Twilight Imperium: Prophecy of Kings Expansion Announced

Twilight Imperium: Prophecy of Kings, Fantasy Flight Games, board game

Twilight Imperium: Fourth Edition from Fantasy Flight Games is one of the biggest board games on the market. Both from a sales and size standpoint. The box is gigantic and boasts an exceptionally long playtime even for some of the most battle-hardened players. Today, the team at FFG announced a brand new expansion for the game. Prophecy of Kings adds a ton of new content to the base game. Check out the announcement from today's Gen Con Online stream below.

Twilight Imperium fans will know that the Fourth Edition collects some of the game's many expansions and puts them in the base game. However, FFG is far from finished expanding the universe. Prophecy of Kings adds so much to an already bloated game. Notably, there are seven brand new factions for players to dive into. As with all of the factions, these have their own strategy and playstyle you'll need to master to conquer the galaxy. And look, I have no idea what a "Gene-Sorcerer" is, but I sure do want to be one.

You're also getting an expanded galaxy in the form of new system tiles. A big reason for these new tiles is that the expansion pumps up the player count to eight. One player for each hour that it will take you to finish a game of Twilight Imperium. Jokes aside, this is neat. The game already felt epic in scale, but this will take it to a completely new level. You don't play TI expecting to get in and out quickly. Twilight Imperium is an event.

There some other bits and bobs FFG talked about, but the big thing is that you're getting a lot more TI goodness. And you don't have to wait long. Twilight Imperium: Prophecy of Kings is scheduled to launch this November.

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Latest Spiritfarer Trailer Shows Off Charming Art Style and Gameplay

Spiritfarer, Thunder Lotus Games, Nintendo Switch

Spiritfarer is an upcoming management game with light platforming elements from the team at Thunder Lotus Games. It boasts a stunning, hand-drawn art style that oozes charm. Thunder Lotus has continuously given us great looks at the game in action. Today is no different as the latest trailer shows off some great-looking gameplay. Give it a watch below.

The new Spiritfarer trailer provides a better look at some of the non-management gameplay we can expect when the game releases. Early on, you see Stella, the character you play as, searching a map for areas to explore and loot. Presumably, some of these locations will also have new spirits for you to meet and get to know once they arrive on your ferry.

We also get a good look at Stella's platforming skills. The trailer shows them using a leaf to soar on the wind, a nifty double jump, and some type of magical harness that lets you zip line across the world. It's impossible to say how the controls feel without getting hands-on, but early reports from the beta seem positive.

Personally, I'm excited about Spiritfarer because I love management games, and getting build my own city-ferry sounds great. Plus, the team is putting in a co-op mode and I know my wife will love controlling Stella's cat. She'd prefer a dog, but whatever. All of the footage Thunder Lotus has shown thus far makes it look like a game that you shouldn't miss.

Spiritfarer releases later this year on Nintendo Switch, PC, PS4, and Xbox One.

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Splinter Cell is Finally Returning… As an Animated Netflix Series

Sam Fisher has finally been saved! Well, uhh, sort of.

Revealed by Variety, Splinter Cell, Ubisoft's long-dormant stealth-action franchise, is finally making a comeback, but not in the way that you may have first expected. Ubisoft has now partnered with Netflix to create an animated TV show based on the property with Derek Kolstad, who is most well-known for having written on the John Wick franchise, serving as the executive producer. The show has apparently already been greenlit for two seasons, with 16-episodes in total being developed.

The move might come as a surprise to many fans, especially those who have been loudly asking for a new Splinter Cell video game for quite some time, but it's not too shocking to see Ubisoft move in this direction. In recent years, the publisher has gotten much more active in the space of movies and television. Not only did the film based on Assassin's Creed hit theaters back in 2016, but Ubisoft has since started producing other projects such as a movie based on The Division and a TV show centered around Skull & Bones. Not to mention, the Apple TV+ series Mythic Quest is also in part produced by Ubisoft, too.

At the very least, this move shows that Ubisoft hasn't forgotten about its beloved stealth agent Sam Fisher by any means. Even if there's no such Splinter Cell game in development right now (at least that we know of), perhaps the potential interest in this animated show will prove to the publisher that a new game does need to come about sooner rather than later.

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Stardew Valley is Getting Physical Switch Release Including Beautiful Collectors Edition

Stardew Valley Switch Collectors

Stardew Valley will go down as an all-time indie great. The simple gameplay loop of tending a farm, mining for resources and forging relationships is incredibly addictive and resonates with just about everybody who plays it. The farming sim, which was released on Nintendo Switch in 2018, was astonishingly almost solely created by one man, Eric Barone, under the alias ConcernedApe.

While the 2018 release was only digital, the ConcernedApe Twitter account has revealed, after teasing it back in April, that not only is the game getting a physical release on Switch, there is a beautiful collectors edition to go with it.

The Collector's Edition of the Stardew Valley is being made in collaboration with Fangamer. Pre-orders for the game are live now and will not ship before November 6. The edition will be available for both Nintendo Switch and PC.

The Collector's Edition includes:

– Deluxe six-piece wooden standee made from responsibly sourced birch and cherry wood (measures 4.5 x 4 x 4 inches; some assembly required).
– Wooden lapel pin made from the same eco-friendly wood as the standee
– 14-page Junimo comic by Chihiro Sakaida, the artist of the Before the Farmer comic
– Deed to your farm featuring gold-foil details on paper made from 30% recycled straw (a byproduct of actual farming!)
– Collector's Edition box made from sturdy, high-quality materials featuring artwork by Kari Fry, the artist behind the Stardew Valley Guidebook
– Physical copy of the game on your choice of platform with 18-page, full-color illustrated instruction manual and double-sided      cover with Joja theme on the inside
– Soft polyester-nylon blend cleaning cloth designed by Chihiro Sakaida
– For a limited time: Bonus poster for preorders until August 15th (measures 10″ by 16″, folded)

Each physical copy of the game contains version 1.4, with free updates available for download as they're released.

It's great to see ConcernedApe and Fangamer going for both a great looking and super-sustainable Collectors Edition. Although I've already put well over 100 hours into the game, even I'm considering grabbing this.

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Fall Guys is Getting One More Beta Before Its Release

fall guys

Taking inspiration from Japanese gaming TV shows like Takeshi's Castle, the upcoming battle royale title Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout has easily become one of the indie games to look out for this summer. The indie title, which pits 60 players in a series of wacky challenges and obstacle courses, had an incredibly successful beta last weekend that saw it rise to the top of Twitch and Steam's top-sellers chart, and now those looking forward to playing more Fall Guys will get the chance this weekend.

Developer Mediatonic and publisher Devolver Digital have announced that another beta for Fall Guys will be taking place this weekend ahead of its official launch next week. According to a tweet from the game's official Twitter account, the pre-launch beta will officially kickoff tomorrow, July 31 and is planned to run through this weekend before the game arrives on August 4 for PS4 and PC.

Based on the success of the beta last weekend, Fall Guys so far is building up a lot of momentum to be a big hit, and from what I played of the game at PAX East earlier this year, it's an incredibly fun time to have with friends. Alongside the game's debut on PC next week, it was also recently announced that the game will be free for PlayStation Plus subscribers in August for its PS4 launch. However, if you happened to pre-order the game on PC, you'll get a nifty Gordon Freeman-themed skin for your adorable Fall Guy.

Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout will release for PS4 and PC on August 4, 2020.

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The PlayStation Revolution Is an Official Documentary Launching on September 7

The PlayStation Revolution

As a new episode for From Bedrooms to Billions documentary series, The PlayStation Revolution goes over the ups and downs of Sony's gaming division since the year it was founded in 1994.

The PlayStation Revolution was announced four years ago as a Kickstarter project by Caulfield brothers, the directors behind the upcoming documentary who previously premiered From Bedrooms to Billions and its sequel, From Bedrooms to Billions: The Amiga Years. Both projects collected their budget through the Kickstarter campaign.

According to Anthony Caulfield, the co-director behind The PlayStation Revolution, the documentary is supposed to show how Sony managed to start a revolution in the history of video games, bringing an enjoyable entertainment to everyone's home in the world. He said:

We used Kickstarter to fund our previous films and we turned to it for this film in the hope of producing a standout and memorable film that not only celebrates the Sony PlayStation console and what followed, but delves deeply into why and how it was created and why it was a revolution for the video games industry.

The directing team has interviewed Mark Cerny, Hideo Kojima, Shinji Mikami, Jim Ryan, Phil Harrison, Kazunori Yamauchi, David Jaffe, and some other veteran developers who have been part of the company during its lifecycle up until now.

PlayStation is truly a legendary brand in the video game industry that most of us started playing games with its products and consoles. While celebrating its 25th anniversary, PlayStation will be launching its fifth mainline console later this year. With PS4, Sony experienced a great generation that pleased all its fans and users over the last six years, thanks to the dozens of high-quality titles that were delivered by the company's first-party developers.

PlayStation 5 will be available in Holiday 2020 with Spider-Man: Miles Morales, Deathloop, and Godfall as some of the notable launch titles that will be released along with the new console. More new details about PS5, its price tag, and its upcoming games are about to reveal in the coming months.

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UFC 4 Career Mode Gets a Deep Dive Trailer Today

UFC 4, EA Sports, UFC

With Ultimate Team officially scrapped from UFC 4, the team at EA Sports seemingly has more time and resources to work on modes players love. Obviously, the team still has a major focus on various online modes; however, Career Mode remains one of the series' most engaging forms of play. In UFC 3,  the team made some welcome changes, while also feeling like they've not gone far enough. It's still too early to tell if all new things coming to UFC 4 will hit. That said, what they're showing thus far seems promising. Check out the new career mode trailer below.

The most intriguing aspect of Career Mode in UFC 4 is the Fighter Evolution system. This form of fighter progression takes a system you might remember from games like Morrowind. Each strike, kick, and grapple will slowly start to level up as you use them. So, if you can somehow get your opponent in a corner and jab for five rounds, that part of your repertoire will increase quickly.

Of course, this is a fight. You won't be able to just hold a button down with tape for an hour to become a world-class leg kicker. That said, it's a neat direction for a fighting RPG to take. And you'll have other opportunities to improve your fighter. You can spar with some of the world's best to learn new moves. Or use accumulated experience to boost your stats. Plus, as you get hit with injuries, you'll have to manage those to insure your career doesn't stall.

UFC 4 also looks to improve Career Mode's relationship system. We saw a bit of this in UFC 3, but this looks blown out in a big way. Marrying this with an unscripted storyline should make every fighter's career feel a little bit different.

Personally, I prefer a more curated story in my Career Modes, but I'll give EA a chance to do it right here. After all, it's not like they've been knocking narrative out of the park with their other sports games. For as good as The Journey was in FIFA, Longshot was abysmal in Madden. Hopefully, they can make this new approach work.

UFC 4 comes to PS4 and Xbox One on August 14.

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Hyper Scape Comes to PS4 and Xbox One on August 11

After hitting PC in a beta iteration just a few weeks back, Ubisoft's new foray into the battle royale genre, Hyper Scape, now has an official launch date for consoles.

Revealed over on Ubisoft's website, Hyper Scape is set to now exit its beta phase and will kick off its first season of content on August 11. At this point, the game will become free-to-play on not only PC, but PS4 and Xbox One as well. Meanwhile, the current beta for Hyper Scape on PC will be coming to an end on August 2. That said, all progression made in this beta phase will then carry over to the full release.

As far as what Season 1 will boast, one new gun called the Dragonfly, and a new hack called Magnet, are said to be added to the game. Additionally, new limited-time game modes will begin releasing and a free 100-tie battle pass will also be given to all players who hop into Hyper Scape. And thanks to how the game is constructed, merely watching streams of other people play Hyper Scape can help you progress on your own battle pass, too.

All in all, it'll be interesting to see how Hyper Scape performs when it fully releases. In my own estimation, the game is doing enough that is different from its competitors in Fortnite and Apex Legends that it might be able to find a solid player base. While that remains to be seen, at least those across all platforms will now be able to give Hyper Scape a go in just a few short days.

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No, Those Cyberpunk 2077 Beta Invite Emails Going Around Aren't Real

As one of the most anticipated titles set to release in 2020, the hype for Cyberpunk 2077 has continued to build as we get closer to its release this fall. While the game has shifted release dates a few times, we're now (hopefully) only a few months away from getting to experience CD Projekt Red's futuristic world, which has naturally gotten some fans' hopes up for a demo or beta beforehand to try out the game. For now there hasn't been official word yet on a Cyberpunk 2077 beta, even though there are some emails going around that claim to be an upcoming trial for the game.

Over on the official Cyberpunk 2077 Twitter account, CD Projekt Red detailed that email scams have been sent around claiming to be beta invites for the upcoming RPG, which are not real and unaffiliated with the developer.

According to the studio, several emails purporting to be beta invites for Cyberpunk 2077 have been sent out over the past few weeks, with CD Projekt Red detailing that none of these emails are official communication from the studio. Presumably the emails are some form of scam or phishing attempt, so if you've gotten a "Cyberpunk beta invite," it's best not to open it and put it in the trash bin since they are entirely fake.

At the moment, CD Projekt Red stated that it has no plans for any sort of official beta or demo for Cyberpunk 2077 before its November release. However, after we last saw the game during the first Night City Wire broadcast in June, the studio plans to share some more gameplay footage and information on Cyberpunk with another Night City Wire broadcast in the near future.

Cyberpunk 2077 will release for PS4, Xbox One, and PC on November 19, 2020, and will also be coming to Google Stadia, PS5, and Xbox Series X at a later date.

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Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice Surpasses 5 Million Units Sold

Alongside the recent announcement of a new update for Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice that is set to arrive in October, Activision and FromSoftware have also now divulged the latest sales numbers for the action game and they're pretty impressive.

Divulged on Activision's website, the lifetime sales of Sekiro have now surpassed 5 million copies in total. This number is accumulated from copies sold across all three platforms that the game is available on (PS4, Xbox One, and PC) and continues to show that units have continued to sell at a steady pace over the past year.

Ten days after launching last year, Activision revealed that Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice had sold 2 million copies around the globe. Later in August of 2019, it was then announced that the latest shipping totals had nearly reached 4 million, with the official figure standing at 3.8 million. Since that time, at the very least, 1.2 million additional copies of Sekiro have been sold, which shows that even for being somewhat of a niche game, FromSoftware's latest release has continued to find success.

One of the reasons why Sekiro has surely continued to sell at an even pace over the past year is likely due in part to the year-end acclaim it received in 2019. The title was the winner of countless Game of the Year honors, including that of The Game Awards' highest honor. And while it didn't win our own GOTY award here at DualShockers, it was absolutely my personal favorite game that launched last year. I'd highly recommend that you give it a shot if you have any interest whatsoever.

Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice is available now if you haven't picked it up already. For more information on the new boss rush game mode that is being added later this year, you can click here.

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