Microsoft is releasing a new Xbox this year with the Xbox Series X, and while the graphics will indeed look better than current-gen games, the jump in visuals might not be as pronounced as before in the last console transition. Xbox boss Phil Spencer spoke about this during a Gamelab interview.

While the increase in visuals might not be as immediately identifiable with Xbox Series X compared to Xbox One, Spencer said next-generation games will feel more "immersive" thanks to the power of the Series X.

"I think we're at a point now--with immersion, with the tools we have and the compute capability--that the deltas will be smaller from a visual impact, or that feature X was never possible before and now it is," Spencer said, as reported by GI.biz. "And that might sound depressing to some, but what I would say is the advantage side of what I'm seeing now is really the immersive nature of the content that's getting created."

The Last Of Us Part II is a big sales success. Sony has announced that the PlayStation 4-exclusive sold more than 4 million copies during its first three days, surpassing the original game's sales during the same period.

Sony shared the sales number with GameSpot sister site CNET. The Last of Us Part II is now among the fastest-selling first-party PS4 games ever, surpassing the initial sales periods for God of War and Spider-Man. God of War, for example, sold 3.1 million copies in its first three days, while Spider-Man narrowly beat it with 3.3 million copies sold in its first three days.

Additionally, The Last of Us Part II's 4 million copies sold in its first three days beats the 2.7 million first-week sales of Naughty Dog's Uncharted 4: A Thief's End in 2016.

A new video starring Samurai Jack voice actor Phil LaMarr gives us a few behind the scenes looks at the VO for Battle Through Time.

The post Samurai Jack Voice Actor Phil LaMarr Talks About Battle Through Time’s Connection to the Series appeared first on Siliconera.

Today Star Citizen developer Cloud Imperium Games released a brand new video of its growing space simulator.

Speaking of growing, the video focuses on the changes and features coming with the imminent Alpha 3.10 patch which should come in early July. 

We get to take an extensive look at the new atmospheric flight mechanics and ship-to-ship combat, followed by the changes made to turrets and targeting.

After that, we get an overview of the rest of the features included in the update, and there’s quite a lot to see. We even get a tease of something that hasn’t been officially announced just yet.

You can check it out below. If you’d like to see more, you can also enjoy last week’s video.

In other Star Citizen news, the crowdfunding total has passed $302 million.

To be more precise, it’s over halfway to $303 million and it’s sitting on $302,747,553 at the moment of this writing. 

The number of registered accounts is now over 2.7 million (currently 2,723,859).

Today Bandai Namco Entertainment released a brand new trailer of One Piece: Pirate Warriors 4.

This trailer showcases the first DLC character coming as part of the first character pass in action. It’s Charlotte Smoothie, who will come alongside Charlotte Cracker and Vinsmoke Judge.

Not only we get to see her overwhelming attacks in action, but also her ability to become massive.

On top of that, the trailer also reveals that two more character passes will be coming following the one releasing in the summer. The second has a fall 2020 release window, while the third doesn’t have one just yet.

You can check the trailer out below.

In case you are unfamiliar with One Piece: Pirate Warriors 4, here’s how the publisher describes the game.

Today Nihon Falcom released a new and extensive trailer of its upcoming JRPG The Legend of Heroes: Hajimari no Kiseki, which is the newest game of the Trails series.

If you know the series, you probably are familiar with the fact that its trailers are fairly epic, and this is definitely no exception.

In particular, this trailer provides an extensive look at the three paths that we’ll be able to follow to progress with the story. Two of them focus on familiar characters, while the third appears to focus mostly on new ones.

You can check it out below, keeping in mind that you haven’t played Trails of Cold Steel IV, some of the scenes showcased may be considered spoilers. 

The Legend of Heroes: Hajimari no Kiseki will be released in Japan, Korea, and Asia for PS4 on August 27. Just yesterday we learned that it’ll include PlayStation VR support with a post-launch update.

Giulia Carli is a concept artist and character designer from Italy.

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"Concerning recent allegations raised against certain Ubisoft team members: We want to start by apologizing to everyone affected by this – we are truly sorry. We are dedicated to creating an inclusive and safe environment for our teams, players, and communities. It is clear we have fallen short of this in the past. We must do better." "We have started by launching investigations into the allegations with the support of specialized external consultants. Based on the outcomes, we are fully committed to taking any and all appropriate disciplinary action. As these investigations are ongoing, we can't comment further. We are also auditing our existing policies, processes, and systems to understand where these have broken down, and to ensure we can better prevent, detect, and punish inappropriate behavior." "We will be sharing additional measures that we are putting in place with our teams in the coming days.

Today’s selection of articles from Kotaku’s reader-run community: CoolMath Retrospective: 2048 • Backlog Files: Darkness II • Kaiju Crush Dev Diary: The Final Push, Day 5 • TAY Retro: Nintendo Game Boy - Qix [TV Commercial, NA]

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Yu-Gi-Oh season one is coming to Netflix on July 8, 2020. If you grew up playing the card game and watching the show, get hype!

The post Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters Season One Brings the Heart of the Cards to Netflix on July appeared first on Siliconera.

A few years ago we featured the work of Egyptian graphic designer Ibrahim Hamdi, who took a bunch of big game logos and translated them into Arabic. He’s now back with more, and these are even better.

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Ubisoft has released a general statement covering an outpouring of accusations against multiple current and past employees, saying that it has partnered with an external consultant to address allegations of abuse, assault, and racism. ...

One of Microsoft's biggest exclusives of 2020, Ori and the Will of the Wisps, has reached a new milestone. The game's Twitter account announced that the Xbox One and PC game has reached "2 million spirits," which seems to be how many people have tried the game so far.

This isn't a direct sales figure, however, as Will of the Wisps is available on Xbox Game Pass for Xbox One and PC like all of Microsoft's games are. Sales figures going forward for Microsoft's games may be harder to pin down specifically and compare to previous titles due to the rise of Xbox Game Pass.

Of the 2 million people who have played Will of the Wisps, around 423,000 people beat the game, Moon Studios announced. That works out to a completion rate of around 21 percent. Only 45,000 people completed the game on the Hard difficulty.

The first "deep dive" gameplay livestream for Madden NFL 21 is coming very soon. EA Sports will show off the next-generation football game and detail some of its new features during a broadcast that is set to start at 8 PM ET on June 25, which is coming up in the next hour.

The event will be broadcast on Twitch, and you can watch it below.

Tomoyo After, a sequel spin-off of CLANNAD, is being ported to Nintendo Switch this September with English support.

The post CLANNAD Spin-off Tomoyo After Switch Port Is on the Way appeared first on Siliconera.

Keep those sweet Space Force vibes going

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The NBA’s decision to resume inside a “bubble” in Orlando means that the season is now officially over for some of the league’s worst teams, who weren’t invited to take part. That includes the Atlanta Hawks, bringing a bizarre end to the career of veteran star Vince Carter, who was the last active player to have…

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The fog around next-gen hardware is lifting, and gamers are finally starting to get a clearer look at what to expect from Sony and Microsoft’s new consoles. Recent presentations for the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X provided a sneak peek at the games that will shape the industry in the coming years, along with some of the technology that makes them possible. But even as more information is released, the answer to one key question remains vague: What defines a “next-gen” game?

This isn’t about the physical hardware you use to play them. People want to know about the new horizons being opened up; they want to know about the things that are not possible today, but will be possible soon. We’ve heard about ray tracing, solid-state drives, triangles, reduced load times, and more – but how do those translate to gameplay? How do they change how you interact with worlds and characters? How do they help create more than bigger, faster, prettier versions of familiar templates?

Following recent allegations against now-former Assassin's Creed Valhalla creative director Ashraf Ismail, Ubisoft has issued a public statement on the matter.

"We have started by launching investigations into the allegations with the support of specialized external consultants," the studio said. "Based on the outcomes, we are fully committed to taking any and all appropriate disciplinary action. As these investigations are ongoing, we can't comment further. We are also auditing our existing policies, processes, and systems to understand where these have broken down, and to ensure we can better prevent, detect, and punish inappropriate behavior."

Though the studio didn't go into further detail, Ubisoft said it will be sharing "additional measures" that will be put in place company-wide in the coming days.

Puzzle Bobble VR was announced for Oculus Quest, and Taito also released an update on new content for Bubble Bobble 4 Friends.

The post Puzzle Bobble VR Will Let You Shoot Down Bubbles In First-Person appeared first on Siliconera.

It’s been long enough since Biomutant was in the conversation that I’d assumed it had come out without fanfare, or else been quietly canned. But after confirming that yes, Biomutant is still very much in active development, developers Experiment 101 put more weight to that claim with a lengthy new trailer for the open-world mutate ’em up earlier today. It’s a big’un, too, a whopping great showcase everything the devs have tried to pack into RPG during its long hibernation.

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• 00:00:00 Welcome!
• 00:00:56 A message from Peer
• 00:04:00 Min Min joins Smash!
• 00:15:50 Nintendo is reportedly stepping away from mobile games
• 00:30:00 Pokemon Unite's surprising reveal
• 00:36:08 More news!
• 00:39:00 Games out this week
• 00:48:45 What we're playing
• 00:59:35 Question Block!

• Spongebob Squarepants: Battle for Bikini Bottom - Rehydrated
• Ninjala
• Blair Witch
• Star Wars Episode I: Racer
• Brigandine: The Legend of Runersia
• Ruiner

• Casey: Pokemon Cafe Mix
• Peer: Summer in Mara, Story of Seasons: Friends of Mineral Town
• Brian: Jump Rope Challenge, Goblin Sword
• Tom: Pokemon Cafe Mix

NVC is available on your preferred platform!

Today on Highlight Reel we have a boatload of The Last Of Us Part II clips, Red Dead physics, screaming Halo grunts, and much more!

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This afternoon, Blizzard dropped a healthy amount of new Diablo 4 information for fans to read up on. The usually secretive company admitted that normally they would be a bit hesitant to share such information on a game that’s not even in Alpha or Beta yet, but the lack of a Blizzcon this year motivated them to a bit more liberal about sharing their progress.

The post is quite large, and I recommend that hardcore players definitely check out the whole thing at some point, but if you want a TLDR, we’ll happily go over the highlights below.

The team recently completed a playtest of Diablo 4. While they play the game all the time, in this playtest they had the team play everything they had, and they all reported back with different perspectives on how their playtest went, with an eye towards how the game feels during longer play sessions.

Find every Artifact, Coin, Journal Entry, Trading Card, Safes, and Workbench in The Seraphites

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In my first match of Ninjala, Gung-Ho Online Entertainment’s free-to-play brawler for the Switch, my baby Hatsune Miku-looking character smacked around my kid-sized competition with a giant bat made of bubble gum, beat up random robots, was transformed into a pile of poop, and then exploded. I am not exactly sure what…

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Purchases on Steam land its users points that can be exchanged for chat emoticons, profile page backgrounds, and other digital knick-knacks. ...

Beloved fighting-and-fashion JRPG, The World Ends With You, will be getting the anime treatment according to publisher Square-Enix.

The World Ends With You originally released on Nintendo's DS handheld back in 2007 (later coming to Switch), and was widely praised for its breathless sense of innovation - its dazzling, dizzying split-screen real-time combat system is still peerless over a decade on - but its probably best remembered for its wonderful sense of style, eschewing the usual RPG fantasy tropes in favour of thoroughly modern trappings.

The entire game, whose tightly crafted plot is pretty tough to discuss without some serious spoilers, unfolds across Tokyo's fashionable Shibuya district, heavily incorporating various aspects of Japanese youth culture, fashion, and consumerism into its core systems. It has a supremely likeable cast of characters, and the whole experience is bolstered by a striking visual style and stunning soundtrack, ranging from rock to hip hop to electronica.

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Tough times for Charles and crew

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Super Mario Maker 2 levels are a labor of love. Spending minutes, hours, or even days trying to work on something that may never even get a lot of plays. Well-crafted Super Worlds though are on a whole other level as they can rival the length of full-on Mario games from Nintendo! Let’s look at five of the best Super Mario Maker 2 Worlds that are definitely worth giving a look.

For the record, we’re going to be focusing on traditional style Super Mario Maker 2 Super Worlds that offer an experience similar to a Mario game you might get from Nintendo. I’m not a puzzle lover, or extreme difficulty guy personally, so if you are, this list might not be for you.

Best Super Mario Maker 2 Worlds

Super SharkyGW World – Maker ID: HML-MF9-CPG

Let’s start this list of the best Super Mario Maker 2 worlds off with one of my favorite themes, Super Mario World. I can’t get enough of the Super Nintendo classic and SharkyGW has put together a full-length game that mixes together many of the tools at your disposal when creating levels.

Episode 1 of the Ninjala 2D cartoon anime tells us more about Van and his shinobi bloodline.

The post The Ninjala Cartoon Anime Episode 1 Tells Us About Van’s Shinobi Bloodline appeared first on Siliconera.

The Steam Summer Sale is now live. You can explore the depths of the online store to find the best deals or you can just read our list on the best deals that are cheaper than a cup of coffee.

Steam Summer Sale Deals

Sonic Generations

Sonic Generations is one of the most beloved Sonic games of all time and that’s because the entire game was split into modern and classic stages, giving old-school fans what they wanted while also catering to the modern Sonic lovers. You can grab this one for just $1 on Steam. That’s too good of a deal to pass up.

Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain

Hideo Kojima’s last Metal Gear Solid game was such a delightful parting gift. The stealth combat here is perfected in a way that’s unlike any other game in the long-running franchise. You can grab The Phantom Pain for only $5.99 right now during the Steam Summer Sale.

Yakuza 0

Yakuza 0 brings players back into this fictionalized version of Japan for a prequel that explores the backstories of Kiryu and Majima. You can get this one for $4.99 right now.

Getting dragged to the gulag after an intense gunfight in Call of Duty: Warzone is both demoralizing and invigorating. You just lost all your loot, but you've been given a second chance to get back to the action. It turns out that some players want to recreate that feeling in other games, too.

Redditor u/leonejedi built his own version of the gulag in his Minecraft survival server. He set it as his spawn point, so whenever he's killed by a mob, he'd get sent to the grimy prison basement just like he would in Warzone.

Remember Biomutant? We've been waiting for some word on the curious open-world, martial-arts mutant mayhem. Recode your DNA as you brawl, combine weaponry, and gear up with both melee and ranged options.

We haven't seen much from Biomutant in a while, but today THQ Nordic has unleashed a new trailer. Sure, new trailers hit all the time, right?

But today's trailer is 9 minutes long and features mechs, bosses, weapons, all kinds of wild stuff. You can watch it below! Biomutant is slated to arrive on PS4, Xbox One, and PC.

Sometimes you’ve just gotta take off your shirt, light up a smoke, and get your best mate to smack you in the back with a stool. The latest game from Radiator 2 and The Tearoom creator Robert Yang, Hard Lads is a brief tale of alcohol, furniture, and cigarettes, all in service of adapting the viral tale of two English lads trying their hardest to assert their heterosexuality by stripping down and getting physical.

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Replica Airbus ‘sidestick’ is worth the money for hardcore sim fans

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