THQ Nordic has opened a new studio in Spain that will develop a remake of Gothic as its first title. The studio is called Alkimia Interactive, and it's based in Barcelona, Spain.

The studio will focus on "high-quality RPGs," THQ Nordic said in its announcement. Work is already "well underway" on the Gothic remake, and THQ said fans can expect more news soon.

The Gothic remake is coming to PS5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC. THQ released a playable teaser of the game back in 2019, and the publisher later announced it planned to develop it as a full game. According to THQ, it won't be a simple remake but instead a "re-imagining [of] the whole thing."

More than 180,000 people tried the Gothic playable teaser, and THQ had said part of its plan was to establish a studio in Barcelona to see it through, which is now happening.

"We are up for the challenge to develop a full Gothic Remake which will stay as faithfully as possible to the original experience and transport the atmospheric world of Gothic into a high quality look and carefully modernizing certain gameplay mechanics," THQ Nordic's Reinhard Pollice said.

Lince Works’ stealth sequel Aragami 2 isn’t going to make its 2021 Q1 launch window, which perhaps isn’t surprising given that it’s March and we haven’t heard anything about the game since August of last year.

In a Twitter message to its fans earlier this week, the developer cited more time required for “bug fixing and polishing, especially in its version for new generation consoles” as the reason for the delay.

Aragami 2 is now scheduled for a Q3 2021 launch, which means it’s likely to release somewhere in the fall window. Presumably, the intent will be to avoid the busy holiday season when it will be competing with other major game titles.

An important update regarding Aragami 2. pic.twitter.com/yfEBY9tyWV

— Aragami 2 (@LinceWorks) March 9, 2021

If you haven’t yet seen the gameplay reveal of Aragami 2 from August of last year then feel free to check it out here.

Twinfinite reviewed the original Aragami and thoroughly enjoyed it, scoring the game 4.5/5 and concluding:

“With so many stealth games shrugging off the concept when things heat up, it’s nice to come across a game that rewards cunning sneaking whilst punishing the reckless mistakes you make. This one is a definite must for true fans of the genre.”

I've been working in community development for games for eight years, so I figured I'd break down my philosophy for how to run a Discord for all the enterprising indie devs out there! ...

It’s a tale as old as time: You’ve watched every episode of Black Clover, and you feel like you can recollect its biggest moments down to the smallest detail. The only problem is, you don’t have any way to prove your vast amount of knowledge, save for gaining some renown in discussion forums when someone is trying to remember a specific piece of information.

Fortunately for you, we’ve devised a test for your knowledge: A devilishly hard Black Clover Trivia quiz, complete with questions to test your knowledge of every part of the anime from its opening episode to its final arc. It’s sure to push your skills to the limit, and force you to delve into the depths of what you know about the series.

Think you’ve got what it takes to ace it? Then continue on to the questions below.

Ken ga Kimi will receive a Nintendo Switch port, which will come bundled with content from the PlayStation Vita version of the game.

The post Ken ga Kimi Will Release on the Switch in June appeared first on Siliconera.

Devolver Digital and Four Quarters have quite the roguelike strategy hit on their hands with Loop Hero, a game that's hard to fully "get" until you've looked at the clock and realized you just lost several hours in an instant. Plenty – and I mean plenty – of curious players have come to that realization this week.

Loop Hero has passed 500,000 sales in its first week on Steam, and players are averaging 12 hours.

What is this game? It's a distillation of moody old RPGs, card-drawing deck builders, idle games, and gambling. Okay, that last one isn't technically true – but I sure feel like I'm pushing my luck whenever I play. I never know when to retreat with my pile of resources before it's too late and I'm screwed.

Litter the map with structures from randomly-drawn cards to help and hinder your hero, passively watch them battle it out with fantasy foes, actively equip incrementally better gear drops that fit your class, and keep them alive until they can face the big boss – that's the idea, anyway. Loop Hero is tough.

It's one of those games with an old-school mystique about it where you've got to test things out for yourself to discover synergies or even whole game mechanics, or you've gotta consult the wiki.

I've yet to clear the second stage – I was so close with an absurdly fast-hitting Rogue once – but maybe I'll have my breakthrough soon. I also want to get better with the Necromancer because skeletons rule.

Initially released just before the arrival of the new wave of consoles, Crash Bandicoot 4 is set to arrive imminently on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series machines - but Activision has thrown us a curveball with the simultaneous release of a port for Nintendo Switch. The arrival of this release is a good thing - Crash 4 is a worthy successor to the original trilogy that feels true to its roots, while offering some new ideas along the way. It's far from perfect, but it's a solid platformer that shines on its new host consoles.

You'll note that we're limited to just PlayStation 5 and Nintendo Switch for this piece - Series support is on the table, but it's not easy for publishers to distribute Smart Delivery code to journalists when the title is already available publicly, something we hope to see addressed soon. Still, PS5 and Switch make for an interesting combination in that we're seeing Crash Bandicoot 4 viewed through the lens of systems with a huge variation in horsepower - though both are powered with Unreal Engine 4.

To appreciate the upgrades and changes in this new version of Crash 4, let's quickly recap the Xbox One and PS4 results. Users of the enhanced Pro and One X renditions had the best experience with a frame-rate that mostly hit 60fps, though both were limited to the same 1080p as the vanilla PS4, while Xbox One S delivered the game at 900p. The base version looks fine but runs with an unstable, uncapped frame-rate.

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Microsoft's new Halo Pringles that taste like the extinct Moa bird are now on store shelves, and they've attracted the attention of one late-night TV host in particular.

Stephen Colbert's late-night show dedicated some time to the Moa Pringles this week, with Colbert asking his audience, "If you've ever been blasting away at creatures in Halo and thought, 'I wish I could eat them.' Great news. Pringles and Microsoft--yes, you heard that right--have announced a new Halo potato chip that tastes like a space ostrich."

Colbert goes on to joke that he hopes the Halo/Pringles collaboration goes over better than the Yoshi-flavored burgers at White Castle, which are not a real thing. You can check out the segment for yourself at around 3 minutes into the video below.

Warframe's under-utilized Zephyr model is getting a major upgrade in Update 29.10.0, one which aims to make the frame a more appealing alternative to players looking for a crowd- control suit that also boasts a high level of mobility. As revealed by Digital Extremes senior designer Pablo Alonso, all abilities except for Turbulence have been completely revamped.

At max rank, Tail Wind will do up to ten times the damage when used during a dive bomb attack and now also includes a hovering function when the ability key is held down. Airburst has also been reworked and will now draw enemies in and leave them lined up for a follow-up attack that has the potential to do big damage if the right gear is equipped.

Lastly, Tornado attacks will no longer need Air Bursts to be powered up and will start fully-formed in one of two modes that can be toggled between. Stationary and roaming modes for Tornado will be active depending on which one you choose and will pull enemies in instead of hurling them around the battlefield if they get too close. If players also want a new look for the Zephyr, they'll be able to apply a new Aviator-style skin as well.

Sumo Group has launched a new publishing division called Secret Mode to help bring smaller projects to market. ...

Prominent game developer Gordon Hall--who founded the studio that would become Rockstar Leeds and would go on to work on Red Dead Redemption, L.A. Noire, and other major games--has died. He was 51.

GI.biz reported Hall's passing after news broke from members of the Yorkshire game development community, which is where Hall spent a lot of time.

Hall founded Mobius Entertainment in 1997, which worked on numerous Game Boy and Game Boy Advance titles, including Max Payne. Take-Two Interactive acquired Mobius and re-named it Rockstar Leeds. At the studio, Hall worked on GTA: Liberty City Stories and GTA: Chinatown Wars, successfully bringing the GTA franchise to Nintendo's handheld console for the first time.

Hall later moved on to Rockstar San Diego to help with Red Dead Redemption. He took a sabbatical from 2011-2013 and then joined Activision Blizzard's Mobile division as its chief creative officer.

Hall was a founding member of Activision Mobile and a studio called The Blast Furnace, which was dedicated to creating mobile games based on Activision's franchises.

A cause of death was not announced. Hall is survived by his son, James.

Tech firm Irdeto has partnered with PlayStation in order to offer Denuvo's anti-cheating technology to any developer creating titles for the latter's newest gaming platform, PS5.

"Cheating ruins video games for honest players," said Denuvo MD Reinhard Blaukovitsch in a statement. "This can lead to lower engagement, game traffic and shrinking revenues for game publishers. We are really proud to be able to help the world's most talented developers to bring rich experiences for gamers on PlayStation 5."

As part of the Tools and Middleware program, developers will be able to license Denuvo's patented Anti-Cheat tech for use within their titles to "secure online gameplay and securely reward offline progress." Understandably, the news has been treated with concern from some PS5 owners, as Denuvo's controversial "Anti-Tamper" PC software has come under fire from players and developers in the past, accusing the piracy-prevention tech of hampering performance and draining CPU resources.

It should be noted that, for now at least, Denuvo is specifically offering its Anti-Cheat tech to PS5 developers, not its Anti-Tamper tech. Denuvo claims that some PS5 games are already utilizing Anti-Cheat, (though it negates to divulge which games), so hopefully we won't see a repeat of the furor that hit Doom Eternal back in 2020. Regardless, for some video game fans, the mere term "Denuvo" is linked with negativity, so this news will understandably be treated with trepidation, regardless of its ultimate outcome.

HTC has released a new Vive Facial Tracker - and it looks pretty cool.

It tracks 38 facial movements across the lips, jaw, teeth, tongue, chin and cheeks to create a real-time depiction of facial expressions in virtual reality.

HTC said it covers almost the entirety of the lower facial area in VR, using dual cameras and a 60Hz tracking rate with a sub-10ms response time and an IR illuminator that should help with dark conditions.

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It is the end of the road for Microsoft's Xbox TV ambitions, as The Verge has confirmed that Microsoft will shut down the live TV listings for OneGuide on Xbox One.

This "sunsetting" of the service will happen in May. Although TV listings will be removed in May, users can still use the HDMI passthrough feature to view live TV.

"Based on customer usage and feedback, we're constantly evolving the Xbox experience," Microsoft's Jonathan Hildebrandt said. "To that end, beginning this May we'll be sunsetting live TV listings for OneGuide on Xbox One."

As The Verge reminds us, the idea for OneGuide was seemingly a good one--it would provide an overlay that went around your cable box to let you more easily access TV content on your Xbox.

This was back when Microsoft envisioned the Xbox One as an "all-in-one games and entertainment system." In fact, the name Xbox One was derived from Microsoft's ambition to create a console that could be the one you needed under your TV. For a variety of reasons and due to many factors, this did not exactly come to be.

Hitman 3 (Xbox) | $30 | Eneba | Use code HITMONPLS
Hitman 3 Deluxe Edition (Xbox) | $46 | Eneba | Use code HITMONPLS

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Borderlands 3 players waiting for that next – and surely not final – reason to revisit the game will have to wait a few more weeks. Gearbox has delayed the Director's Cut DLC to April 8, 2021.

Hey Vault Hunters, we have an important update for you. pic.twitter.com/Vqn1VSrDGK

— Borderlands 3 (@Borderlands) March 11, 2021

In a statement on Twitter, the studio cited "challenges arising from the severe weather that impacted Texas" in February as the main force behind the delay. "Thankfully, all of our team members and their families are safe and healthy, but our work on Director's Cut was unavoidably disrupted and we've ultimately decided to shift the release date to ensure we deliver the best possible experience."

As a quick recap, the Director's Cut DLC is the second half of Season Pass 2 and it's focused primarily on Hemovorous the Invincible, a Varkid raid boss, and a series of "murder mystery" missions with Ava.

The add-on also adds Vault Cards to keep the progression/reward grind alive for the rest of 2021.

The CEO of Roblox believes the future is bright for the company, following a very successful first day on the stock market where its value reached $45 billion--higher than EA and Take-Two.

David Baszucki told The Wall Street Journal that growth for Roblox is expected to be slower in 2021 compared to 2020 with the world coming out of the pandemic and engagement numbers in video games falling back down to Earth. But on a longer timeline, the executive said Roblox is taking steps to expand the appeal of Roblox beyond GenZ and in more markets around the world.

"We're in this for the long haul," Baszucki said. "The engines that have been powering Roblox's growth up to the pandemic, we see those continuing well into the future."

Roblox makes money by selling currency called Robux, while the game overall is more akin to a platform. Users can create their own games within Roblox and then sell their creations.

Roblox developers made $329 million collectively in 2020, and more than 300 people made more than $100,000 during the year. The team at Roblox is now trying to improve the core technology behind the game to allow people to create more sophisticated games. The hope is that this will in turn attract older players--right now, more than half of its players are under the age of 13.

Roblox brings in a lot of revenue, as the company made $923.9 million in 2020 (+82%), with active daily users climbing to an astonishing 32.6 million. However, Roblox Corp. does not make any money. The company posted a loss of $253.3 million in 2020, which was significantly worse than its loss of $71 million the year before.

Immortals: Fenyx Rising (PS4) | $30 | Amazon
Immortals: Fenyx Rising (PS5) | $25 | Amazon
Immortals: Fenyx Rising (Xbox ) | $25 | Amazon

Those who access the mobile game early will be able to obtain Diaochan in her Dynasty Warriors 3 attire.

The post Koei Tecmo’s Own Dynasty Warriors Mobile Game Launched in Japan appeared first on Siliconera.

There are short- and long-term implications with Microsoft's acquisition of ZeniMax Media and all of its studios, and we're already starting to see them play out. Unsurprisingly, Xbox Game Pass is getting a lot of Bethesda titles this week – 20 games, almost all of which will be playable on Xbox and PC.

Here's the list of Bethesda games that you can play with Xbox Game Pass on March 12, 2021:

Gordon Hall, one of the founders of Rockstar Leeds, has died, Games Industry reports. He was 51.

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EA Sports is working on a new college football game, but don't expect it to be released anytime soon. New documents that have been unearthed suggest that the next-gen game might not release until July 2023.

Reporter Matt Brown obtained records from the Collegiate Licensing Company (CLC) through an Open Records request that state EA Sports plans to launch the game in July 2023.

The documentation that Brown obtained also includes numerous other details about the proposal to make new college football games. You can subscribe to read it.

EA announced its new college football game--which will be called EA Sports College Football--back in February. At the time, the company said development on the title was only just getting started, so it is no surprise that it likely won't release for another two-plus years.

While self-driving cars exist within the lore of CD Projekt Red's Cyberpunk 2077, they're functionally absent from the player's experience. Elon Musk tweeted his criticism of the game's vehicles, responding to an older tweet about the delayed Patch 1.2, adding that the game's vehicles should also be electric by 2077.

While the game's Delamain AI cabs are supposed to be self-driving, catching a ride in the game results in V having to take the wheel as soon as they get inside. Considering how many issues the game's vehicle and traffic systems have, with bad parking jobs causing endless traffic jams and vehicles spinning off down the road at the lightest touch, it's probably for the best that the AI can't control a vehicle while V is inside.

VTubers, and their music, have made their official debut in D4DJ Groovy Mix.

The post D4DJ Groovy Mix Adds Hololive Song Hyakkaryouran Hanafubuki appeared first on Siliconera.

The time has come!

Like other Activision remasters/remakes, Crash 4 has inevitably hit the Switch. Today!

Also on Switch, Stubbs the Zombie is being resurrected, and is out on March 16. Then there's Cyanide & Happiness - Freakpocalpyse. And a bunch of other stuff!

Oh, and Apex Legends just arrived on Switch yesterday. There's a lot of old/semi-new stuff to explore on the eShop this week.

The cheerful fighter is still present with her improvised martial arts still intact as well.

The post KOF XV Yuri Sakazaki Is Still As Cheerful As Ever In Her Trailer appeared first on Siliconera.

Dig out your Sherlock Holmes hat and prepare to re-open your detective agency, because there's foul play afoot in the world of The Outer Worlds. Eridanos' most treasured celebrity, Halcyon Helen, lies dead in her office, right before her endorsement of new brand Spectrum Brown Vodka. But whodunnit? And why? WHY?

These will be among the questions you and your crew will have to answer in The Outer Worlds' newest DLC expansion "Murder on Eridanos." Armed with only your wits, the sleuthing Discrepancy Amplifier, and, oh yeah, a shit load of laser guns, it will be up to you to journey through the floating islands of Eridanos and get to the bottom of Halcyon Helen's untimely end. Just be sure that someone doesn't end up getting sent to investigate your untimely end.

The Outer Worlds: Murder on Eridanos will launch on PS4, PC, and Xbox One March 17. A date was not announced for the Switch release, but given the delayed arrival of previous DLC Peril on Gorgon, no doubt it will make its way to the Nintendo platform in good time.

Roblox went public yesterday - and ended up with an eye-watering $38bn market cap.

The free-to-download virtual gaming world, which is available on PC, Xbox and mobile, made its market debut on the New York Stock Exchange on Wednesday and its share price quickly soared.

According to CNBC, the company's stock closed at $69.50, giving Roblox a market cap of $38.26bn.

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Get to know the devout and studious Satius in the latest Maglam Lord character trailer.

The post Maglam Lord Character Trailer Focuses on the Studious Satius appeared first on Siliconera.

But, it's not even the "summer of streams" yet!

Alas, every publisher and their brother is getting a stream, and now Square Enix is ready to announce their next project: Square Enix Presents. It's a new Nintendo Direct-like video program, and it's described as a "series of shows," so we're getting more than just the upcoming March 18 debut, folks.

It's crazy how diverse Square Enix's catalog is at this point, but updates for Life is Strange, Outriders, Just Cause mobile, Marvel's Avengers, Balan Wonderworld are announced, as far as specific titles go. In the broader picture, they'll "celebrate" the 25th anniversary of Tomb Raider somehow, and show us "new mobile game announcements," as well as what TAITO (Bubble Bobble) has been working on.

The exact time for the first Square Enix Presents stream is 1PM ET on March 18, and it will last "approximately 40 minutes." You can find a full list of everything the publisher intends to showcase below.

Earlier this year, Game Freak announced Pokémon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl. These remakes use a chibi-3D art style, but still kept the top-down point of view while exploring the Sinnoh region.

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Ryoma Hino is accompanied by Shingo Aoi, Mark Owairan, and a free update that lets the New Hero join Nankatsu.

The post Ryoma Hino Has Joined Captain Tsubasa: Rise of New Champions appeared first on Siliconera.

So the new Nintendo dream island is finally open for business in Animal Crossing: New Horizons, and it's fairly easy to access.

While it's nothing to write home about within the confines of the game, it does get you a quick and easy Mario mission completion. Here's a quick runthrough.