Games with Gold really wants you to get good at racing games
Any committed Xbox Live Gold subscriber would've done well to buy a racing wheel by now. Nearly month after month in 2020, the biggest Xbox One freebie is a simulation racer. After a one-month reprieve, that trend is back.
Rally racer WRC 8 is the most notable Xbox One title in July's Games with Gold. You should be plenty acclimated with fast-but-cautious racing by now. This year, we've gotten: TT Isle of Man in February (a motorcycle racer but a racer nonetheless), Project CARS 2 in April, and V-Rally 4 in May.
The other Xbox One game sticks to sports. Dunk Lords -- which just released in March but with no buzz -- is free starting midway through July. It's seemingly NBA Jam by way of a hero shooter. It's two-on-two arcade basketball where players have special abilities. Maybe it'll be surprisingly fun for a freebie.
The biggest name of the bunch comes on the Xbox 360 side. Saints Row 2 (considered by some if not most to be the best Saints Row) is the first last-gen offering. Later in July, 2D mascot platformer JUJU takes over. As always, the Xbox 360 games are playable on Xbox One through backward compatiblity.
Here's the full Games with Gold breakdown for July:
Read more...
Amazon Prime's 5 Free Games For July 2020 Announced
With July right around the corner, we're starting to hear about the free games you can claim next month. Xbox just revealed July's Games with Gold lineup, and Twitch Prime has also announced its next batch of freebies that will be available to claim next month. Twitch Prime comes with any Amazon Prime subscription, so if you're paying for fast and free shipping from Amazon, you should also be snagging free PC games every month.
Five games will be free to claim starting July 1: Turok 2: Seeds of Evil, Dear Esther, Grip: Combat Racing, Kunai, and Dark Devotion. To claim them, you simply need to link your Twitch account to your Amazon Prime account.
Turok 2: Seeds of Evil is a classic first-person shooter that originally released on Nintendo 64 in 1998. While it's certainly dated now, Turok 2 was a beloved FPS of the era, so you may be interested in checking out a relic from the past.
Continue Reading at GameSpotAttend GDC to see how Disney designed the immersive stories of Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge!
The Walt Disney Imagineers designed one of the most remarkable immersive entertainment experiences in the world with Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge, and at GDC you'll have a chance to see how they did it! ...
Marvel's Avengers: Our Latest Hands-On Finally Reveals its Moment-to-Moment Gameplay
What We Played of Marvel’s Avengers
My time with Marvel’s Avengers focused on two back-to-back single-hero campaign levels which flowed right into one another. I played as Kamala first, making my way around a helicarrier mid-destruction. I spent most of that level in the interiors of the ship, all shiny and chrome and frequently on fire. The demo then took me topside for some hands-on time as plain-clothes Thor (using his old comic book alias Donald Blake), in which I dealt with larger, mechanical foes alongside Iron Man and Hulk.The World Ends With You “The Animation” Will Reportedly Be Revealed During Anime Expo Lite
The World Ends With You fans have been clamoring for a follow-up to the cult Nintendo DS JRPG for many years now. Square Enix released the title on mobile and then later ported it to the Nintendo Switch, but a sequel has never been announced.
Even though there’s no new game coming anytime soon, TWEWY fans still might have something else to look forward to next week during Anime Expo Lite.
Just today, a mysterious Twitter account called @TWEWY_PR, has popped up from nowhere, linking its followers to a website that serves as a countdown teaser for what appears to be “The Animation,” and you can clearly see images from The World Ends With You in the background.
The timer is set for seven days, and there will apparently be an announcement on July 3 at 6 PM PDT during Anime Expo Lite.
Here's July 2020's Xbox Live Games With Gold
July’s Xbox Live Games with Gold has cars, basketball, and a Saints Row game that existed before Saints Row IV, the best one. As always, these games are only “free” if you have an active Xbox Live Gold subscription.
Taiwan's Pokémon Go grandpa has levelled up to 64 phones
Dedicated Pokémon Go player Chen San-yuan is hard to miss.
Better known to the game's community as Pokémon Go Grandpa, Chen went viral a couple of years back after images of him with a dozen phones strapped to his bike handlebars spread across the internet.
Later pictures showed he had moved on to 32 phones... and now? Well, in 2020, Chen has moved from 32 to 64.
Pokemon Go Fourth Anniversary Celebration Details Revealed
Early this morning, Niantic revealed three weeks of Pokemon GO fourth anniversary events that will lead up to Pokemon GO Fest 2020. These events will be filled with special raid events, new shiny Pokemon, and other bonuses.
The first week begins July 3 at 8 AM local time and ends on July 8 at 10 PM local time. Flying Pikachu will be the featured Pokemon for this week as it’ll be in Eggs, raids, and the wild.
There will also be a list of GO Fest challenges that focus on player skill. There’s no indication of what that means exactly, but we’ll report on it as soon as the details become available. However, we do know that all of these tasks are free for all players. You don’t need to buy a GO Fest ticket to participate in these upcoming events.
We also know that if you finish the timed research during this week, then you’ll be able to get Ducklett, Flying Pikachu, and a Star Piece. There are also certain Pokemon that will appear more often in the wild during if enough trainers from each team complete the tasks.
The magic number is one million trainers from each team that must complete the Skill tasks. If that goal is hit, then we’ll get Chimecho (Instinct), Alomomola (Mystic), and Chansey (Valor) appearing in the wild during GO Fest.
There will also be a set of more difficult tasks made available to trainers who finish the timed tasks before the end of the first week.
On top of that, you’ll also get to enjoy the following features:
Four revamped Anno games sailed into release today
Lower the gangplanks and drop anchor. The Anno History Collection has arrived, bringing four of Ubisoft’s colonial city-building strategy sims into the publishers’ digital harbour. Remastered editions of Anno 1602, Anno 1503, Anno 1701, and Anno 1404 have been brought together under one tidy collection on Uplay, with a scattershot of standalone releases spread haphazardly across three different stores.
The World Ends with You Anime Teased, Will Be Announced at Anime Expo Lite
Anime Expo Lite got a little more interesting! A teaser site has opened for a The World Ends with You anime with a seven day countdown.
The post The World Ends with You Anime Teased, Will Be Announced at Anime Expo Lite appeared first on Siliconera.
Tales of Arise is slipping out of 2020 and it doesn't have a launch window in mind
Bandai Namco has a bit of housekeeping for Tales fans today. Not that we've seen or even heard much about the next game, Tales of Arise, but it's going to need more time. It's skipping 2020 altogether.
As producer Yusuke Tomizawa explains it, the developers are going big for Arise.
They're striving to catch lightning in a bottle – to deliver "a familiar but innovative gameplay experience to fans of the series, while pushing the technical envelope to deliver a high level of graphical quality to impress both long-time players and those who have never played a Tales of game."
"While COVID-19 has affected some aspects of development, we've done our best to adapt to the situation and have implemented remote development capabilities for our team. However, to achieve the quality and provide the gorgeous experience we envision for our players, we will need more time to realize that vision and therefore we decided to delay the launch timing for Tales of Arise."
Bandai Namco hasn't settled on – or at least publicly committed to – a new launch window. The game was previously announced for PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One. I'm curious where it'll end up.
Around this time last year, Tales of Arise had just leaked ahead of E3. What a year it's been.
What's Coming to Disney+ in July 2020
Almost every day between March 17, 2016 and March 12, 2020—when Broadway turned off its lights amid the global pandemic—I started each morning by entering the #Ham4Ham lottery, hoping to win a pair of $10 tickets to see Lin-Manuel Miranda’s zeitgeist-transforming Broadway musical Hamilton performed on Broadway. I even…
Blog: Maximizing the performance of your Unity game - Part 1
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Borderlands 3 Gets Level Cap Increase & Other Updates in Time for DLC
It’s Thursday, Vault Hunters, which means a new Borderlands 3 patch and hotfixes have arrived. This particular patch comes alongside today’s release of the Bounty of Blood DLC and raises the level cap by three levels to 60.
Having a level cap increase going into the new Borderlands 3 DLC is a nice extra tool, but it doesn’t stop there. Just in time for the new levels are three new Guardian Rank skills which are:
- Groundbreaker: Melee or Slam attacks will trigger an Aftershock, dealing 25% of all non-melee damage you have dealt over the last 5 seconds
- Dead Man Walking: While not moving in Fight for Your Life, your meter drains 50% more slowly.
- Lead or Alive: When you enter Fight for Your Life all your guns are automatically reloaded
The pain of monster drops being the only source of Mayhem tiered gear is over. Now chests, mail, mission rewards, and vending machines all will carry loot befitting your current Mayhem level.
Speaking of Mayhem tiered loot, grenade mods will now have better versions dropping on higher Mayhem levels. This is a welcomed Borderlands 3 change and could mean that shields will receive the same change soon enough.
On top of that, to keep sweetening the pot:
- Increased pistol damage across all manufacturers
- Increased damage on Tediore SMGs
- Increased damage on COV, Dahl, and Jakobs Assault Rifles
- Increased damage on Hyperion, Maliwan, and Jakobs shotguns
While these are certainly the best highlights, there is still more and you can find the full patch notes here.
Tales Of Arise Delayed Out Of 2020
Tales of Arise made a big splash with its announcement at last year's E3, but we haven't heard much about the project since. Today, Bandai Namco gave an update via its social channels, letting fans know that the project is delayed out of 2020 due to "its ambitious nature" and "to create the best experience possible."
"The goal for Tales of Arise is to provide a familiar but innovative gameplay experience to fans of the series, while pushing the technical envelope to deliver a high level of graphical quality to impress both long-time players and those who have never played a Tales Of game," wrote producer Yusuke Tomizawa in a blog post. "We will need more time to achieve the quality and provide the gorgeous experience we envision for our players."
As the next entry in the long-running Tales franchise, Arise has big shoes to fill as it's acting as a new beginning, so it's understandable that Bandai Namco wants to approach it with the time and care it needs.
Tales of Arise is coming to PS4, Xbox One, and PC. No new release window was provided.
Nvidia's latest graphics driver brings DirectX 12 Ultimate support to RTX cards
I’ll take any excuse to wheel out the terrible official logo for Microsoft’s DirectX 12 Ultimate tech gubbins, and today’s new Nvidia driver gives me just right occasion to do so, as the graphics card giant has just added support for Microsoft’s new hardware accelerated ray tracing standard to their latest GeForce driver.
Twitch addresses sexual abuse allegations with permanent ban pledge
Twitch will permanently ban streamers who are found to have sexually abused or harassed people. ...
New Xbox Series X Trailer Is All About Games Optimized for Microsoft’s Next-Gen Console
Today Microsoft released a new trailer advertising the games that will be optimized for the upcoming next-gen console Xbox Series X.
The trailer provides a look at “footage represented of Xbox Series X gameplay” and features the “Optimized for Xbox Series X” badge.
You can check it out below.
The badge can be applied to the following:
- Brand new games built natively for the Xbox Series X such as Halo Infinite.
- Previously released titles in which a developer has enhanced their title using the Xbox Series X development environment to dramatically leverage the power and features Xbox Series X has to offer, like Gears 5.
Below you can find a list of games that are confirmed as “optimized for Xbox Series X” for now directly from Microsoft. It’ll grow as we get closer to the console’s launch this Holiday season.
You can also read a few comments on the console made yesterday by Xbox division head Phil Spencer.
Pokémon Go’s fourth anniversary comes with new weekly challenges
Unlock new species of Pokémon for Go Fest 2020!
Teppen’s Felyne Fine and Adding a Mew Monster Hunter Hero
A Teppen Felyne hero is the latest character to join the roster of the Capcom and GungHo card game. See the Adventures of a Tiny Hero!
The post Teppen’s Felyne Fine and Adding a Mew Monster Hunter Hero appeared first on Siliconera.
Games Optimized for Xbox Series X Will Include Ray-Tracing, Higher Framerates, Faster Loading
Borderlands 3: Bounty of Blood DLC Review
After the last few good-but-not-great expansions for Borderlands 3, it brings me great joy to tell you that Bounty of Blood is, beyond a shadow of a doubt, my favorite Borderlands 3 DLC so far. In fact, I'd go so far as to say this might be my favorite Borderlands-anything since Borderlands 2 way back in 2012. A novel approach to storytelling, likable characters, an interesting new world to explore, and of course gobs and gobs of great loot all come together to cross the border into greatness.
The name led me to believe this was going to be some sort of satirical take on Red Dead Redemption 2, but its awkward title and its western themes are about the only dots you could connect between the two. Instead, this DLC takes place on the planet Gehenna, a blend of the American Wild West and feudal Japan. The unusual "East meets West" setting leans much more heavily on Western side for its tropes, but the Japanese-inspired architecture integrates incredibly well and makes Bounty of Blood the best looking Borderlands 3 expansion to date. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/the-first-23-minutes-of-borderlands-3-bounty-of-blood-dlc"]It's kind of funny to think Borderlands, a game whose origins drew inspiration from the fusion of the American frontier and science-fiction futurism, would come full-circle like this. Somewhere along the way, Borderlands felt like it shifted away from being about lands… on the border… so it's great to have that old familiar feel back in a way, even if it's explicit rather than implicit.
How to Watch CD Projekt Red's Night City Live
Watch Summer of Gaming Stream Live Now
[ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2020/06/10/ign-summer-of-gaming-live"] Hey! We’re going to be collecting YOUR video comments for our Summer of Gaming coverage. Head over to this How-To article and tell us what you’re most excited about, share predictions, and post-reveal reactions. If you’re lucky, your Yap may be played live, on-air!Cyberpunk 2077 Night City Wire Stream Start Time
CD Projekt Red's Night City Wire is scheduled for June 25 at 9am PT/ 12pm ET/ 5pm BST.Tales of Arise Delayed, No New Release Date Announced
A Total War Saga: Troy Gets New Trailer All About Paris The Jerk
Today Creative Assembly released a new trailer of the upcoming Total War game A Total War Saga: Troy.
The trailer focuses on Paris, prince of Troy, who effectively caused the Trojan war by eloping with Helen, queen of Sparta.
As usual, the trailer gives a cinematic view of the “hero” which in this case isn’t exactly heroic. I’m sorry not sorry about the title. Here in Italy, we study the Iliad in school, and Paris is unquestionably a jerk.
You can check out the trailer below.
Every Big 2020 Video Game Delay So Far
Cyberpunk 2077
CD Projekt Red’s upcoming first-person RPG looks set to be one of the biggest and most ambitious games of 2020. Set in Night City, a sprawling, futuristic metropolis where body modifications are commonplace and power is the key currency. As mercenary outlaw V, players will seek out a unique implant that grants immortality.
Alas, our quest for immortality will have to wait a bit longer. Despite being slated to initially release on April 16 this year, the game got delayed to Sept. 17 to give the development team the much-needed time to make sure the game was 100% finished.
Twitch starts banning streamers over sexual abuse allegations
A handful of users are already off of the service
Philips have stuck a B&W soundbar onto their new 55in gaming monitor
Philips have unveiled two new gaming monitors today, the first (and literally) biggest of which is their jumbo and catchily-named Momentum 558M1RY, a huge 55in screen with a 4K resolution, a 120Hz refresh rate and a whopping great soundbar built into it courtesy of the high-end audio folks at Bowers & Wilkins. If you’ve ever wanted to play PC games in your living room, this might actually be a much better fit than a new 4K TV.
Bubble Bobble 4 Friends launches on PS4 in November, Puzzle Bobble VR in development
Taito has announced that its cutesy arcade title Bubble Bobble 4 Friends will launch worldwide this November on PS4. In the west, the colourful game will be known as Bubble Bobble 4 Friends: The Baron is Back! Sure, why not?
The announcement was made in a new video by Taito's Yuichi Toyama and Bubble Bobble 4 Friends director Tsuyoshi Tozaki, with the duo also noting that the original Nintendo Switch edition has secured an impressive 100,000 sales to date. As previously reported, the PS4 port of Bubble Bobble 4 Friends will feature a host of new stages and features that were not included in the original Switch release. But fret not, as a free update will be applied to the Switch edition, adding in the bonus content.
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Watchmen’s Tim Blake Nelson thinks filmmaking can survive COVID-19 — but theaters might not
The veteran actor talks quarantine entertainment, getting back to work, his all-ages strip-club visit, and Tiger King
Watch the Cyberpunk 2077 Night City Wire livestream here
CD Projekt Red will reveal a new trailer and fresh gameplay
Animal Crossing's Free Summer Fun
Summer is here, and maybe you've been going to the beach in real-life. Or maybe not. Either way, Animal Crossing: New Horizon's free summer update (coming on July 3) is bringing the seasonal fun to the Switch.
The update features swimming, diving, mermaid furniture, additions for the museum, and more.
July's update is just the beginning, as Nintendo says another free entry is coming in early August.
Click image thumbnails to view larger version
So… Baby Wario Is a Doctor Now
It turns out that Baby Wario can play the role of your doctor in Dr. Mario World. Nintendo has just announced that the new doctor in town is Dr. Baby Wario and he’ll be arriving on June 26 at 3 am PT (definitely not a good time for a baby to be awake) in Dr. Mario World.
Dr. Mario World, Nintendo’s mobile take on the match-three puzzler, has added baby characters in the past to the game’s roster of professional and somehow certified doctors of the Mushroom Kingdom but this is the first time in a while that we’ve seen Baby Wario make an appearance in a Nintendo game.
You can check out the adorable artwork (and announcement) right here:
Tales of Arise Delayed as COVID-19 Affects Development
The COVID-19 pandemic has had negative affects on more than a few conventions, game releases, and livelihoods overall. Unfortunately, Bandai Namco’s Tales Of team is no exception. The upcoming flagship Tales title, Tales of Arise, has officially been delayed.
The delay was just announced in a blog post that details the team’s circumstances. The producer of the game, Yusuke Tomizawa, had this to say:
While COVID-19 has affected some aspects of development, we’ve done our best to adapt to the situation and have implemented remote development capabilities for our team.
However, we will need more time to achieve the quality and provide the gorgeous experience we envision for our players, and therefore we decided to delay the launch timing for Tales of Arise.
With their current situation in mind, the decision has been made to delay the game without providing a new release window. It’ll come with time, but for now, the team is working hard and playing it safe. It’s better to be safe than sorry, as they say.
The last new news we heard from the studio in regards to the game was back in 2019, but we’ll be sure to keep you updated as more details on the game are released.
Tales of Arise Delayed Due to the Pandemic
An official Tales of Arise delay has been announced. A new release window for the latest entry in the Tales of series wasn't provided.
The post Tales of Arise Delayed Due to the Pandemic appeared first on Siliconera.
Magic: The Gathering Arena adds loads of cards with Core Set 2021 today
A new wodge of 274 cards hits Magic: The Gathering Arena today with the launch of Core Set 2021. As ever, the annual Core set brings a mix of new and reprinted cards to build a base for the year’s expansions – and this year it brings an awful lot of cats and dogs. One card even has a cat and a dog who are best friends. Core Set 2021 doesn’t officially launch in cardboard form until July 3rd, so it’s a bit of a sneaky peeky for the digital version.
Captain Tsubasa: Rise Of New Champions Gets New Trailer All About Argentina
Today Bandai Namco released a brand new trailer of its upcoming anime soccer game Captain Tsubasa: Rise Of New Champions.
The trailer focuses on the Argentinian team and three of its star players.
This time around all the players are known from the anime and manga including captain Juan Diaz, defender Galvan, and forward Alan Pascal.
You can check out the trailer below, alongside a bonus video from Japan featuring the tutorial.