the showcase arrives:
Within the showcase itself, longtime fans and newcomers alike will be delighted to see a brand new trailer fully focused on customization across all aspects of player choice in the game, that will get gamers excited about all the incredible ways you can Be Your Own Boss in Saints Row – it will truly show off the breadth and depth of the customization features Volition have packed into the title.
Set in the fictional vibrant city of Santo Ileso, Saints Row is complete reboot of the series and combines all the action, crime and humor you’d expect from a Saints Row game. The extensive customization suite is Volition’s most powerful toolset to date and is best in class; you can modify almost anything in outlandish or aspirational fashion. How your Boss looks as you take over the city’s criminal underbelly is entirely up to you.
Volition has removed the boundaries of gender and restrictions for players – put anything on without limits and rules. Plus, there’s an incredible amount of vehicle options and weapon customization tools. Ultimately, in Saints Row, Player Choice comes first.
Some of you will know that catering is an industry forever teeming with horrible people under great stress, and one that almost requires huge amounts of drugs to tolerate. And that's without even adding customers to the mix.
You might think that simply murdering customers who annoyed you would make it a lot easier, but Bone's Cafe has taught me that if anything, killing and cooking people just causes more problems.
Fun problems, though.
Ahead of the next big expansion for The Elder Scrolls Online, ZeniMax and Bethesda Studios are giving players a deeper look at High Isle, which puts the spotlight firmly on the Bretons. While our recent preview dived into the gameplay elements awaiting players, a new trailer helps set the stage for perhaps the most narrative-driven expansion for Elder Scrolls Online in quite some time.
Despite the idyllic nature of the Systres Archipelago in High Isle, something is amiss in the home of the Breton elite. Beneath the facade of peace, a sinister cabal is working from the shadows to plunge Tamriel into unending conflict. It will be up to the players to put an end to these nefarious plans while enjoying the additional content brought by the expansion.
This includes new companions and allies, more new areas to explore, a new deck-building card game in the form of Tales of Tribute, and continuing the Legacy of the Bretons adventure in The Elder Scrolls Online: High Isle.
Following the unfortunate news that Steelrising is being delayed to September, publisher Nacon and developer Spiders are making up for it a little with the release of a new gameplay trailer for the game. Showing off five minutes of gameplay through several levels of the action RPG, we get a better idea of what to expect from this alternative take on the French Revolution.
Going from the workshop of Vaucanson where the mechanical soldiers of King Louis XVI are made to the central city that is Paris, the trailer focuses more on Aegis, the automaton that players will embody to bring down the ruling tyrant.
Various weapons are shown off, with interesting hybrids like the Gribeauval Halberd providing both melee and ranged options for players. Steelrising will also bring a level of freedom when it comes to exploration, with Aegis able to utilize a grappling hook to get around. There are also some customization options available when it comes to outfits, which makes perfect fashion sense when you consider the setting of the game.
The footage is not indicative of the final product, with missing elements and some technical issues, but it still does a great job of showing off what is to be expected when the game launches on September 8. The combat, in particular, looks much smoother and more engaging than Spiders’ previous title, Greedfall.
Hopefully, we will see more of the game in the coming months. You can catch the gameplay trailer for Steelrising below:
Club Penguin's fan-made recreation has been shut down and seized by police over copyright issues.
Three individuals were arrested following action taken by Disney, who owned the original site and shut it down in 2017, but they have since been released. As reported by TechCrunch, Club Penguin Rewritten was set up later that year but as of April 2022 has ceased to exist.
The website's Discord was emptied except for one message from an admin that said "we have voluntarily given control over the website to the police for them to continue their copyright investigation."
A statement was also published on the Club Penguin Rewritten website from DC Daryl Fryatt of the City of London Police's IP crime unit (PIPCU) that said a complaint was made under copyright law.
It continued: "Three people were arrested on April 12 on suspicion of distributing materials infringing copyright and searches were carried out. They have been released under investigation and to aid with the police investigation, they agreed to sign over the website to the control of PIPCU."
It's not the first Club Penguin fan remake to be shut down but given the over seriousness and involvement of police in this case, but it may be the last.
Halo Infinite’s second season, Lone Wolves, is slated to begin on May 3 and brings a host of new content to the game. 343 Industries released a blog post detailing one of its most exciting additions in the form of two new maps: Catalyst and Breaker.
Catalyst is a sleek, though abandoned, Forerunner base that’s been reclaimed by nature. Expect plenty of foliage to cover its monolithic surfaces, and 343 describes Catalyst as a vertical symmetrical arena featuring suspended catwalks and a light bridge connecting the map’s two halves.
Breaker is a Banished shipyard laden with debris situated on a dusty desert planet. Its centerpiece element is a giant plasma cutting beam moving across the map that players can battle around at their own peril or benefit. 343 describes Breaker as a “pseudo symmetric BTB” map. Catalyst and Breaker will support all of the existing multiplayer modes as well as the new ones coming next season. You can watch a video fly-by of both arenas in the video below.
Kingdom Hearts 4's first world will seemingly be the realistic looking Quadratum from the reveal trailer.
In an interview with Famitsu, translated by Video Games Chronicle, director Tetsuya Nomura said the room in which protagonist Sora awakes will be "the base for the early part of the game."
Quadratum, the Tokyo-looking world shown in the trailer, isn't actually the real world though. It's "similar to an afterworld", Nomura said, but features real world locations like Shibuya, and to Sora it's an underworld.
It's very much real to the residents of Quadratum, though, and according to Kingdom Hearts 3 (where it was introduced) it's not a world of light or dark but instead a world of fiction that exists "on the other side".
These different perspectives are all intentional according to Nomura, who said: "I think the theme of this project will be the contrast between those who are in such different positions."
Sora's realistic look is also a result of this real-looking but not real world, Nomura said, and he'll return to his more cartoony origins later in the game.
343 Industries has not only shared more details on Catalyst and Breaker - Halo Infinite's newest maps arriving in Season 2 "Lone Wolves" - but it has also provided fans with a video flythrough of each one.
The info and flythrough were both shared on Halo Waypoint, and the map previews you can see below show more about "the ancient and weathered ruins of Catalyst and the expansive, sand-blasted scrapyard site of Breaker."
Halo Infinite's multiplayer level designer Tyler Ensrude also stopped by to talk about the process of creating these new maps and tease some of what Spartans can expect when Catalyst and Breaker launch alongside Season 2 "Lone Wolves" on May 3, 2022.
To begin, Ensrude revealed a bit about how the team builds a foundation for a map and begins turning an idea into reality.
"We like to start with an idea that just gets us excited first and go from there," Ensrude said. "That idea could range from a location in the Halo universe, to an art palette, game mode, or encounter. Every time we start something new though, it is important to consider what will make it stand out from the current selection of maps we already have.
"The context of experiences that players have already had in the game is definitely something we keep in mind when we look to deliver something exciting and new, and that extends across all of those factors—aesthetics, layout and design, and gameplay."
Since Elden Ring’s release, there’s been no shortage of critical praise for its intricately crafted yet expansive open world, its complex combat, and the level of detail found in every corner. But Elden Ring isn't just a superb video game in the many obvious ways to analyze it. It's also an entire social media platform unto itself.
FromSoftware has been including a messaging system akin to a social media platform within its games for years now, as anyone who's been Soulsing since the dawn of Demon’s Souls can tell you. Every game since has included the option for players connected online to leave messages on the ground anywhere in the world. Players can't just write anything they want, though. They compose messages out of pre-existing templates and word sets that are (mostly) related to gameplay, with the option to add a conjunction between two sets of phrases, or a "gesture" - basically a character emote - again out of a preexisting set. Once a message is posted, it will show up in the games of other online players, and they can opt to interact with it by rating it Good or Bad. Rating it either way gives the player who composed it a little in-game health boost, and visibly adds to the message's rating count - though the count doesn't reveal whether ratings given were good or bad.
It’s at Akihabara Station Yesterday I talked at length about how it was good to see Vanillaware back in action,...
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Today 343 Industries released a new video showcasing two new maps that will be added to Halo Infinite with season 2.
The two maps are named “Catalyst” and “Breaker” and fans will be able to enjoy them starting on May 3, when season 2 will be released with the title “Lone Wolves.”
You can check both maps out below.
Halo Infinite is currently available for PC, Xbox Series X|S, and Xbox One. You can read our review.
The game already achieved 20 million players according to an official announcement made a few months ago.
If you’re unfamiliar with the game, you can check out an official description below.
