Xbox Series X will have a new UI after all, but it's being shared with Xbox One, PC and Mobile apps

Microsoft have opened up a little bit more about what they have planned for the system software of the Xbox Series X when it launches this November, and how that will be part of a unified visual style and approach across generations and platforms.

As explained previously, Xbox Series X will actually share its system software and user interface with the Xbox One, but that has not meant that it is not changing. Microsoft have loved to tinker with their Xbox One system software over the past seven years (probably a bit too much), and later this year will be evolving that further, bringing in the new Fluent Design that Microsoft have recently settled upon.

According to Microsoft, this will mean that "Text is more readable, elements on screen are easier to understand at a glance, and accomplishing your tasks is faster than ever. This includes tile shape, fonts, an updated illustration style, and more. The overall layout of most of the console pages remains familiar, just faster and more focused."

The design language and layout of certain elements will be shared across Xbox mobile apps, Xbox Game Pass on PC and Xbox One and Xbox Series X consoles.

The Xbox Series X will have some unique advantages though. Within that unified UI and UX, the Home screen will load over 50% faster than on Xbox One, and it will be 30% faster when returning from a game. There's also Quick Resume that will let you switch between multiple games on the fly.

We can already see this UI in action, with the overhauled Microsoft Store that has been fed out to Xbox One users promising a two second app launch time. On PC, there's also a new Xbox app that's currently in beta and has been designed specifically for Xbox Game Pass users.

Other elements have been tested in Microsoft's Xbox Insider program, such as new illustration styles in the Game Bar welcome screen and light theme in the Family Settings App. Further design tweaks will be demoed for Insiders in coming weeks, leading up to the Xbox Series X launch in November.

So evolution, not revolution is the name of the game at Microsoft. Meanwhile in the land of Sony, we're still almost completely in the dark as to what the PlayStation 5 system software has in store… Surely they'll reveal this soon as well?

Source: Xbox

Void Terrarium Review

Void Terrarium manages to achieve the impossible; it makes the apocalypse and the end of human civilisation really cute. Forget Skynet, The Red Queen and the War Operations Plan Response, the AI that finally rids planet Earth of humankind in Void Terrarium is so darn loveable that you just want to give it a great big hug. Well, you would if the factoryAI hadn't already accidentally killed you and all your family and friends.

And that's how Void Terrarium begins, with the end of mankind. Although, if everyone is very dead, then how does that explain the lone girl that's just been found alive by a discarded janitorial robot? It's a compelling storyline hook and one that kept me playing despite the arduous roguelite mechanics of Void Terrarium – these would usually have seen me quit and play something else quite quickly. The player takes on the role of Robbie the Robot and, with the advice of a repentant factoryAI, must do whatever it takes to keep the girl, Toriko, alive and well.

This involves two distinctive game mechanics. The first sees Robbie search the wasteland for valuable resources in a top-down turn-based action RPG (a genre that just rolls of the tongue; I can absolutely see the TDTBARPG catching on). The second is best described as an advanced version of Tamagotchi, as Robbie must convert the resources he gathers into the means to keep Toriko alive. This means crafting suitable food, medicine and other mundane but necessary devices essential for living. It also means building fun stuff, providing plants, furniture, even stuffed animals to decorate Toriko's vault. Now, one of these gameplay mechanics works very well, the other left me wishing on Armageddon to wipe it from existence.

The exploration and combat elements of the game undoubtedly fall into the latter camp. Robbie must explore a limited selection of environments far too many times in his mission to help Toriko. Whilst, on first impression, Void Terrarium would appear to be a fast-paced action fest, every element is measured in a turn based system that revolves around Robbie's finite endurance meter. Everything the player does, from movement, to attacks, to the use of special abilities, uses up the endurance meter at a frankly terrifying rate. Robbie will meet enemy robots and mutants on his travels and they'll all politely wait their turn before battering Robbie into scrap metal. This will happen a lot because Void Terrarium is unnecessarily hard.

As Robbie explores each floor of each generic level he'll use up endurance with every step he takes, until he runs out of fuel and must start the whole thing again. Occasionally you'll find a battery pick-up to recharge your meter, but these popped up far too infrequently through the randomly generated levels. I had many, many runs where there was barely a battery to be seen – how I found myself longing for a pack of reasonably priced AA to appear like a mirage in the desert before me. Adding to the player's woes, is that fact that your enemy are horribly plentiful and packs of them patrol the corridors. Apparently solely to appear at the most inconvenient time. The turn based gameplay often leaves the player with no chance at all, they'll have too little endurance to unleash any special attacks – frequently I knew that I had no chance but had to wait for the battle to play out anyway.

Each time you die, Robbie is flung back to the home hub to try again, losing every level-up and power-up he'd just gathered. Now, I'm not a fan of roguelites at the best of times, so please take that into account when considering my critique, but the grind in Void Terrarium was almost unbearable. Again and again I threw Robbie into the metal grinder, again and again he was reduced to scrap, and after each expedition I didn't feel like I'd made any overall progress. Sure, the items I'd found where converted into resources to provide for Toriko and in doing so it ultimately boosted Robbie's stats, but this all happened at such a slow rate that my progress felt absolutely glacial. It, quite frankly, sucked.

And then, something rather odd happened. Despite my burning and palpable desire to set fire to my PlayStation 4 and send it out to sea, I kept on playing. And that's when I realised that as lousy as the expeditions, combat and exploration mechanics of the game are, the Tamagotchi-inspired elements are excellent. All of the endless resource grinding is almost made bearable thanks to the delightful relationship that begins to develop between Robbie and Toriko. To see her interact with the small world you've built for her inside the terrarium provides so many magical moments. It is all brought to life by the visually compelling and very cute 2D visuals that stand in stark contrast to the rather bland aesthetics found in the top-down perspective.

Your need to help Toriko also adds more pressure. Toriko's well-being is represented by a retro looking 'Pet Nanny Hub' in the corner of your screen as you explore the world. She'll get hungry and she'll become ill, so once you've gathered what she needs on a level, it's often best to return to her immediately, rather than push on to the end. It all adds to that parental instinct for Toriko, but it is also runs the risk of being yet another obstacle that just adds to the slog like pacing of the game. Add to that the stupid invisible status traps that can only be found by repeatedly pressing the attack button everywhere you go and it's clear to see that the developers have made it far too hard for the player to enjoy the heart and soul of Void Terrarium – the relationship between Robbie and Toriko.

BPM: Bullets Per Minute takes the rhythm shooter to a whole new level

If you listen to the doomsayers and critics out there you'd be forgiven for thinking there is nothing new or original in the world anymore. Originality can still be found in gaming, whether it's a new take on an old theme or a novel blend of ideas and mechanics. BPM falls squarely in the latter camp as it's rhythmical take on the FPS feels like an inspired fusion of Crypt of the Necrodancer (or Cadence of Hyrule) and modern Doom. Having had a chance to spend some time with a preview build, I'm happy to say that it's shaping up pretty nicely, despite my newly discovered lack of rhythm.

The twist to the arcade shooting of BPM is that you need to carry out moves on the beat, whether it be shooting, reloading, or jumping and dodging. The result is a terrifically immersive and adrenaline-pumping experience, albeit one that is currently lacking in variety and is perhaps a little too hard.

The preview build includes the first level, set in Asgard, which sees your chosen Valkyrie blast their way through the assorted enemies for the sheer hell of it. Narrative takes a back seat here, as the roguelite procedurally generated levels make sure that the focus is on the gunplay. The finished game will have a choice of characters and take you through a series of techno-flavoured Norse environments, all to a thumping hard rock soundtrack.

The aesthetic approach here has the potential to be quite divisive. Everything in the Asgard levels looks like a red filter has been slathered over the screen. This is certainly distinctive, but feels quite repetitive after a while. When combined with the lack of pure level design that is the unfortunate side effect of procedural generation, this does make runs blur into one another. Enemies are nicely designed and pretty varied, so using some more building blocks in the level design should improve this. To be fair, though, this is as much a criticism of the genre as it is of BPM in particular.

Given the focus on shooting to the rhythm, it's pretty obvious that the music plays a massive part here. The preview build includes one main track (at least as far as I was able to get) although that isn't as limited as it sounds. The track reminded me of the fabulous Mick Gordon Doom soundtrack as it adapted to the action – although that could have been a side-effect of my levels of concentration rather than any actual changes in the music itself. It remains to be seen whether the music ends up being linked to the level or the character choice though. The downside, of course, is that hearing the same track will get repetitive, though changing it too much could make hitting the beat more difficult, even if the BPM stays the same.

My overriding impression of BPM is that it is tough; I haven't yet managed to beat the first boss after multiple runs. There is a real brick wall to your first few runs as you adjust to playing on the beat, and until you get the hang of it there will be more than a few deaths as your pistol clicks impotently. Once you get into the rhythm of things, the gunplay is solid and enjoyable and has a level of engagement over and above the usual FPS fare.

BPM is shaping up to be a really interesting twist on the FPS and is certainly one to keep an eye on. I hope that the finished build tightens up the level design and lessens that red shifting filter, but the core game is a refreshingly metal take on monster shooting that'll have your head banging and your trigger finger twitching to the beat. As Gloria Estefan prophesised in the 1980s, the rhythm is gonna get ya.

Senior writer on Rocksteady's Suicide Squad posts an emotional video detailing sexual harassment at the company

Kim MacAskil, senior script writer at Rocksteady until 2019, has posted a video stating she wrote the original letter than formed the basis of The Guardian investigation that was published yesterday. She has asked to be removed from the credits of Suicide Squad, "As one of your longest serving writers, I no longer want to be associated with the abuse I tried to stop."

Be warned the video is upsetting, but if you are planning to buy Suicide Squad then you probably should watch this.

"When I left, I thought things that had improved, I now have learned that the haven't.. I am so angry, so angry," she says. She states the the vast majority of people in the company are "wonderful, talented, and made me feel included", but the company is "so inept" at dealing sexual harassment.

She goes on to describe finding a female member of staff crying in the bathroom because a man was repeatedly groping her, sending her messages in the evening, and when drunk claiming he was sleeping with her to other colleges. The staff member went to HR to ask for an investigation but was told while that was going on she still had to work with the man.

She states she spoke to everyone woman in the company and "every single woman, except one" had experienced harassment. One person had therapy due to harassment, and the ladies avoided social gatherings due to "the repetitive behaviour of a few bad apples."

Kim states that higher management and a director were harassing the females, with a male colleague complaining about a female employees work after she rejected her advances.

She goes on to say she "redrafted and redrafted" the letter, during which the HR department tried to stop her twice, and members of higher management told her that if she did finish the letter her position in the company would be in jeopardy and that her future prospects at other companies would be jeopardised as she might be seen as "a trouble maker" .

Kim has posted her video as despite the accusation of harassment dating back to 2015 and her letter in 2018, Rocksteady only took steps three days ago. "It's only took a phone calls to understand this behaviour is still happening," says Kim

Rocksteady, I am formerly asking you to take me name off of your game, I do not want to be associated with your game, I do not want to be associated with your company, my entire memory of being in your company as one of your only senior females is trying to protect the women in your company while you allowed them to be continually assaulted, abused, and harassed. The whole time, the whole time, you were protecting the people that were doing it.

Source: YouTube

Baldur's Gate 3 will head into PC and Stadia Early Access in September

Baldur's Gate 3 will be entering Early Access for PC and Google Stadia on 30th September, Larian studio have announced at their The Panel From Hell livestream. The 90 minute stream also showcased some new parts of the game, fresh narrative details, and dove into what players can expect when they can get their hands on this earliest section for themselves.

Originally announced for an August release, Larian were always quite tentative about being able to meet that release date, citing the impact of COVID-19 and the scale of their ambitions. That turned out to be quite wise, helping to set expectations.

The panel opened with a stunning CGI intro that shows the start of your journey in Avernus, the first layer of the Nine Hells. This location featured in the Descent Into Avernus module for D&D, seeing the city of Elturel almost dragged into hell, and this event shapes the events of Baldur's Gate 3.

You start captive aboard the nautiloid, but break free and seek to gain control of it, presenting you with a moral choice when addressed by an exposed brain in a corpse. What is it, and will you… free the brain that's talking to you?

While classes and races available in the Early Access release will be confirmed closer to release, Larain did reveal the five initial Origin Characters: Astarion (Elf/Vampire Rogue), Gale (Human Wizard), Lae'zel (Githyanki Warrior), Shadowheart (Half-Elf Cleric) and Wyll (Human Warlock). These will all give you different permutations in encounters and dialogues, with the game flowing around your choices.

While the game is heading into Early Access, the scope is going to be huge in comparison to that of Divinity: Original Sin 2's Early Access. Creative Director Swen Vincke outlined the much wider scope through four stats:

  • Number of combat situations: 22 in DOS2 EA vs 80 in BG3 EA
  • Number of dialogue lines in English: 17.600 in DOS2 EA vs. 45.980 in BG3 EA
  • Number of characters: 142 in DOS2 EA vs. 596 in BG3 EA
  • Number of spells/actions: 69 in DOS2 EA vs. 146 in BG3 EA

While they missed their original August target, it's clear to see that Larian have not been resting on their laurels with Baldur's Gate 3, which is already sounding pretty darned epic. We look forward to seeing the game in action and more details as that 30th September date approaches.

Source: Larian

FIFA 20 title update #21 is out, patch notes here

EA have released a new patch for FIFA 20 and it is.. tiny. It is out now on PC and consoles, here are the full patch notes.

Hey FIFA Fans,

The latest Title Update for FIFA 20 is now available on PC & console and includes the change below.

FUT:

Addressed the following issue:

  • When searching for Player Items with the Defender/Midfielder/Forward modifier, the Special Quality Filter would display unselected Item rarities.
  • Removed an unused tab in the Special Quality filter which appeared in some languages.

We are aware certain clothing items cannot be saved to your Avatar in VOLTA FOOTBALL and are working on addressing the issue through a future release update.

Thanks to those who've provided feedback. Throughout the course of the FIFA 20 season, we'll provide you with more information and updates if and when they become available. Be sure to follow @EAFIFADIRECT on Twitter for the latest news and updates.

– The FIFA Team

Looking ahead, EA have revealed a bunch of new features coming to FIFA 21's career mode in the latest trailer for the game. With more flexibility with match simming, improved training, new transfer options and more, it's looking like a decent update on one of the series' main game modes.

The Interactive Match Sim allows you to simulate a match in the career, but keep an eye on how things are progressing from a simplistic mini-map. At any time, you can hop in and have the game load up the full 3D engine and start playing, letting you pull off a late game comeback if the sim wasn't going quite as you'd planned.

As a manager, you'll have more hands on opportunities to shape the players your in charge of. New position training lets you switch a player's specialty position to another, while development plans can let you focus a squad's growth to match an overall style of play. There's also tweaks for transfers, with Loan to Buy offers and AI managers able to propose player swaps to you.

Getting ready for an individual match, you'll get to see your squad's performance levels with the new 'match sharpness' attribute. That can be trained up in a new Active Training System, and can help strikers score goals or defenders make those clutch tackles that require them to be at their best.

Meanwhile, you'll hopefully notice the enhanced opposition AI, geared up to be a bit more intelligent in both defence and attack.

It definitely feels like EA are cribbing from Football Manager's homework for FIFA 21, but that can only be a good thing for diehard FIFA fans, considering the depth and simulation on offer in Sports Interactives' series.

FIFA 21 will be out for PS4, Xbox One, and PC on October 9th, with free upgrades to PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X via EA's homegrown Dual Entitlement scheme. This will allow free upgrades to take place from the launch of the next-gen consoles up until the release of FIFA 22 next year.

Source: EA

SWORD ART ONLINE: Alicization Lycoris Review

The first, and lasting, impression that SWORD ART ONLINE: Alicization Lycoris gives is anime, and plenty of it. All of the well-trodden tropes are present here. Blue-haired swordsman protagonist? Check. Fast-paced and heavily over-cut intro? Check. Inexplicable amnesia? Check. Anime waifu goodness? Check, check and check. 

This also means, however, it suffers a couple of the pitfalls too.

After the soft opening, in which you're thrown into a battle with the first of many waif characters liberally spread throughout, the narrative kicks off properly, with our milquetoast protagonist, Kirito awakening in a forest with no memory of how he got there. He does remember that he is in a video game world, which is the universe of the franchise, but little more than that.

In this compromising position, he is discovered by Eugeo, a character so alike him in appearance that I find it hard to believe that he isn't simply a palette swap. They appear to have some sort of shared experience as children in this world, but it's not made clear if these memories are real. Then, swords in hand, they embark upon one of the dullest prologues in gaming history.

The game genuinely becomes better after Chapter 1, but getting to that involves trudging through the Sword Mastery Academy segment. I understand, to an extent, why this needed to exist – it serves as a huge exposition dump about the world and tutorial for the combat system – but the narrative and gameplay in this entire chapter (around 15 hours) is a slog to endure.

The segment is written as a kind of commentary on class divide, but the writing itself is so hackneyed that it results 90% of the characters being distinctly unlikeable and the remainder are so flat it's hard to care about them. Worse is that there's very little actual gameplay here to break up the monotony outside of a couple of hunts for an enemy or training sessions.

Even on these occasions, the moment-to-moment combat is clunky and slow, which is completely at odds with the dynamic visuals. This eases up once you unlock a few more abilities and weapons later in the game, but doesn't excuse the frustration of having to go so long with such a dull combat system for so little gain.

The combat, even once evolved a little, isn't without problems. The lock-on in SWORD ART ONLINE: Altruistic Lemurs is temperamental, occasionally throwing your attacks in the wrong direction or refusing to lock-on to other enemies in a group. The party commands have to be set up again at the beginning of every encounter, otherwise your party just do nothing to help out. The clash system is a quick-time event mess that works… sometimes, I guess?

If you're a junkie for menus, this game has you sorted. There are so many menus in this game, with every one giving short and sweet instruction on using them effectively. The same could be said for the new systems that SWORD ART ONLINE: Acrobatic Lasers never ceases throwing at you. It is a testament to the game that this never quite falls into overloading the player.

As another positive, this game is (mostly) a gorgeous experience. The world is beautifully realised, and the characters are reasonably well-designed, with special attention paid to the female characters (of course). The 2D visual novel style cut scenes are beautiful, which is more than can be said for the poorly synchronised 3D cut scenes, though all the visual and aural effects are great.

Also, if you do manage to get through the opening, you are then able to customise Kirito and engage in the online co-op multiplayer. This improves the game a lot more than it should, and it's bordering on a criminal act that the option comes so late in the game.

Playing on PlayStation 4, the frame rate tanks at the slightest provocation. Even something as banal as rotating the camera while exploring the overworld causes the game to become practically stop motion. Adding to this is the egregious pop-in, with occasions where the quest marker above a character spawns in significantly before the character appears. Game updates are promised for September to try and fix this.

Sticking with the game itself as a whole, I can't say I am a fan of there being an online store right on the title screen either. It doesn't really feel like something that should exist in a full-priced mostly single-player experience, but here we are.

My final impression of SWORD ART ONLINE: Angry Librarians is one of frustration. I can genuinely see a good game here, but the overall choppiness of the experience in every single facet of it holds it back from greatness. The great things it does are either few and far between or take far too long to get to. Also, the name of this game is stupid, and I play anime fighting games.

Microsoft Flight Simulator and the simple joy of flying over your own home

Microsoft Flight Simulator is remarkable. A recreation of the entire world that you can explore at your leisure, whether you want to put on a faux-airliner captain's hat and take on some intercontinental flights, or just hop in a prop plane while wearing your pyjamas. As you will have seen over the last year or so, it can look absolutely stunning.

While we technically had access to the game over the weekend prior to today's release, we found it impossible to review. I mean, Dom could tell you about the torturous install process, with the initial app download followed by a further in-game install of over 90GB that is torturous in duration thanks to each file being downloaded and then decompressed in sequence, stretching out the install far further than speedy internet connections would otherwise be able to handle. He could also tell you about the lovely splash screens for Xbox Game Studios and Asobo before the game crashes. Then there are the joys of going through numerous troubleshooting steps, restarting his PC time and again, of reinstalling drivers and core runtimes – the joys of PC gaming. Let's assume that the process will be much more concise and trouble-free when Microsoft Flight Simulator comes to Xbox.

I've personally had much better luck, installing the game as a troubleshooting guinea pig and giving it a quick go for half an hour. I don't have a flight stick though, and certainly not the kind of set up with rudder pedals and a two-handed yoke that I got to briefly try at last year's XO19. So instead I plugged in an Xbox One controller and just loaded into the game.

Where do I want to fly when I have the whole world at my fingertips, though? Well… as I'm sure literally every computer-literate person did when Google Earth first appeared, I decided to fly over my home, taking off from Gatwick Airport and taking a sharp turn south toward Shoreham, Brighton and the coast.

I've not really touched flight simulators before, my airborne escapades typically taking place in a fighter jet or… X-Wing. So perhaps the first surprise for me was just how involved flying actually is. Admittedly, I totally skipped any of the tutorials, so my trip was more like a passenger in a Hollywood action film stepping up to the plate when the pilot has been taken ill after having the fish for dinner, diving into the menus and checking controls, getting constantly beeped at and warned about flying too high, too low, too fast, too slow, too steep, too level. The only thing my plane seemed happy about was that it was slowly drifting on the wind to face west, forcing me to right my course every few minutes. For a supremely chilled out and relaxed concept, there's a lot to do.

Playing on an Xbox One controller, it's just a bit fiddly, with the game really wanting to have small and subtle inputs for those corrections that would be best done on a larger joystick, instead of on the edges of the dead zone of a little analogue stick. It's still enjoyable though, once you've been taught or given up and looked up exactly what does what. A little extra refinement and the game could live quite happily on Xbox One.

Well, maybe with some extreme optimisation, because Microsoft Flight Simulator is a bit of a resource hog if you want it to look its best. On the whole, my Ryzen 3600 and Vega 56 combo can take it in its stride at 1080p, but loading times are long, even when installed to an SSD, and there can be some noticeable hitches, whether that's down to my computer or the way the game loads in data from the internet. It feels like there will be some wizardry required for Asobo to scale this all the way back down to the base Xbox One with half decent performance.

We've all seen the game looking at its absolute best in trailers and screenshots, with stunning rain and lightning when flying through a storm, gorgeous recreations of some of the most iconic airports around the world. You soon discover that this has been built on top of a world that is decidedly flight sim-y. The AI world generation that's been applied to satellite and flyover imagery is incredible, figuring out where roads go, which parts of the world to cover in trees, and filling in cities with little buildings and houses.

At a distance, it's incredibly effective, but it's clear that there's still work to be done to refine this process, and a human touch is almost certainly needed in more places. As soon as you reach somewhere that you're familiar with or look a little more closely, you'll spot the generic buildings that are dropped in, turning terraces into detached houses in some places, blocks of flats in others, creating the feeling of flying over Cities: Skylines, where the roads have been laid, and then AI citizens and housing developers have bought plots of land and built the city afresh. This is part of the compromise of designing the game with a global perspective, but it's still a slight shame that there aren't more local landmarks like Brighton Pavilion that have made the cut. While some London landmarks have been captured, even Buckingham Palace has been reduced to being a boring old office block, unless you buy a DLC pack from Orbx, available via an in-game store.

Buckingham Block of Flats

I don't think that undercuts what Microsoft Flight Simulator offers though, and it brings me back to that early sense of wonder that Google Earth provided in the mid-2000s. Sure, that was free, and Flight Simulator comes with a $60 ticket price for the standard edition, and a decade ago that would have kept this as a niche product geared toward those flight sim diehards. Game Pass and the mixture of first-month discounts and discount price for the PC-only Game Pass brings this much closer to free, so that more people will consider just trying it out and exploring the world.

I think that's a fantastic option now, for anyone with a decently powerful PC, and in future when the game comes to Xbox. I doubt I'll ever play it seriously enough to buy a flight stick, but it could just be an occasional haven where I can just go and visit some of the many cities around the world that feel so much more distant in 2020.

Before I get to that, I'm off to try and find where my parents live… in the dark.

Unboxing the sleek Death end re;Quest 2 Limited Edition

I was blown away by Death end re;Quest 2 when I reviewed it a little earlier this month. The horror-inspired JRPG has a lot of unique ideas and addictive gameplay, but it also has sharp character designs and an incredible soundtrack. When I come across a game like this that sticks with me long after I've played it, I can't help but want some physical merchandise of it to display on my shelves. If you've got similar feelings about the eerie world of Death end re;Quest 2, then Idea Factory International has you covered with their upcoming Limited Edition release of the game.

Idea Factory International has been putting together some beautiful collector's boxes for their last few Limited Edition releases, and the one for Death end re;Quest 2 is no exception. The front of the box features a beautiful illustration of the main characters that also serves as the reverse cover art for the standard edition of the game. It's a beautiful piece of art, and as you'll see with the rest of the contents of the Limited Edition – they get plenty of use out of it. The box also features the sharp logo for the game on the sides, as well as a really cool emblem on the back of it.

As nice as the box that all of these goodies come in is, though, the goodies themselves are the stars of the show. I'm especially fond of the Steelbook case for the game, which features some gorgeous holographic printing on both sides. The layout of the Steelbook and the emblem printed on the back actually mirror the design of the Steelbook for the first game, which I thought was a nice touch. That illustration featured on the front of the collector's box is also the cover of the Steelbook, as well as the art featured on the pack-in collectible card.

If you want even more art to appreciate, there's a wonderful miniature art-book featured in the Limited Edition release of Death end re;Quest 2 as well. This 64-page book includes a wonderful sampler of all the art you could want out of a compiled book like this. There's environmental concept art, package illustration designs, character profiles, and even some event CGs. My favorite thing to peruse in art books is always character concept art, and thankfully there's a section of the book dedicated to just that.

This isn't the only book that comes with the Limited Edition, though. There's also Death end re;Quest 1.5, a 48 page novel that helps bridge the gap between the first and second games. The mystery of how these two seemingly unrelated stories tie into each other is a big part of Death end re;Quest 2, so it's probably best not to read this novel until you finish the game. It's so rare to see something like this translated and released as a bonus for the western audience, so I'm really happy Idea Factory International decided to include it.

The other unique item included with the Limited Edition of Death End re;Quest 2 is actually so big it wasn't even included inside the collector's box at all. It's a full-sized black messenger bag with unique art of the four protagonists of the game printed across the front. As much as I love repping my anime game pride, I don't often bust out bags with full art like this on them. Thankfully, if you're someone who decides they want a more discreet bag to bring to work or school, the flap with art printed on it can be removed by a velcro strap, leaving behind a simple black messenger bag with plenty of storage space.

The Limited Edition of Death End re;Quest 2 from Idea Factory International is no basic cash-in or bare minimum release. It's a passion-fueled collection of unique physical goods that any fan of the series or first-time player can appreciate. The standard stuff like your Steelbook case and game soundtrack are welcome additions, but the inclusion of things like a fully-translated light novel and a deluxe messenger bag set this apart as one of the most interesting and worthwhile collector's editions I've seen all year.

Xbox Game Pass update adds Microsoft Flight Simulator and Spiritfarer, Resident Evil 7 coming soon

Microsoft has confirmed the games that will be added to Xbox Game Pass on both PC and console over the next few weeks, with the first big addition landing today. Microsoft Flight Simulator is available now through Xbox Game Pass on PC along with Spiritfarer, which is also available on Xbox One. Then on August 20th Battletoads will hop onto both PC and Xbox One through the service, as will Don't Starve: Giant Edition. Crossing Souls and Darksiders Genesis will be available on Xbox Game Pass PC on the same day. New Super Lucky's Tale joins the service on August 21st.

That is half the list. Hypnospace Outlaw joins the line up on both PC and console on August 27th, as does Tell Me Why: Chapter One. Then on August 28th Wasteland 3 and Double Kick Heroes will be added. On September 1st PC subscribers will be able to access Crusader Kings III, and then on September 3rd both Xbox One and PC subscribers will get Resident Evil 7 Biohazard as a choice. The next few weeks are pretty stacked for Xbox Game Pass subscribers then. As games join others leave and the list of leavers is below.

Leaving August 31

  • Creature in the Well (Console & PC)
  • Giana Sisters: Twisted Dreams – Director's Cut (Console)
  • Metal Gears Solid 2 & 3 HD (Console)
  • Metro: Last Light Redux (Console)
  • The Jackbox Party Pack 3 (Console)

Leaving September 1

  • NBA 2K20 (Console)

Leaving September 7

  • Red Dead Redemption 2 (Console)

In our review for Spiritfarer, Miquel wrote:

"Spiritfarer has a soft, caring, bittersweet tone that I've rarely encountered in video games. For a game all about death and dying, I only ever felt calm and relaxed when playing it. The management gameplay is varied and engaging, and even though the scope if it leads to the game getting a bit too long in the tooth, it helps connect the incredibly emotional story beats together so well. Mix that up with its beautiful art style and enchanting music, and you've got one of the most emotional management games I've ever played."
You can read the full Spiritfarer review here.

Source: Microsoft

Hyper Scape adds a timed limited Faction War mode

Ubisoft's battle royale title, Hyper Scape, is getting a new timed limited mode called Faction War. 96 players, in teams of three, will be split in to four factions, the last faction with players on the map wins.

You can grab Hyper Scape from the download links below.

Hyper Scape Season One introduces cross progression so it does not matter which platform you play everything you unlock will carry over. While cross play is not yet available in Hyper Scape, Ubisoft has confirmed and it will be optional. Hyper Scape season one also adds a new weapon and that is the Dragonfly. The weapon is described as a silenced, semi-automatic precision rifle, and that means the number of weapons has gone up to 11. The Magnet hack has also been added which traps enemies if they get near it. A player reporting tool will allow players to report others in their own squad if they are cheating or breaking other rules of Hyper Scape.

Season one of Hyper Scape brings with it 100 tier battle pass with both free and premium content available, with all that being cosmetic only. A shop is also being added so players can buy cosmetics from there, including items that were in the original beta. New memory shards will appear in matches to which will give more insight in to the lore of Hyper Scape. When it comes to the streaming side of things Twitch streamers will be able to vote on nine different event cards that can change the environment of a match, while the newly introduced Kudos system that will trigger different visuals such as a thumbs up. Finally, Streamers will be able to anonymise their names so other players don't know who they are.

Source: YouTube

Rocksteady face sexual harassment accusations ahead of the reveal of Suicide Squad

The Guardian has reported that more than half the women employed at London based Batman developer Rocksteady Studios signed a letter "accusing the studio of failing to prevent sexual harassment and inappropriate behaviour in the office." The letter was sent two years ago and resulted in a one hour training session for staff, it is reported that multiple signatories of the letter left the company due to inaction by the management.

The letter, dated November 2018 and signed by 10 of the company's 16 female staff at the time, raised complaints about behaviour including "slurs regarding the transgendered community" and "discussing a woman in a derogatory or sexual manner with other colleagues", and sexual harassment "in the form of unwanted advances, leering at parts of a woman's body, and inappropriate comments in the office".

Rocksteady have well over 200 staff, with only 16 female employees they were clearly in the minority. The person who contacted the Guardian, encouraged by the changes going on at Ubisoft, pointed out that the developers "dismissive attitude towards women" could clearly be seen in it's games.

"Rocksteady doesn't have the best reputation for representing women," she said, citing the highly sexualised design and costuming of  Poison Ivy and Harley Quinn. "Sometimes you could see the surprise on their face when you said that's not how women dress."

Last last year someone swapped the character models of Batman and Catwoman and you can see just how over stylised the female character is.

After the Guardian contacted Rocksteady "management called an all-staff meeting where they discussed the letter for the first time. New initiatives were promised to prevent further discrimination, the Guardian understands."

Up to that point it is claimed the letter was kept secret "because staff members feared that if they left on bad terms they would be denied credit on the company's upcoming game, an adaptation of DC Comics' Suicide Squad."

Rocksteady gave The Guardian the following statement.

From day one at Rocksteady Studios, we set out to create a place where people are looked after, a place fundamentally built on respect and inclusion.

In 2018 we received a letter from some of our female employees expressing concerns they had at that time, and we immediately took firm measures to address the matters that were raised. Over the subsequent two years we have carefully listened to and learned from our employees, working to ensure every person on the team feels supported. In 2020 we are more passionate than ever to continue to develop our inclusive culture, and we are determined to stand up for all of our staff.

Suicide Squad is set to be revealed at DC Fandome on August 23rd at 01.00hrs BST. It will be interesting to see how the female characters in that game are portrayed.

Source: The Guardian

Spiritfarer Review

From the very first minute, Spiritfarer makes its serene and welcoming atmosphere known. Sure, you're cruising down the River Styx and being confronted by the ferryman Charon, but instead of the dark and foreboding locale you might expect, with Charon being a sinister spirit, this is a colourful Ghibli-esque world.

The River Styx is a gorgeous melody of blue waters and gorgeous greens. Charon is big, but certainly not bad, as the ancient ferryman is simply a tired soul preparing to finally pass on to the final stages of the afterlife. He's passing his grandiose responsibilities as spiritual ferryman to the lost souls of the world on to Stella, an unassuming little human who serves as your window into the equally sweet and solemn world of Spiritfarer.

As the newly appointed ferryman, Stella (and her fluffy cat Daffodil, who was also granted the spiritual powers of Charon) must assemble their own sea-faring vessel to serve as a temporary home to the various spirits they'll encounter and recruit during their time as spirit farers. This translates to a healthy amount of management-style gameplay not unlike something like Stardew Valley or Story of Seasons. You've got gardens to tend, fabric to thread, houses to build, ore to mine, and even mouths to feed as you begin bringing spirits aboard your ship.

While life-simulation games are usually laid-back and cheery affairs, the time limit that these micro-management elements put on you can usually be a little stressful or nerve-wracking. Spiritfarer eliminates all of these sweat-inducing road-blocks, though. Crops can't go bad and there isn't any sort of stamina meter or time-limit forcing you to stop playing. If you want to play music to your carrots or cook delicious apple pies long after the sun goes down, nothing is going to stop you.

The only thing that the curtain of the night puts a halt to is your ability to sail the spiritual seas, which is how you make most of your progress in Spiritfarer. As you across the unmapped regions of the game, you'll come across new towns, settlements, and islands to dock at and explore. Almost every inhabitant of these little pockets of civilisation is an identical block-shaped buddy with a silky cloak draped over their entire body. Imagine a Shy Guy that's swallowed a PS4, and you're there. Some of these four-cornered friends have a whispy aura hovering above them in the shape of something else. Speak to them and develop enough trust with the wayward spirit, and they'll join your ship, transforming into their true form.

One might reveal themself to be a meek little anthropomorphic snake in a robe, while another might be an armadillo with an adorable church hat. All of these spirits were once human, but in the in-between-world of Spiritfarer their physical forms are a variety of adorably designed animals. It was always a delight to see what kind of creature each spiritual companion would reveal themselves to be.

There's a minor overarching story throughout Spiritfarer concerning the newly appointed ferrymen Stella and Daffodil, but most of the game's narrative meat revolves around the journeys of each of your spiritual companions. As you meet and bond with them, they'll reveal more of their backstory to you and open up further as they begin to come to terms with their own death. Eventually, you'll need to bring them to The Everdoor, allowing them to pass on to the great beyond once they've fully come to terms with the end of their life.

So many games focus on the grimness of death, or use it as a shocking twist or plot device. For a game that is about nothing but death and dying and the afterlife, Spiritfarer never once adopts that kind of atmosphere. Instead, the tone of Spiritfarer is more like that of a loving family member resting their hand on your shoulder as they explain a loved one's passing to you. It hurts to know these people are gone, and it can be sad to think about that, but in working through these things slowly and softly, Spiritfarer develops a message about comfortably embracing the inevitability of death. It's a message that anyone can be touched by.

You would expect an intimate experience like this to be a brief, story-driven game, but Spiritfarer is dozens of hours long. That surprisingly lengthy run-time is certainly kept interesting by the variety of activities in the game. The way you engage with each activity on your ship is different, going beyond just mashing the A button until a task is completed. There's also a steady and satisfying sense of progression as you map more of the world and greatly expand your ship. The presentation of the game also does wonders to keep you engaged, as the gorgeous and colourful hand-drawn art of the world mixes with silky smooth animation and calming music perfectly.

Still, for as rewarding and enjoyable as the gameplay is, I can't help but feel like the unique and emotional narrative elements of the game are the star of the show. A version of this game with less of a focus on upgrades and management could have a shorter runtime and help those story beats land even harder.

Spiritfarer has a soft, caring, bittersweet tone that I've rarely encountered in video games. For a game all about death and dying, I only ever felt calm and relaxed when playing it. The management gameplay is varied and engaging, and even though the scope if it leads to the game getting a bit too long in the tooth, it helps connect the incredibly emotional story beats together so well. Mix that up with its beautiful art style and enchanting music, and you've got one of the most emotional management games I've ever played.

Untitled Goose Game is getting a free co-op update in September

What's better (or more mischievous) than one goose? Two geese! House House and Panic have announced that Untitled Goose Game will be receiving a free two-player update next month on 23rd September.

Further to this announcement, the game will be coming to more storefronts, with Steam and Itch releases on 23rd September, and a physical release of the game for Nintendo Switch. The game is already out for Nintendo Switch, PS4 and Xbox One, and for PC and Mac via the Epic Games Store.

Untitled Goose Game was one of the indie hits of last year, racking up over 1 million sales in its first few months on sale. It spawned a bunch of memes and saw geese appearing at The Game Awards, among other memeable places.

The Goose was also one of the few gaming characters to reveal their political allegiance and urged gamers to vote Labour during the 2019 general election. Unfortunately, despite his popularity the Goose's powers were still limited when it comes to politics.

"At the end of the day – the long hard day of being a naughty little goose – Untitled Goose Game is something truly unique and special," we said in out 9/10 review. "It's a beautifully clean and simple puzzle game which will have you howling with delight, both when you play it through for the first time, and when you pass the controller to your partner saying, "You absolutely need to play this game where you're a naughty little goose…"

At the time, we pondered whether or not House House would see fit to spin the game into a series with a sequel, though they would still have had the headache of being the creators of a game with no name, and the added problem of deciding whether to not have a number, or if they should not have a colon and subtitle. It seems that, for now, they've just decided to not have a sequel at all, with the co-op mode sure to allow more people to enjoy the game and its dastardly goose shenanigans than ever before.

Source: Twitter

PlayStation 5 launch exclusive Deathloop delayed until early 2021

Bethesda have announced the delay of Deathloop from Holiday 2020 alongside the PlayStation 5, for which it is a timed console exclusive, to Q2 2021.

The delay follows in the footsteps off another big next-gen launch title, Halo Infinite, with Bethesda also citing the need to polish their game further (Arkane's games often lean on more emergent gameplay which can be difficult to polish and refine) and the challenge of working remotely to keep employees safe during the Covid-19 pandemic.

The decision is a bit of a blow for Sony, who had secured Deathloop as a timed console exclusive for PlayStation 5, and would surely have been eager to tout it alongside whatever first party games they are able to release, such as Spider-Man: Miles Morales.

The game is set on the island of Blackreef, with protagonist Colt trapped here in a mysterious Groundhog Day-style timeloop. Instead of trying to find love, he's trying to take out eight targets across Blackreef before midnight. It seems simple enough except Blackreef has its own guard, Julianna and she enjoys killing Colt over and over again.

Colt appears to have various abilities including the Blink ability from the Dishonored games allowing him to teleport around Blackreef. Another ability allows him to flick enemies away, including out of windows. Players will have to learn the patterns of Blackreef and discover different paths to work out how to best move forward. There will be a lot of dying but each death will bring knowledge.

Deathloop does mix the singleplayer and multiplayer. While players experience the story of Colt others can take control of Julianna to hunt Colt through Blackreef and stop his progress. It is an optional choice as players can keep it so Julianna remains AI controlled instead of player controlled.

Deathloop will now be coming to PlayStation 5 and PC in Q2 2021. Any time-restricted release on other platforms, such as Xbox Series X, will likely also have been delayed.

Source: Twitter

First Elite Dangerous: Odyssey dev diary shows planetary exploration with boots on the ground

Frontier Developments have revealed more of the huge step forward that Elite Dangerous is going to take next year with the release of Elite Dangerous: Odyssey. For the first time you'll be able to step out of your space-faring vehicles and set foot on the landscapes of the millions of planets in the game's recreation of the Milky Way.

This is the first dev diary that Frontier will be releasing in the run up to the expansion's release, with Game Director Piers Jackson leading the explanation of what they're trying to achieve.

Odyssey will bring with it newly enhanced rock and ice planets. Rocky planets will now be covered in more realistic canyons, ridges and barren seas, while ice planets bring with them the risk of cryovulcanism. However, across the board, your interactions with planets will be transformed.

Planets will be able to have light atmospheres, tapping into data that Frontier already had for each planet and now presenting it to players. They will also be able to play host to buildings and settlements that are on a "human scale" compared to the scope and size of the planetary bodies that they're built upon.

There will be new flora, which has all been designed to be a blend of recognisable to us as plants, and seem plausible while remaining alien. A new sampling tool will let you extract genetic data that can then be traded for rewards at starports. Sounds just a little bit No Man's Sky, in my opinion, but these days that's no bad thing!

But the real focus is in letting you truly appreciate the scale of the first time. They want to capture the "Neil Armstrong moment" of stepping outside of your space ship for the first time, beholding just how big your craft is, and feel the cold void of space through hearing the breathing of your character in their space suit.

Elite Dangerous: Odyssey arrives early 2021 for PC, PS4 and Xbox One.

Source: YouTube

Hands on Transformers: Battlegrounds – a turn-based strategy for Transformers fans of all ages

When the trailer for Transformers: Battlegrounds dropped,  it showed a game that was remarkably different to previous titles. Instead of an action game, the robots in disguise were instead dressed up in what looked like a turn based strategy game. It turns out that's exactly what it is.

It's an interesting choice and combination. The designs of the robots are lifted from the current Cyberverse cartoon which is clearly aimed at kids, but the tactical strategy genre is typically more suited a more mature audience. The developers, Coatsink, wanted to do something new with the Transformers license and took inspiration from Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle, which they saw was very popular with a younger audience despite it being a more thoughtful, slower game.

You play as the last human in the deserted Central City and are recruited by the Autobots' AI, Teletraan X, to help the six remaining heroic Autobots thrash the pants off the evil Decepticons. You begin with just Bumblebee, but pick up Arcee, Optimus and others along the way, and will be facing off against six Decepticons. They act as boss and mini boss characters, with Seeker drone clones there for cannon fodder. The battles rage across four chapters, each with a number of episodes, culminating in a return to Cybertron as Megatron closes in the All Spark, the Transformers series' default MacGuffin.

One thing the developers Coatsink have definitely got right is the characterisation, the cast of the cartoon are voicing their respective characters and there are short cut scenes between battles which look just like cartoon. It's a friendly and inviting art style that will definitely appeal to younger players.

The play area is split in to a square grid and each Autobot gets a number of action points per turn to spend. These can be used to move to a new position, find cover, or attack the enemy using standard blasters, or a special attack which uses a lot more points. These special abilities include Optimus targeting a Deception, jumping to his position, picking him up and throwing him back to where Optimus was previously standing, while Grimlock can breathe fire across a large area, damaging all the Decepticons at once. Tranforming occurs automatically, so if you character has a large distance to cover they will switch to vehicle mode.

Unfortunately I only had a very brief time playing the game, but could still see some of the depth within the gameplay. As well as finding cover there are crates of Energon scattered across the play area, which lend your Autobot if you stand near them. The Decepticon drones will also heal other enemies and team up, so you really do need to get rid of them first before attacking the major Decepticons.

I was playing on PC, but the simple controls should map well to consoles as there are only a few buttons to select attacks or change characters. You can also zoom around the battlefield to plan ahead, since there is no 'fog of war' restricting your view. There are a number of difficulty levels, the easiest of which will allow younger players see the story, but I'm told the harder levels will really test the most seasoned tactical player. The game also has local co-op so you can team up with chums and play across generations of Transformers fan.

All in all, the game is coming together quite nicely, taking the franchise to a genre that it's never really visited before. The cartoon art style will appeal to the younger generation, while the gameplay should reach older fans who've rinsed everything they can out of XCOM. Through there's a Transformers story and characters that all fans of robots in disguise should enjoy.

Transformers: Battlegrounds is coming this October, for PS4, Xbox One, Switch and PC.

Apex Legends' new character Rampart is British Indian, so why doesn't she sound British?

Representation is important. Having characters from different backgrounds allows all of us to experience things from different points of view. Whether that is playing as someone like Arthur from Red Dead Redemption 2, Franklin from Grand Theft Auto V, or in the latest case someone like Rampart who has joined the Apex Legends roster with today's launch of Season 6 – Boosted.

Ramya 'Rampart' Parekh is described as a 21-year-old British Indian business owner, which is great. There are few representations of Indians in gaming and even fewer of those are women, so attempts at increasing how inclusive games are with characters such as this are always good to see. However, that representation also has to be accurate.

Skip ahead to the 55 second mark in her introduction trailer, or any of the videos that feature her, and you can hear how Rampart sounds. Despite being British Indian, she has the same kind of accent found in Bollywood movies when Indian characters speak English. Coming from a British Indian background myself, I can tell you without a doubt any Indian person born in Britain does not have an Indian accent, making Rampart sound like a poorly researched and considered caricature, regardless of the intent.

Since Rampart was first revealed, we've regularly reached out to EA for comment and clarification over the creative process, but are still waiting for a meaningful response at the time of publishing.

Accents are quite pure in depending on where you were born and where you live. My accent is of someone born in South East England, but British Indian people who grew up in Birmingham will have a Brummie accent. Of course, Rampart could be British Indian through getting citizenship after moving to the UK from India, but then why emphasise that she is British Indian in the first place? And what's the point of such a distinction when this is a science fiction universe in the far future and her Home World is listed as Gaea. Surely that would make her a Gaean Indian?

British Indian culture is different to Indian culture in some ways. After all, we British Indians are heavily aware of our Indian heritage and all of what comes with it, but we do not live in India so it is impossible to be fully immersed in that culture all of the time. That comes from growing up in two different cultures: Indian and British. Even within that there will be differences as Indians are not one giant mass of people who share the same cultural beliefs, religions, or languages. Growing up in a Sikh Punjabi British Indian family will have slight differences to growing up in a Hindu Gujarat British Indian family, not to mention the regional differences across Britain also impacting that identity.

Rampart is voiced by Anjali Bhimani, the same actor who voices the Indian character Symmetra in Overwatch. She voices the character very well in the game, and it's likely that this was part of what led to her casting as Rampart in Apex Legends. Of course, none of this mischaracterisation should be blamed on Anjali, especially as we don't know the character's evolution through the creative process. For all we know the original character sheet described Rampart as Indian and the change to British Indian could have come after the recordings were done.

I don't believe that this would come from a place of malice from Respawn, but labelling someone as British Indian and giving them stereotypical Indian accent is ignorance at best, and creating a caricature at worst. There probably aren't many British Indians in California to consult about this issue. However, we are at time when representations of race and treatment of minorities is a major social point. Movements like Black Lives Matter prove that society in general is not perfect and there are issues that need addressing. For EA and Respawn, companies that have spoken in support of BLM, to then stumble on another issue of representation shows that the industry still has a long way to go.

We eagerly await Respawn's response to our requests for comment.

Ghost of Tsushima art book goes on sale next month

Ghost of Tsushima is hands down one of the most gorgeous games of 2020, splicing samurai cinema with stunning natural backdrops.

Next month, Dark Horse Comics will launch The Art of Ghost of Tsushima – a 200 page showcase laying bear the inspirations behind Sony's latest PlayStation exclusive.

Available from September 3rd, the book will be available digitally with a hardcover edition also on sale, complete with fancy slipcase. Amazon UK currently have The Art of Ghost of Tsushima on pre-order for £34.02. Here's the official blurb direct from Dark Horse themselves:

Step into the role of Tsushima Island's last samurai through a vivid showcase of detail in a vast and exotic locale, featuring elegant illustrations of dynamic characters, spirited landscapes, and diagrams of Samurai sword-fighting techniques. Inspired by traditional Japanese art, this gorgeously designed art book showcases every vivid detail of Ghost of Tsushima!

Ghost of Tsushima has been a major success for Sony and developer Sucker Punch, both critically and commercially. Sitting on an OpenCritic average of 85, it is now the fastest-selling PS4 original IP, even beating Horizon: Zero Dawn by selling 2.4 million copies in its first three days.

Yesterday, Suck Punch revealed Ghost of Tsushima: Legends, a surprise multiplayer mode coming later this year. Legends will be part of a free update that includes missions crafted for two players as well as a wave-based survival game type that accommodates four.

Source: Dark Horse Comics

Ghost of Tsushima Guides & more from TheSixthAxis

Apex Legends Season 6 – Boosted is now live, and here's the patch notes

Season 6 of Apex Legends is now live, bringing with it a whole new character, major changes to one of the game's two maps, a fresh twist on the looting gameplay and, best of all… patch notes!

The new character is Ramya 'Rampart' Parekh, a British Indian private business owner who brings modded shields and her minigun named Sheila to the Outlands. Her passive ability gives her increased magazine capacity and faster reloads with LMGs and her minigun, and longer overheat times with the L-STAR. Her tactical Amped Cover ability lets her place crouch-cover walls that amp up outgoing shots. Finally, her ultimate is the Emplaced Minigun "Shiela" lets her place a mounted machine gun that anyone can use, with up to 3 miniguns to be deployed at once.

World's Edge has been updated with the thematic tage over by Hammond Robotics continuing. This has made changes to the Dome, Drill Site and some other points of interest, including the removal of the train that previously ran around the map.

The gameplay will also be shifted by the introduction of crafting. You can find materials at loot bins and material stations, and then take these to a Replicator that give you a choice of eight pieces of loot to craft, so long as you have enough materials. Loot rotates on a weekly or daily basis.

There's also the new energy-based Volt SMG, changes to the Armour Meta, an increase to the Mozambique magazine size, and plenty more.

Here's the rest of the patch notes detailing the changes in Apex Legends Season 6.

Apex Legends Season 6 patch notes

ARMOR META

With Season 6, we're introducing some big changes to the way armor works in the game.

First off, all armor in the game is Evo Armor (except the Gold Armor).

When you find a white, blue or purple armor on the ground, it's a pre-leveled Evo Armor. It can be picked up like normal, and continue to be evolved. Red Armor is not in the ground loot and can only be achieved through evolving.

Gold Armor is not part of the Evo Armor track, and is only found in rare locations as usual.

Another interesting change is that players spawn with level 0 Evo Armor. If you get in gun fights right away, and do enough damage, you will automatically level up into a White Armor. And you can continue to take that all the way to Red.

We think this will really help with loot availability in the early game, without requiring players to drop hot when they don't want to.

With all the changes in Season 6, players now have the opportunity to level up their shields through damage, luck in ground loot, or through crafting!

The last big differences is that all Armor is coming down by 25 health. This means, players with Purple and Gold Armor have 175 health, not 200. Red Armor gets you to 200 health, and you can no longer get to 225.

Our goal for this is to bring down the TTK (time to kill) a bit in order to better reward strategic positioning.

New Damage Requirements:
Damage to white: 50
Damage to blue: 125
Damage to purple: 250
Damage to red: 500

HOLO SPRAYS

Holo sprays are a new way to emote in the arena. By using the Emote wheel, you can throw down these legend specific calling cards to taunt bested enemies, or warn future challengers that you're not to be messed with.

BATTLE PASS

This season's battle pass includes the reactive Supersonic G7, Bloodhound Road Warrior, 5 new holo sprays, new skydive emotes, weapon charms and more!

QUEST

Follow the story from the Season 5 Quest, now in full color, illustrated comics!

Collect Treasure Packs daily to earn your rewards including Crafting Metals, Challenge Points, Apex Packs, and a whole new suite of Gun Charms.

LEGENDS:

This patch, we're taking a look at the recon class. A class built around information gathering should be powerful in a BR where knowing where the enemy is is often the difference between life and death, but out of the three Legends in the recon class (Pathfinder, Crypto, and Bloodhound), one dominates in terms of in-game performance. (It's the robot. The robot dominates.)

In this patch, we're mostly buffing Bloodhound as they needed the help the most. Crypto's changes are a mixed bag as we also found one bug we had to fix that was giving Crypto a hidden advantage (TLDR: sometimes when you thought you were hitting the drone, you weren't really hitting the drone). Between the buffs to Bloodhound's ult and the new utility Crypto gains on his drone, we hope to see a more diverse field of recon legends in game.

RECON CLASS:

  • All Recon legends (Bloodhound, Crypto, and Pathfinder) can now use Survey Beacons to get the next ring location. Crypto can use his drone to instantly get this information.

Pathfinder:

  • Context: Giving all Recon legends access to survey beacons makes Pathfinder less unique, and obviously we don't love that. For now, we're giving our friendly robot a small buff to his ultimate cooldown when he uses a survey beacon, but in the future we will take another look at Pathfinder to see what else we could do to make him feel more unique.
  • Passive: Each time Pathfinder scans a survey beacon, the total cooldown of Zipline Gun is reduced.
  • Numbers: Zipline Gun cooldown reduced by 10s each time Pathfinder scans a beacon. Up to 6 rings per game means the total cooldown of Zipline Gun can go from 120s to 60s.

Bloodhound:

  • Context: Bloodhound fulfills a very clear role in Apex Legends: they're the information gatherer and tracker, but currently their performance leaves a lot to be desired. In this patch, we wanted to double down on their ultimate being their big moment of becoming a god-like tracker. Bloodhound already gives up some information to the enemy when they scan or use the ultimate (it makes a noticeable sound), so we think there is room for a lot more power during the ultimate.
  • Beast of the Hunt: Now gains even more duration when Bloodhound scores a knockdown or kill with the ultimate about to run out.
  • Eye of the Allfather: During Beast of the Hunt, Eye of the Allfather now comes out twice as fast and has a much shorter cooldown.
  • Numbers:
    • Beast of the Hunt duration extension 5s → [5s – 15s] based on remaining duration
    • Eye of the Allfather CD during Beast of the Hunt: 25s → 6s
    • Eye of the Allfather total use time during Beast of the Hunt: 1.8s → 0.9s

Crypto:

  • Context: Crypto is a particularly interesting recon character: the amount of information he can gather for his team with the drone is very high, but the fact that he has to switch over to his drone leaves him vulnerable and often at a great distance from his team. Because he has no abilities without his drone, we figure there's room for even more power when he's in his drone.
  • Surveillance drone:
    • Crypto can now activate respawn and survey beacons from his drone. Doing so is instant instead of requiring a prolonged use.
    • Made the surveillance drone slightly more consistent to hit but also doubled its hitpoints.
  • Drone EMP:
    • EMP will now slow teammates caught in the blast, even if they had no shields. This means that players who have used Revenant's Death Totem will also be slowed.
  • Numbers:
    • Surveillance Drone 30HP → 60HP
    • Surveillance Drone hitbox size: cube of edge length 16 → cube of edge length 24

OTHER LEGENDS:

Revenant:

  • Context: We're happy to see that dropping the range restriction on Death Totem brought a lot more Revenants into play, but we've been watching a particularly frustrating combo play out in professional level play involving a squad of Revenant, Wraith, and Crypto, where using the three ultimates together resulted in two back to back runs at the enemy team that they could do very little about. We've attacked part of that in the Crypto EMP change, but here's the other part aimed at making this play less overwhelming.
  • Death Totem:
    • For 2s after being recalled by the Death Totem, players cannot use Wraith's Dimensional Rift.

Octane:

  • Stim: Can now use Stim while healing, but stim will not remove the slow you incur from healing.

Loba:

  • Context: While Loba was initially very popular, she's been struggling to keep up more recently, so we're tossing her a little buff. If you're curious why we've chosen to buff her ultimate rather than her tactical: we're seeing that she has decent combat success but that teams with her on them don't win as much as, say, teams with Lifeline or Wattson. This suggests to us that her out of combat utility (that is to say, how she funnels loot to her team) isn't doing enough.
  • Black Market:
    • Lowered cooldown from 3min to 90s

Gibraltar:

  • Defensive Bombardment:
    • Increased cooldown from 3 minutes to 4.5 minutes

Bangalore:

  • Rolling Thunder:
    • Decreased cooldown from 4.5 minutes to 3 minutes

Wattson:

  • Interception Pylon
    • Trophy system will now shoot down Caustic barrels in flight if they would have landed inside the range of the trophy.

LOOT

Added:

  • Extended Energy Mags.
  • Turbocharger Hop-up

Updated:

  • Precision Choke – Removed Precision Choke from loot pool, but it will now be integrated into the Triple Take and Peacekeeper by default. Fire select toggles on/off the choke

In Supply Drop:

  • R99
    • Damage increased from 11 to 12
    • Increased magazine size to 32
    • Ammo Reserve: 160

Out of Supply Drop- Into Ground Loot:

  • Devotion
    • Clip size reduced back to original values (36/40/44/48).

FULLY KITTED WEAPON SWAPS:

Removed:

  • DMR
  • Hemlok
  • Spitfire
  • EVA-8
  • RE-45

Added:

  • Devotion
  • Mastiff
  • Triple Take
  • Flatline
  • Volt

UPDATED LOOT

Sniper ammo

  • Increased pick up from 8 to 12
  • Increased Stack Size from 16 to 24

Energy Ammo

  • Reduce amount picked up from 30 to 20.

WEAPON UPDATES

Hemlok:

  • Reduced vertical recoil in burst mod
  • Slightly reducing recoil in pattern on 2nd and 3rd shot so first burst kicks less
  • Burst mode time between bursts .32 -> .28

Charge Rifle

  • Will now use 2 ammo per shot.
  • Increased mag size from 4 to 8

Triple Take Buff:

  • Increase fire rate 1.25 -> 1.4
  • Increased Mag size from (5/6/7/8) to (6/7/8/9)
  • Built the Choke hop up into the weapon by default. Toggle select-fire to enable/disable the Choke

PK

  • Built the Choke hop up into the weapon by default. Toggle select-fire to enable/disable the Choke

Spitfire

  • Improve recoil controllability

Havoc

  • Updated Havoc with a new recoil pattern
    Designer Note: The Havoc's existing recoil pattern had constant horizontal movement. This means it would either be too difficult to control if there was too much recoil, or far too easy to control if there was too little recoil. Updating to a new pattern which is more consistent in style with existing recoil patterns.

Mozambique

  • Increased clip size from 3 to 4.

P2020

  • Increased Damage from 13 to 15
  • Decreased Hammerpoint damage multiplier from 2.7 to 2.35. This will leave Hammerpoint P2020 damage unchanged in most scenarios..
  • Increased mag size from (10/13/15/18) to (12/14/16/18)

Sentinel

  • Only requires one shield cell to charge if the player has the gold armor.

Prowler

  • Slightly Reduce vertical recoil in burst mode
  • Increase horizontal recoil in Auto Mode

QUALITY OF LIFE

  • Supply Drop Weapons are now Heirloom Tier (red) to avoid confusion with fully kitted guns which will remain gold.
  • World's Edge received performance improvements, especially around The Tree, The Dome and Skyhook, looking towards the center of the map.
  • Alterations were made to The Ring to prevent late zones from centering on unplayable terrain and reduce the predictability of the zone's "pull."

BUG FIXES

-Bangalore-

  • Fixed an issue with the La Catrina and Killing Machine skins obscuring views when ADS with the holo, 2x, 2-4x or 3x scopes.
  • Fixed an exploit with being able to see through smoke when looking through a chain link fence.

-Bloodhound-

  • Fixed an issue with bloodhound being able to get an additional Ult when using a wraith ultimate.

-Caustic-

  • Fixed an issue with gas traps clipping into mobile Respawn beacons.
  • Fixed an issue with Revenant and Pathfinder taking less damage from Nox Gas

-Crypto-

  • Fixed an issue VFX show false positive when hitting Crypto's Drone.
  • Fixed an issue with Crypto being able to use his drone while using Loba's Black Market.
  • Fixed an issue with EMP not destroying Loba's Black Market.
  • Did a geo pass to help prevent Crypto's drone from clipping into walls

-Gibraltar-

  • Fixed an issue gibraltar air strike markers sometimes appearing inside buildings.

-Loba-

  • Fixed an issue with Loba's Black market not being pingable.
  • Fixed an issue with enemies getting teleported with Loba when they melee her when she teleports.

-Mirage-

  • Fixed an issue with decoy flying rapidly across the ground when player takes control of it before a jump tower or geyser.
  • Fixed an issue with decoys not looking natural when player uses a zipline
  • Fixed and issue with Decoys getting launched into air while player enters Wraith's Portal.
  • Fixed bug where Mirage's decoys would sometimes not deploy while skydiving

-Octane-

  • Fixed an issue with jump pads disappearing when placed on ordinances
  • Fixed an issue with jump pads disappearing when placed under loot ticks.

-Pathfinder-

  • Hi Friend!

-Revenant-

  • Fixed an issue with enemies getting teleported with Revenant when they melee him before he teleports back to death totem.

-Wraith-

  • Fixed an issue with wraith portals pushing players beneath geo when a death box is on the other end
  • Fixed an issue with Wraith's tactical losing velocity when pressing the fire button during the tactical.
  • Fixed an issue for when a death totem and portal are too close to each other causing players to auto enter a portal upon death totem recall.

-General-

  • Fixed an issue with evo armor doubling the effect of leveling up. This caused some brightness on screen.
  • Fixed an issue with the train killing players when coming out of a wraith portal on the train.
  • Fixed an issue with some vertical zip lines not correctly placing players once they get off the line.
  • Fixed an issue with spectator view pinging last pings when swapping through views (Private Match Issue).
  • Fixed an issue for knockdown state not eliminating the squad when no one had a gold shield.
  • Fixed an issue where death protection runs out with an active DOC medic nearby, DOC would not start healing you.

Source: Apex Legends

Road to Guangdong Review

Family is a big deal in Chinese culture and it's the overriding theme in Road to Guangdong, an indie game set in the titular province in Southern China during the 1990s with a charming and vibrant lo-fi aesthetic.

One peculiarity of the Chinese language I grappled with from a young age was how virtually every family member is addressed differently; there's not just a word for your aunt, but from which side of your parents and whether they're the older or younger sibling, and this often matters more than their actual names – I never even learned a lot of my older relatives' real names.

Fortunately in Road to Guangdong you at least know your name. You play as Sunny, a young art graduate who sets out on a road trip through the province to reunite with relatives in a bid to acquire family recipes that can help save her newly inherited restaurant. To do this, she's also inherited her late father's car nicknamed Sandy, and has her aunt, Guu Ma (i.e. her father's oldest sister), along for the ride to support, or at times badger and criticise.

Sandy is very much like a character, and just as cantankerous as your Guu Ma – an old hunk of junk that's barely in a fit condition to drive when you first take her out of the garage. To keep your ride sustained over the course of the journey, you'll not only need to keep her topped up on oil and petrol, but also do regular maintenance fixing up or replacing parts. The better condition you can get Sandy in, the more efficient she is with oil and petrol, though it's also on you not to get her more banged up, such as from driving too fast and wearing down the coolant system.

The premise is similar to Jalopy, another title from publisher Excalibur Games, albeit with much more basic mechanics. While you're warned that your game will be over if you run out of funds and petrol, this isn't really all that challenging, as I found myself with ample resources to spare for most of the game. In one instance near the end of my run where I forgot to pick up some spare petrol, I still had funds to call a tow truck to get us to the nearest garage.

Between destinations, you'll only pass by two kinds of stops: a garage for your refueling, parts and repair needs (though aside from the engine, you can actually do most repairs yourself to save labour costs), or scrap yards where you have free rein to loot whatever parts your inventory space can take. Even if you don't find anything that can improve Sandy, you can still sell these parts for extra dough.

The drives themselves are fairly tedious affairs, with routes generated as a straight line with a lot of the same basic assets, not to mention you have to drive fairly slowly because of Sandy's condition. You do at least get some interesting music, including a radio station that plays traditional Chinese tunes and another that has more Western sounds like rock and techno on rotation.

What ultimately makes Road to Guangdong compelling to play is when you're out of your car and meeting with your many relatives who, like Guu Ma, are also mostly referred to by specific terms. Even with your younger cousin, Sunny is referred to as 'Che Che' – big sister. It's also refreshing that the theme of familial bonds isn't strictly bound by blood, as you help an uncle deal with the revelation that they were adopted or learn of a certain man in Guu Ma's life. The more you learn about Guu Ma, whose actual name is Grace, the more you feel for this woman who's sacrificed so much in the face of patriarchal customs.

I found each of these narrative episodes compelling to experience, particularly with how it sprinkles in authentic Cantonese terms and expressions that I was certainly familiar with, and this also extends to the recipes you're trying to get from your extended family members. It's worth noting that these aren't actually secret family recipes, but well-known Cantonese dishes that you'd find in a dim sum menu.

The narrative puzzles for each are fairly straightforward, though it's still possible to mess up so that a family member refuses to give you a recipe or won't come to the family's next Spring Festival. While that might give a reason to replay, there's less incentive from the overall lack of challenge or interesting mechanics, especially when the repetition and rehashed material is already apparent on the first go, such as Guu Ma's nice but limited car anecdotes. Even if you only make the trip once, there's a good time getting to know the Tong family.

Genshin Impact release date confirmed for PC and mobile

Genshin Impact is shaping up to be one of the most anticipated upcoming releases as we slowly trudge through the second half of 2020. Now the free to play game finally has a release date, on PC and mobile that is.

Developer and publisher miHo Yo have confirmed that Genshin Impact will touch down on PC, as well as iOS and Android devices, on September 28th. Those wanting to get a day one advantage ahead of Genshin Impact launch date can do so by pre-registering to earn some extra in-game rewards.

With nearly 200,000 players having already registered, miHo Yo has set a handful of milestone goals – once hit, the player community will unlock special items and currency bundles to help them on their new adventure.

Naturally, with the recent beta on PlayStation 4, console gamers are asking when Genshin Impact will release on PS4. There's not concrete launch date right now with a provisional "Fall 2020" window.

Genshin Impact is an action RPG with online elements which many have likened to Nintendo's The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild in terms of its exploration and art style. When the game was revealed in China, Nintendo fans went as far as heckling demonstrations at events, one of them smashing their PS4 console in protest. Perfectly normal behaviour, that.

In his Genshin Impact PS4 preview, Miguel was blown away by the free-to-play open world title. Here are his closing thoughts on the game:

Genshin Impact is the kind of game I've been craving for a long time. I obsess over collecting the characters and upgrades in all sorts of free-to-play mobile games, but their insistence on repetitive short-form missions and minimal downtime always burns me out. Genshin Impact steps in a completely opposite direction, providing an immersive and zen world full of natural beauty to explore at your own pace, while also delivering a heaping helping of characters, skill points, missions, equipment and more that is sure to keep me glued to the full game for ages.

Source: Press Release

Beat Saber PSVR update 1.30 adds Linkin Park Music Pack

Beat Saber – the rhythmic block slashing VR masterpiece – has been updated to version 1.30 on the PlayStation 4.

The PSVR favourite has been expanded with new downloadable content available via the PlayStation Store, adding a selection of Linkin Park tracks.

The Linkin Park Music Pack DLC for Beat Saber includes 11 songs, playable in all difficulties. This latest pack joins others including Imagine Dragons, Green Day, Monstercat, and Rocket League (our favourite). Here's what you get:

Beat Games studio brings fresh beats from Linkin Park to Beat Saber! Dive into the pulsing music of Linkin Park and slash the beats in our brand new Linkin Park Music Pack. See you on the leaderboards!

Linkin Park Music Pack includes the tracks:

– Bleed it Out
– Breaking the Habit
– Faint
– Given Up
– In the End
– New Divide
– Numb
– One Step Closer
– Papercut
– Somewhere I Belong
– What I've Done

Songs can be purchased separately at £1.69 each or you can save a bit of cash by grabbing the full Music Pack DLC for £11.49. Aside from having new music to slice and dice away to, you'll have access to Link Park themed stage visuals.

Beat Saber update 1.30 doesn't make any other notable changes to the game on PS4 according to the official patch notes.

For those completely new to Beat Saber, it has quickly become an essential pick up for gamers wanting to dip their toes in the realm of virtual reality. This evolution of the rhythm game genre has you standing with a neon sword in each hand, swinging them as red and blue blocks advance in time with the music playing.

Developer by Czech studio, Beat Games, their flagship title quickly rose to prominence on Oculus and other PC VR gaming platforms. This was mainly thanks to the modding community who patched in custom songs, making Beat Saber an immediate Twitch sensation.

Source: Press Release

GolfTopia is a golf resort management sim with a tower defence twist

I'll be perfectly honest with you; GolfTopia wasn't exactly something that was on my radar for 2020. Yet, my love of gems like Theme Park World and Planet Zoo tickled something in my brain when I saw it. This looked like a title that just might scratch that same itch for construction and management, I thought, but can GolfTopia hit a hole in one?

Out now in Steam Early Access, GolfTopia, the futuristic golf course management sim from MinMax Games, plays a lot like a modern-day SimGolf. For those that haven't played the 2002 Sid Meier's classic, you still probably know what to expect; imagine Rollercoaster Tycoon, Zoo Tycoon, or really any Tycoon game, apply it to managing a golf course and you've got a pretty good idea what's going on. It's not the most exciting pitch for a game, but then none of the Tycoon games featured tower defence mechanics.

"What does tower defence have to do with anything?" you might ask. Well, GolfTopia drives a few curveballs your way with evil weeds that crop up sporadically around your resort, sucking the beauty out of their surroundings, and the fun out of your lovely golf course! It's up to you to build up a small army of robots and towers to defend from them.

While the premise certainly sounds unique and intriguing, the majority of your time will still be spent in typical management sim fashion, plotting your perfect course and tinkering with terrain controls as you mould your own personal island to your liking. The inclusion of some seriously silly future tech even makes this interesting for someone with no interest in golf.

I was powerless to resist the allure of making my golf resort look more like Futurama than the Masters, adding a Ring of Fire to go alongside an insanely powerful launch pad. In this respect, GolfTopia excels in giving the player freedom to do as they wish, and I'm sure fans of the genre could spend hours perfecting their ideal golf course. The controls are certainly simple and forgiving in this respect, so the barrier to entry is surprisingly low despite all the bells and whistles.

Speaking of bells and whistles, however, the UI is so desperate to show you everything you can possibly build that it ends up looking cluttered and messy, albeit while matching the simplistic, cartoony graphics that they're shooting for. Unfortunately, this is just the beginning of my list of gripes with GolfTopia.

The game is obviously only just entering Early Access, and sure to evolve from there, but there's a fair share of rough edges that I'd really like to see GolfTopia smooth over for the final release. The lack of a robust, intuitive tutorial was the first thing that struck me, making the initial suite of options somewhat daunting. On the other side of the coin, the game doesn't present much in the way of difficulty at all, which – coupled with content that is relatively light – ultimately left it feeling a bit shallow.

I don't mean to be overly harsh, and GolfTopia offers a relaxing experience that's perfect for any Tycoon fan looking to unwind from a stressful day, but it definitely feels like it has a long way to go. The key selling point of the malevolent weeds isn't anywhere near impactful enough for my liking, playing second fiddle (way, way in the back) to the gentle, benign resort management gameplay.

That might be perfect for some, and the thought of peacefully arranging a beautiful bunker beside a fabulous fairway could have you rushing to click the buy button, but I think there's some way to go in order to flesh out GolfTopia's more interesting ideas. Hopefully MinMax Games' estimate of needing six months to reach a full launch will be long enough for them to fill in any divots and expand their title into a management sim that can proudly stand alongside its peers.

Mediatonic asks brands to donate to charity to be in Fall Guys, hilarity ensues

You may have seen one of the many fan designed Fall Guys bean costumes scattered across the internet, and big brands have also latched on the phenomena with the likes of Konami, KFC, and Walmart all tweeting their own Fall Guys costumes.

Mediatonic have said they would "think very carefully" before putting anything like that in the game and have now announced that the brand that donates the most amount of cash to gaming charity Special Effect will get their costume in game.

Bids have been flying in from indie games and studios as well as brands you might not associate with gaming. The Tushy Bidet company bid $40,001 to have their design in the game.

Technically the highest bidder at the moment is Natuka Games, a company you may not have heard of as they make, ahem, saucy games. Their bid of $110,000 has been rejected due to NSFW content.

The highest official bid is from YouTuber Mr. Beast who has offered $100,000, but KFC, Walmart and the other big brands have yet to respond.

As Fall Guys went through extended downtime and server maintenance at the end of last week, Mediatonic said that they would be rewarding all the game's players for their patience waiting for the game to come back online.

Now they've revealed the compensation that they've come up with: a Legendary Prickles costume and 5,000 Kudos to spend in the in-game cosmetics store. Not so cuddly now, are we?

Fall Guys has been an absolute sensation for the team at developer Mediatonic and publisher Devolver Digital, with the companies revealing that they've sold over 2 million copies on Steam in the game's first week. That's before you take into account however many people have been playing via PlayStation 4, where it's free on PlayStation Plus in August. However, that has also led to some major server issues around launch, with an entire day being effectively wiped out on Friday, as they shored up the servers and added capacity ahead of the weekend. Thankfully things have been fairly steady since then.

We posted our Fall Guys review last week, saying:

Full of cute and cuddly jelly beans bumbling into each other in a race for the crown, Fall Guys is just about the most wholesome battle royale imaginable, and a whole lot of fun.

Fall Guys is out now for PlayStation 4 and PC via Steam.

Source: Twitter

[UPDATE] Steam is back online

UPADTE: It's back, Steam is working again!

Original story below…

Oh dear, something has gone wrong at Valve and Steam is offline. Head over to the Steam website and you get…

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Exciting, huh?

The unofficial Steam Store Twitter has confirmed it is offline.

The Steam desktop client is also having problems but the Community features seem to be up,m at least for the moment, they keep on going on and offline.

In other Valve news, it has been confirmed that the Valve Index VR headset production has been affected by the coronavirus outbreak, which means there are going to be fewer units released than planned. Currently, the Steam page for the Valve Index has a notify me button for players to get notified for when the headset is back in stock. In a statement given to Road To VR Valve said:

"We are working hard to meet demand for the Valve Index and want to reassure everyone that Index systems will be available for purchase prior to the game's launch. However, the global coronavirus health crisis has impacted our production schedules so we will have far fewer units for sale during the coming months compared to the volumes we originally planned. Our entire team is working hard right now to maximize availability."

The coronavirus outbreak is having an effect on all industries including the gaming one. Esports events have been canceled including Overwatch League in China and PUBG's PBS Berlin event, Sony has backed out of PAX East and GDC due to the virus, and Square Enix has also limited itself for PAX East. The Nintendo Switch's production has also been affected and led to shortages of the console, and the Switch port of The Outer Worlds was also delayed due to production issues that came about because of the coronavirus.

At the start of the year Valve announced that it has overhauled the soundtrack system on Steam meaning that going forward soundtrack will no longer be classed as DLC. Where soundtracks were classed as DLC you needed to own the game to purchase a soundtrack, and have that game downloaded to access the music as well. Now a new soundtrack app will allow people to purchase game music without having to have owned the accompanying game in the first place.

Source: Steam

 

The Firewatch movie / TV show is back on

Way back in 2016 Firewatch developers Campo Santo partnered with the film company Good Universe to create a film based on the hit game.

Campo Santo's founder Sean Vanaman spoke about the deal and said "When we met Good Universe we were floored by how they recognize, cultivate and produce incredible stories. It's rare you meet another group that shares so many of your values and makes the process of creating things even more exciting. We can't wait to see what we make together."

Like many video game to movie adaptions the project hit some problems, Good Universe were subsequently sold to Lionsgate and the project was halted with the rights returning to Campo Santo thereafter. Campo Santo themselves were then bought by Valve and the last we heard the Firewatch sequel, Valley of Gods, had met the same fate as a many other Valve projects. Valve's internal structure means that developers flip between projects at a whim and it seems the members of the Campo Santo team saw something else sparkly and went to work on that instead, we probably won't ever see Valley of the Gods, nor indeed the sparkly thing, because a more sparkly thing will come along and they'll go work on that instead.

Anyway, back to the film which is back on – probably – it might turn out to be a TV show instead. Indie film production company Snoot Entertainment is now working with Campo Santo to create the new media.

"Firewatch is a stunning accomplishment, a beautiful and heartbreaking piece of art," said Keith Calder from Snoot. "I'm delighted that Sean and Jake are letting us ruin their perfect video game by turning it into a movie and/or TV show."

One can't help think that they may have missed the boat on this one. Firewatch was a great game but it's going to be at least five years old by the time the TV show / film debuts and it was a small indie title, it was pleasant enough at the time but I don't think many people regard it as classic.

Source: THR

Apple to terminate Epic Games' dev access in Fortnite payment row

Apple have built a brick wall in the sand in their sudden spat with Epic Games over payment methods for in-app purchases in Fortnite, issuing the ultimatum that, unless Epic back down and remove the direct payment method that infringes on iOS App Store policies, they will cut Epic off entirely from Apple's platforms. Not just Fortnite, but all of Epic's access will be cut off.

Epic have filed for an injunction to prevent Apple from doing this while the lawsuit filed last week is deliberated over in the courts.

Epic's lawyers state that, following a public statement that Apple would "make every effort to work with Epic . . . so they can return Fortnite to the App Store", they decided to crack down on Epic.

Apple then posted another notice at 12:04 a.m. Pacific Time on August 14. In the second notice, Apple said it found Fortnite "in direct violation of the Apple Developer Program License Agreement", and stated it will terminate Epic's membership in its Developer Program "within 14 days" if Epic did not remove Fortnite's alternative in-app payment system and comply with other demands. Apple stated that if it terminates Epic, then Epic "may no longer submit apps to the App Store" and its "apps still available for distribution will be removed." Apple also stated it will cut off Epic's access to a list of tools, including "[a]ll Apple software, SDKs [software development kits], APIs [application programming interfaces], and developer tools", as well as "pre-release versions" of iOS, macOS and other Apple OSs.  Finally, Apple stated that unless Epic capitulates, Apple will also block "[e]ngineering efforts to improve hardware and software performance of Unreal Engine on Mac and iOS hardware [and] optimize Unreal Engine for the Mac for creative workflows".

Simply this would have a huge impact for Epic on Apple's platforms going forward, meaning that they are unable to continue developing Unreal Engine on iOS and MacOS, and would thus be unable to natively support the upcoming versions of either OS later this year, much less the planned jump for Macs from Intel to Apple Silicon CPUs due to start in 2021.

However, this won't have a major impact on the here and now outside of Fortnite. It won't suddenly see reams of third party games be delisted, though it will make updating them potentially more difficult for developers.

Of course, with the incessant updates that Epic throw at Fortnite, the game will become detached from the rest of the game's player base very quickly, with Epic having handled this law suit like a publicity stunt, timing their actions to have immediate and direct consequences for maximum impact.

All of this has come about because Epic decided to introduce a new way to pay for in-game currency that bypassed Apple's systems, dodging Apple's 30% fee on transactions processed via Apple. In reaction to this, Fortnite was pulled from the App Store, with Epic then immediately filing suit. A similar chain of events also played out on the Google Play Store on Android.

Apple have come in for strong criticism over the last few months, with a war of words with Microsoft over the exclusion of their xCloud streaming app. Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscribers will only be able to access game streaming via Android smartphones when the service launches in September.

Source: Epic

Dragonball FighterZ next character is Master Roshi

Bandai Namco has confirmed the next DLC fighter character for Dragonball FighterZ is Master Roshi, and he will be available this September as part of FighterZ Pass 3. Master Roshi is the third character of FighterZ Pass 3 joining Kefla and Goku Ultra Instinct. There are two more characters yet to be revealed for this pass. You can watch Master Roshi's reveal trailer below where he teases some of his fighting style.

In our review for Dragon Ball FighterZ Dave wrote:

2018 is off to a strong start with Dragon Ball FighterZ an early contender for this year's best fighting game.  By shattering some boundaries, Dragon Ball FighterZ has combat that's more than worth getting into, but also a diverse roster and some phenomenal presentation. The Story Mode could have been improved if it were more streamlined, but it's a mere blemish on an otherwise spectacular game.

You can read the full Dragon Ball FighterZ review here.

Source: YouTube

Batman Court of Owls game teased again, reveal at DC FanDome, secret code hidden in website

WB Games Montreal have teased their forthcoming game again, this time with a red circle, some numbers, and brief flash of a logo that show an owl. Ooh, what on earth could it be?

In case you cant be bothered to pause the video, here are the two images that briefly flash up, the first clearly has an owl in it…

The second image is much harder to make out, I've fiddled with it a bit to try and make it clearer but it could be anything, looks like half an orange to me.

Back in January Warner Bros Montreal decided to tease the game on social media by posting more images with the caption Capture The Knight. The same caption was used way back in September 2019 when they first started teasing the game. Yes, this is very, very long tease, perhaps the game has been held up by COVID-19 or the recent threatened sale of the company made things complicated.

Today's tweet from WB Games Montreal directs people to a new Twitter account, @r3dakt3d – redacted, geddit? There's also a r3dakt3d website which has the text "We have been expecting you" and the date 18th August, which is two days before DC FanDome, but the Twitter account uses the DC Fandome hashtag so we will probably get the reveal of the game officially on the 18th, and gameplay at DC FanDome.

WB Games are clearly aware that people scrape the source code for teaser websites just in case there is anything juicy,  obviously it's the first thing I did and it contains the following message.

Welcome Back You ——— △V B3 C⟶ →5N

Decode the hexadecimal and you get: dash, dash, dash, upwards triangle, V B3 C, long rightwards pointing arrow, rightwards pointing arrow, <Private Use, First>, 5N

Dash dash dash is "O" in morse, Upwards triangle plus a V makes a W.. er.. that's as far as I got. Can you do better? There's also some Morse code on the tweet above.

Source: Twitter