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Ubisoft could move away from relying on AAA game releases

Ubisoft are looking to shake up their business strategy and portfolio of games and shift away from relying almost exclusively on big budget AAA releases, it has been revealed in an earnings call following the company's Q3 financial report. While its plans for fiscal year 2022, which runs from April 2021 through March 2022) are unchanged and will still feature three major AAA games as per their established yearly template, after this point, Ubisoft will shift away from those games being the core pillar of their business. Game series like Assassin's Creed and Far Cry likely aren't going anyway, but we can expect to see more free-to-play and other experiences feeding in as well.

Company CFO Frederick Duguet explained, "We said for a number of years that our normal template is to come with either three or four AAA games, so we'll stick to that plan for fiscal 2022, but we see that we are progressively, continuously moving from a model that used to be only focused on AAA releases to a model where we have a combination of strong releases from AAA and strong back catalog dynamics, but also complimenting our program of new releases with free-to-play and other premium experiences."

Far Cry 6 was recently delayed to later in 2021.

What the future will look like for Ubisoft is particularly curious, then. Games like Far Cry 6, Rainbow Six Quarantine, Skull & Bones, Riders Republic and more are still on the cards are paid games, but Ubisoft have also experimented over the past few years with more of a Games as a Service business model at times. Rainbow Six Siege, For Honor and The Division have all enjoyed varying degrees of success in that arena, for example. There have also been forays into free-to-play gaming with the likes of Brawlhalla and battle royale Hyper Scape – a game that was notably unmentioned in the call and was a flop for the company.

There's clearly some range in how Ubisoft release their games, but the implication seems to be that they really want to tap into the mobile gaming market. They have a number of mobile games, such as Might & Magic: Chess Royale, the controversial Tom Clancy's Elite Squad and Idle Restaurant Tycoon which were released in the last few years, but mobile gaming only makes up around 9% of the company's total business.

They'll be hoping to expand that by investing in titles like the previously announced Assassin's Creed mobile game developed with the help of Tencent for the Chinese market.

Duguet said, "In fiscal 2022, we will continue our evolution from a AAA release-centric model toward a model where AAA stands alongside new premium and free-to-play innovative experiences across platforms. These diverse experiences will feed on each other through complementary gameplay and business models."

Rainbow Six Siege remains as popular as ever, despite being six years old.

As they look to make this shift, Ubisoft is still able to rely on the long-term revenue that their back catalogue of games provides. Rainbow Six Siege might be six years old, but there were 15 million new players in the last year, while games like Far Cry 5, The Crew 2, Assassin's Creed Odyssey, older Just Dance games and Mario + Rabbids are still selling relatively well.

I think the key thing here is that, while Ubisoft can invest in and chase more profits, gamers will be keen to see them not sell out entirely to the mobile and free-to-play market. There are already a wide range of microtransactions that are inserted into games like Assassin's Creed Valhalla, and as we see all too often in video games, the balance between microtransactions that feel fair and free-to-play monetisation that feels exploitative is a difficult one to judge.

Source: IGN

Sonic The Hedgehog 2 movie title has Tails in "extremely obvious" announcement

The official title for the Sonic the Hedgehog 2 movie has been revealed to be Sonic The Hedgehog 2 by the Sonic the Hedgehog movie Twitter account. They dubbed it "groundbreaking", not to mention "thought provoking," but admittedly also "extremely obvious".

Sonic the Hedgehog 2 will be coming to movie theatres (we really, really hope) on 8th April 2022.

I guess the latter two statements probably allude to the two tails that the number 2 in the title has, which obviously referred to the two-tailed fox known as Tails to fans of the franchise. In fairness, this is probably the least surprising news ("extremely obvious" if you will) to anyone that watched the original film and stuck around for the teaser post-credits scene, which featured, well…. Tails!

Sonic the Hedgehog was a big hit at the box office in the pre-pandemic start to 2020. The film sprinted past the previous record for an opening weekend, set last year by Detective Pikachu, managing to overcome an extensive delay and redevelopment to be a success. The film sees Sonic, voiced by Ben Schwartz, making a new life for himself on Earth. After setting off an EMP pulse that knocks out power across a large part of North America, the US government puts Jim Carrey's Dr. Robotnik on his tail, forcing Sonic to make a new best friend in Tom, played by James Marsden, and road trip across America. It doesn't really make too much sense, but then it's a video game movie for kids.

The 10 best Sonic games, according to Metacritic

We reviewed it on its cinematic debut, calling it "A solid, fun and watchable family film, Sonic The Hedgehog doesn't always hang together, but it does at least do justice to one of gaming's most iconic characters."

Elsewhere in the Sonic-verse, Netflix announced Sonic Prime, a new animated series that is in development for the streaming giant, while LEGO has announced that they will be taking the fan-suggested Sonic the Hedgehog set and making it a reality.

Source: Twitter

Riot Games CEO sued by former assistant for sexual harassment

Riot Games CEO Nicolo Laurent is being sued for sexual harassment by his former executive assistant Sharon O'Donnell. O'Donnell, who was fired by the League of Legends and Valorant developer in July 2020, alleges that Laurent asked her to "cum" over to his house while his wife was away, commented on her physical appearance, asked her underwear size, and further slimy behaviour. For rebuffing his advances, O'Donnell claims that she was punished and went unpaid for hours worked before eventually being fired from her position. The suit was filed in the Superior Court for the State of California in Los Angeles in January 2021.

The lawsuit claims that "Shortly after Plaintiff was hired the Defendant Laurent began a pattern of harassing Plaintiff based on her sex or gender. This continued until the end of her employment." Laurent's behaviour was not limited to O'Donnell, but extended to telling female employees that they should have children to handle the stress of living through the Covid pandemic.

In response to a request for comment by VICE, Riot Games stated that Laurent continues to work:

"In this case, because some of the claims relate to an executive leader, a special committee of our Board of Directors is overseeing the investigation, which is being conducted by an outside law firm. Our CEO has pledged his full cooperation and support during this process, and we're committed to ensuring that all claims are thoroughly explored and appropriately resolved.

"One subject we can address immediately is the plaintiff's claim about their separation from Riot. The plaintiff was dismissed from the company over seven months ago based on multiple well-documented complaints from a variety of people. Any suggestion otherwise is simply false."

The lawsuit does not directly target Riot Games, but it certainly fits with the reports, allegations, court cases and settlements that have come out of a toxic workplace over the last few years. Following reports company was sued in 2018 for gender discrimination, which they eventually announced in late 2019 would be settled for $10 million… except they've now backtracked  and sought to take the case back to individual arbitration.

In July 2020, Laurent wrote an open letter amidst the swell in accusations emerging from across the industry, addressing the steps the company had taken since 2018, taking disciplinary action, hiring Diversity & Inclusion staff, bringing a woman onto the board of directors and more. He offered his resignation if the board were not satisfied with the company's progress, and in the letter said, "As I write this, I'm thankful we made sufficient progress that the board kept me on. But more importantly, I'm proud of the Riot we have become, and that we continue to evolve every day."

However, as uplifting as that letter was, the timing now seems somewhat ironic. The lawsuit maintains that "Riot Games is a male dominated culture. Female employees, including Plaintiff are discriminated against, harassed and treated as second class citizens. There are very few female executives at Riot.

Source: VICE

Destruction AllStars update 1.2.3 comes crashing in

Rival-wrecking PS5 exclusive, Destruction AllStars, has entered the pitstop for a new update, Lucid Games having launched their latest patch. Available to download now on PS5, you will need to install update 1.2.3 in order to access online features, including network multiplayer. One big change fans will notice right away is the increased rewards for completing daily and weekly challenges. Daily challenges pay out a far greater amount of experience points now whereas weekly challenges will offer AC currency instead of XP.

Here are the patch notes for the new update.

  • Weekly Reset time has been set to Wednesday 3pm UTC
    Small blue diamond Weekly Challenges now award AllStar Coins instead of XP
    Small blue diamond XP rewards for Daily Challenges have been increased from 3k to 25k
  • Fixed several issues preventing successful matchmaking
    Small blue diamond Reduced the frequency of parties being split into different games at the end of a match
    Large blue diamond Fixed an instance of the UI incorrectly reverting player level
  • Fixed several server crashes relating to Gridfall
    Large blue diamond Fixed several client crashes
    Large blue diamond Improved some error message descriptions

Destruction AllStars isn't quite on par with Sony's other PS5 exclusives, scoring a 6 out of 10 in our review at launch. While fun in short frenzied blasts, like most car combat games it can get repetitive and is let down by an overall lack of engaging content. Here's what we had to say:

The car combat genre has long been out of fashion and still has a way to go if it wants to take us back to its glory days of the 1990s. Destruction AllStars is a mostly satisfying modernisation that has some neat ideas and looks fantastic, though ultimately spins its tyres on repetitive rival-wrecking gameplay and a lack of truly worthwhile content at launch.

The manic multiplayer exclusive was originally meant to launch alongside the PS5 in November 2020 alongside Demon's Souls, Spider-Man: Miles Morales, Godfall, Sackboy: A Big Adventure, and other day one titles. However, Sony and Lucid Games made the decision to delay Destruction AllStars to February 2021, also making it a freebie for those with an active PlayStation Plus subscription.

Source: Twitter (@LucidGamesLtd)

Destruction AllStars guides and more from TheSixthAxis

Super Mario 3D World + Bowser's Fury Review

Super Mario 3D World + Bowser's Fury is probably now my favourite Mario game of all-time. The package as a whole brings a variety of different Mario experiences, and the ability to do it all in co-op is a gift. Granted, the lack of online co-op in Bowser's Fury is a little annoying, but it's still an immense excellent experience anyway.

This is, of course, a Nintendo Switch re-release of Super Mario 3D World on the Wii U, and there's probably not all that much here to attract those who played on the quirky console, but that doesn't stop it being an excellent game in its own right.

Designed from the ground up to cater to co-op play, the camera is much further away from the action that a typical 3D Mario game, shifting around so that the game feels like a blend between the 2D adventures of old (well, the New Super Mario Bros. games at least) and Mario's ventures into 3D. While some may disagree with my love of it, I don't think anyone can argue with the fact that it's a riot in multiplayer thanks to the strange mix of co-op and competitive play that you end up with. Sure, you can literally carry your friends through difficult sections, but also you can chuck them into lava as well.

This is all made far better for the Switch release by the addition of online co-op throughout – something that's nice and stable in my limited experience prior to launch. It was a glaring omission on the Wii U, but given how essential online multiplayer is in 2021, it's great to see Nintendo adapting the game to fit. Even the Captain Toad mini-games now feature four player multiplayer!

One thing that hasn't changed, however, is that the later stages in this game are incredibly hard. I'm talking "don't play this with your significant other or near children" hard. If you like a challenge, you'll be in heaven, but these levels will be a slap in the face to anybody you've been carrying, literally or otherwise, through the game up until that point.

Of course, the real draw of the game for Wii U owners is the new Bowser's Fury mode, and I've got news for you: Bowser's Fury is sublime. If you took everything that makes 3D Mario games great and distilled it into one game, it would be this.

The story goes that Bowser has gone and gotten himself cursed, or he's eaten something bad, or he didn't sleep well. Whatever the case, he's really grumpy and has also been transformed into a giant metal AF version of himself that can shoot out spines, shoot out beams of fire, and just generally trash everything around him. His son, who is possibly the cause of all of this, has asked Mario to help sort things out.

You do this by going around the open world and collecting Cat Shines from various courses, all of which only take less than five minutes to complete. It's like speedrunning what makes up a Mario game, but there's still a healthy helping of game to play here. Each course has a few Cat Shines to find across various different objectives, a lot like the Mario 64 levels. They're all pretty damn wonderful, and the difficulty increases at a very satisfying rate.

What happens as you're going about your business, is that it'll start to rain, and the music will change. This signals Fury Bowser's approach, and usually means you have to drop what you're doing or try and do it a lot faster under a lot more pressure. When he arrives, he'll start raining down fireballs, explosives spikes, and using his aforementioned laser fire breath. You'll have to scare him away by getting a Cat Shine or waiting it out.

The aim of the game though, is to beat him up. You can do by activating the Giga Cat Bell turning Mario into a Super Saiyan giant version of Cat Mario, and you then get a little boss battle to get through. Activating the Giga Cat Bell requires you to have found a certain number of Cat Shines, and you'll need to find half of the available ones to finish the game.

Every visual effect is a delight, and the music is stellar as well. I've also now got a few photos of my daughter trying to play it and drive Plessie around the beautiful looking water. This is the first game she's taken an interest in, and while her hands aren't really big enough to use a controller yet, it was still one of the best feelings in the world to watch her elation at being able to make Cat Mario jump.

Bowser's Fury is now forever intertwined with my feelings towards video games and my little one, and I'm hoping that in a few months I'll be able to get her to listen for long enough that we can actually play some together. Speaking of which, you can play Bowser's Fury in local co-op, with the second player controlling Bowser Jr and helping out. He's a little like a whirlwind of death that can fly out at will, as opposed to taking a really active role as they would in 3D World. He's a more destructive version of Cappy from Super Mario Odyssey. I'm just upset that there's no online co-op for Bowser's Fury, when it was integrated so well in 3D World.

Bowser's Fury could remain a curious side-experiment, but this could also be a sign of where the Mario series is heading in future. Big open worlds can be tiring to explore, but if you give me a bunch of smaller ones to dive into like this, I'll be happy as a cat scratching up an expensive sofa. I really hope we see more of this style of adventure for our moustachioed hero going forwards.

Genshin Impact Paimon voice actor on fandoms and dealing with haters

Genshin Impact currently has 28 playable characters, but whether you're playing without spending a penny or dropping cash regularly for those Primogems, everyone will be well-acquainted with Paimon.

From day one, players have had a lot of opinions over your Traveler's fairy companion who is essentially the mascot of Genshin Impact. A fair number find her presence annoying, from her high-pitched babyish tone to her over-talkative nature, as well as a certain pushiness in contrast to the more neutral blank slate of your mostly mute protagonist. That is exactly how she's supposed to be, when discussing this with Paimon's voice actor, Corina Boettger.

Why Genshin Impact is the most interesting open world game since Breath of the Wild

Acting as early as when they were eight years old (incidentally including a voice promo for a video game at a convention), Boettger has featured in small roles in film and TV, though they only transitioned to voice-acting in recent years including anime Sailor Moon: Sailor Stars and visual novel AI: The Somnium Files. As Genshin Impact's momentous popularity continues, including the upcoming 'All That Glitters' event coinciding with Lunar New Year, we had the opportunity to chat with Boettger, who turns out to be just as talkative as Paimon.

TSA: When did you first get the role of Paimon and did you have any idea how big Genshin Impact was going to be?

Boettger: I believe I auditioned the first time back in August 2019, and then I got the callback in September, then booked the role and started working in October of 2019. It's always a pretty quick process!

I was honestly surprised [with its popularity], because unless you're part of a second iteration of anything like that, when you get a part of a game you really don't know how big it's going to be until it happens. At the beginning of 2020, I was looking on their Twitter and I was like, 'Oh, they have like 6,000 followers, that's really good. And then right before the game came out, they had hundreds of thousands of people following them, and I was like, 'Holy crap, this is going to be bigger than I thought it was going to be!'

TSA: There was also some buzz building up in the beta stages too. Were you following that at the time?

Boettger: I was, and I even secretly signed up for the beta under my own gamertag, so I started playing it myself. It also meant I could actually understand what was going on [laughs], which is normal for like 90% of video games – you're alone in a booth, and you only see your lines. Luckily, I work with a director who reads the other lines, that way it's like I'm playing off of somebody, but not every director does that.

I started seeing the reception online and miHoYo did too, and that kind of changed how we did some voiceover at that point, because I specifically remember them thinking that Paimon might be too mean. They were like, 'Tone down the sassiness', and I was like, 'Oh, but I like that'. Then the beta came out and everybody kept on saying how much they liked when Paimon was sassy, and so they were like 'Okay, be as sassy as you want.' [laughs]

TSA: Just how difficult is it for you to put on the Paimon voice?

Boettger: It's not that hard for me. I'm naturally a high-pitched person and so Paimon is just [in Paimon voice] switching into my higher register, that's all! [laughs] Basically, you want to get to a point in voice acting where a character's voice is always easy for you. If you're doing something that's really hard for you, you could possibly damage your vocal cords. Your vocal cords don't fix themselves 100% once they're damaged, so once they're damaged, your vocal register is changed forever.

When I originally auditioned for Paimon, I actually had her set closer to my natural tone. Once I booked the character, that was when I sat there with miHoYo for a good 30-40 minutes and they were like, 'Okay, we want it higher – go higher – can you go higher?', and it kept getting higher until we're at the highest point of my register, and then they were like 'Now just add breathiness, we want a whole bunch of breathiness to make it more ethereal, to have that ethereal feeling for Paimon.' So yeah, that was definitely a direction.

TSA: You mentioned the community responded well to Paimon's sassiness at the start, so it's interesting that reactions from the wider audience were more divisive, with many finding her very annoying. Does that feedback have any effect on you?

Boettger: No, because Paimon is supposed to be annoying. Anytime they're like, 'I don't like Paimon, they're annoying', I'm like, 'Good, I did my job!' [laughs] Paimon was always meant to be over-talkative, over-explaining, over-exaggerated and in English, [miHoYo] were like, 'We really do want Paimon to speak in third person'. Again, I don't necessarily know why, but that's what they wanted from the beginning. They even talked to me about how in other languages it's harder to have Paimon speak in third person all the time because other languages have different rules about their language, but in English, we can actually do that all the time!

Maybe it's just because I'm a lot like Paimon in the sense that I talk a lot, and I've been called annoying by a lot of people because I talk too much, and I've also over-explained things and stuff like that, so I relate to Paimon in that way. I've always liked characters that do that because as a person who is neurodivergent, sometimes spelling it out for me is what I need! [laughs]

TSA: A cutesy talkative companion is also just a common trope character in these kind of games too, much like Navi in Ocarina of Time. So were you already familiar with this character type yourself?

Boettger: It's funny that you say that because Navi was another character that everybody always said, 'Oh, that character is annoying', and I was always like why? I absolutely adored Navi as a kid. That was at a time when voiceover roles were not in video games at all, so the fact that they had the little bits of voiceover that they even did, which was basically just Navi, blew my mind. I always wanted to be Navi, and now basically I am!

TSA: How do you deal with the fan reactions? Is it best to just embrace those who love Paimon and just ignore the haters?

Boettger: Bottom line is there's always going to be haters in every game or fandom, no matter what, but they don't sign my paychecks. [laughs] You can not like a character all you want and that's totally fine. I've had plenty of people that said, "I don't like Paimon but I like you as a person," and as a voice actor and I respect that – you've every right to not like the character, but you're smart enough to associate that I'm still a human being and I exist.

There is also a difference between flat-out hating and actual criticism, and criticism is also fine, but the bottom line is that anybody who criticises is, well, they're not the client. The client is miHoYo, and as long as I do what miHoYo wants, I'm doing my job correctly.

TSA: It's interesting that it took a couple months after launch before the voice actors were officially revealed. How difficult was it waiting for that?

Boettger: That was really frustrating, especially because certain people were also claiming to be Paimon's voice actor, or they would start doing impressions without making it very clear to their fandom that they are not the voice. Mind you, Karen Strassman is an amazing actor who never once claimed to be Paimon in Genshin Impact but she apparently voices a character called Paimon in an entirely different show, so I got a lot of people actively fighting me, saying 'You're not the voice of Paimon, Karen Strassman is'. She's a titan in the industry, so thank you for thinking that I am her, but also she's an alto – she can't even reach the decibels that I have!

I also stream on Twitch, and have been streaming a lot of Genshin Impact lately as well, but I didn't start playing the game until I was announced, so that way I could stream my first reaction to the game and say I was in the game. Jackie Lastra, who plays Xiangling, was already streaming the game before she could announce. She was like, 'I basically just stayed away from my character so that way I wouldn't accidentally say anything'. And I was like, that's fun for you – my character exists in everything!

TSA: Speaking of other Paimons, there's fans who are making links with a mythical demon king called Paimon who's one of Lucifer's servants and what that could mean for the character. Do you pay attention to these different fan theories yourself?

Boettger: I stay away from fan theories as much as possible, because the bottom line is that I don't even know what's going to happen. NDAs are so strict in video games, and you as a voice actor are on a need-to-know basis. So I get questions like, 'Where does Paimon come from?' and I'm like, as far as I know, Paimon was fished out of the ocean, so that's it. I would love to participate in talking about those fan theories, but I can't because I'm under NDA, I don't want to give off the impression that I'm actually giving thought to a fan theory because it's true.

When I stream, I've had people ask me a question and I'll say, 'I know nothing about that', and then they will literally respond with, 'Then it is true! I saw it in your smile'. I'm autistic. There is nothing happening on my face that is showing you anything, and I know that because I'm autistic!

TSA: But you still like engaging with fans though?

Boettger: I really like streaming because it's a good way of getting in contact with the fans, and I also like talking about the behind the scenes. When I play through the game, that's when I remember that certain things happened because the scene will trigger that memory in my brain all of a sudden for me.

Usually, it's a lot of pronunciation things because I've been told by miHoYo that I'm the best at pronouncing the Chinese words, but my problem is apparently the English words. My director has been letting it be known very loud and clearly that I don't pronounce words correctly, but I believe he doesn't pronounce words correctly! We worked on AI: The Somnium Files together so we're actually really good friends. He gives me a hard time when I can't pronounce stuff like dandelion, but I am pronouncing it right. He says it's 'dan-da-lion' – he's wrong, it's 'dan-di-lion'. I will die on that hill!

[Ed – You're obviously right, and he is very wrong.]

TSA: Funnily enough, there also seem to be inconsistencies with the ways different characters pronounce the Chinese names in the game, especially Liyue.

Boettger: Here's my thing: we're all native English-speaking people trying to say certain words that have phonic intonations that don't exist in English. miHoYo is on the line on every single recording to make sure we try to do as close as we can to how it should be pronounced, but then my director, who's from Boston, also said, 'Depending on where you're from in Boston, you pronounce Boston really differently.' And that's totally true. In Louisiana, there's people who pronounce New Orelans differently, even though it's the same city. I'm from Seattle originally and we have a lot of places named after Native Americans. I mean, Seattle was named after Chief Seattle, but we also have a place called Snohomish, and watching certain people pronounce it differently, it's just different people come from different backgrounds and they might pronounce things differently and that's kind of where we've decided to take it.

TSA: Since you're playing quite a lot of Genshin Impact yourself, what's your party pick?

Boettger: I main Mona – Mona's the best! I am lucky enough when I'm streaming that people were kind enough to donate money so that I could get Mona because that was my main goal. The only characters I'm missing are Klee and Venti, only because they happened before I was able to play and say which character I was. So I'm hoping that they'll come back because Klee is disgustingly broken! That's the character that my director mains as and it's hilarious to just have him come into my world with Klee and just wreck everything with that tiny little girl. My main line-up right now though is Mona, Xinyan, Fischl and Qiqui.

We'd like to thank Corina for taking the time to chat with us. For more on Genshin Impact, check out our launch day review.

Hitman 3 PS5 update 1.002 adds exclusive new features

Developer IO Interactive have dropped a new patch for their assassination sequel, Hitman 3. This latest update will show up as version 1.002 on PS5 and you will need to download it in order to access the game's servers. Alongside the regular bout of bug fixes and glitch stomping, IO have introduced new features exclusive the PS5 version of Hitman 3. Those who have an updated copy of the game will be able to access content from the PS5 home menu by selecting from the newly added Activities tabs. Hitman 3 – as well as its predecessors Hitman and Hitman 2 – have also been patched with the PS5's intuitive Game Help feature allowing players to access hints while gaming, but only if they have an activate PlayStation Plus subscription.

Here's everything included in Hitman 3 update 1.002 on PS5:

Game Help
We've added more support for PlayStation 5 'Activities' to include Game Help Hints for all campaign missions in HITMAN 1, 2 and 3.
(This is a platform-level feature and doesn't impact gameplay)

When playing a campaign mission in HITMAN 3, PlayStation Plus subscribers on PS5 can choose to get hints on how to complete each objective, with step-by-step instructions.

Viva La Vita
We've also removed some outdated messaging about the PlayStation Vita, which would show when your controller is disconnected.

In our Hitman 3 review, Jim wrote:

Charting the series' progress since that 2016 Paris debut has been a fascinating journey. IO have learned a lot over the past five years and that really shows in Hitman 3. It's a flashier, more fluid evolution of IO's original template – a rewarding conclusion to one of the most unique video game franchises around, and one we'll continue playing for many weeks and months to come.

IO Interactive recently announced their February roadmap for Hitman 3, promising new content every week of the month with new missions and rewards.

Source: IO Interactive

Hitman 3 Guides & more from TheSixthAxis

Four more games come to Nintendo Switch Online NES & SNES library next week

Nintendo have dusted off another small selection of SNES and NES games to add to the library of 8-bit and 16-bit classics that are made available as to all Nintendo Switch Online subscribers. The four games will be added to the collection on Wednesday 17th February, next week, with three SNES games and one NES game. Now, at this point, you're probably thinking "Huh, they must be running out of classic games around about now," and this set isn't all that likely to change your mind. I know that I haven't heard of the games on this little list, at the very least…

Here are the four games:

SNES – Nintendo Switch Online:

  • Doomsday Warrior
  • Psycho Dream
  • Prehistorik Man

NES – Nintendo Switch Online:

  • Fire 'n Ice

Doomsday Warrior is a 1992 fighting game – released in the wake of Street Fighter II – where you play as defectors from the Doom Squad, a group of fighters under the influence of Main. There's an interesting character upgrade system where you choose your opponents and can upgrade your characters stats using Ability Points earned after each battle.

Psycho Dream was a Japan exclusive title in which Ryō or Maria battle through 20th century Japan with sword and whip. The game was originally planned for a US release, but it was cancelled before it saw the light of day.

Prehistorik Man (also published under the more dubious title P-Man), is a stone age platformer sequel to Prehistorik 2. The game first game out in 1995, but was ported to Game Boy Advance in 2001 and popped up on DSiWare in 2010.

And Fire 'n Ice for NES might be better known as Solomon's Key 2, in which you have to race through levels extinguishing fires by creating and either melting or kicking ice into fires.

So, what's the verdict? Are these worthwhile additions?

Nintendo Switch Online launched in 2018, as a somewhat controversial paid subscription service for Nintendo's latest games console. A Switch Online subscription is now required for online gaming on Nintendo Switch, where this was free on the Nintendo Wii U, Nintendo 3DS and before, but it does significantly undercut the price of PlayStation Plus and Xbox Live Gold. In addition to online multiplayer, Switch Online also offers save game backups in the cloud, certain offers and promotions, exclusive games like Tetris 99 and Super Mario Bros. 35 and the NES and SNES Classic Games Library, featuring instant access to 86 games. These were previously added on a monthly basis, but since the inclusion of SNES games, Nintendo has shifted to a more irregular release pattern.

Source: Twitter

More The Division content is coming from Ubisoft Massive in 2021 and 2022

Ubisoft have confirmed that Massive Entertainment will continue to develop content for The Division 2 through 2021 and 2022 in their latest financial conference call. The statement that "more Division content" is on the way comes from Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot who asserted that Massive would be able to handle the workload, despite also leading development on Ubisoft's recently announced Star Wars video game, as well as the long-in-development Avatar Project. While the scope and scale of the planned content is unknown, as we come toward the end of the second year of the game's life, this is encouraging news for fans of the series.

To handle further development of The Division as a franchise, Ubisoft say that Massive is a large studio in its own right, but that they are also coordinating with other teams to spread out the workload. With the announcement of a new Star Wars project in development at Massive, and the previous Avatar game, there were understandable questions over the future of the studio's home-grown looter shooter series. The studio now leads development on three titles.

However, it's worth remembering that Ubisoft games are almost never developed and supported by a single studio. The Division 2 was developed with additional work by Red Storm Entertainment, Ubisoft Annecy, Ubisoft Bucharest, Ubisoft Reflections, Ubisoft Leamington, Ubisoft Shanghai, and Ubisoft Sofia. Red Storm in particular had a significant role to play, as they took over support of the original game so that Massive could focus on The Division 2.

Again, what's left unclear is how significant this upcoming content will be. Following on from the season pass of content through the game's first year, The Division 2 received a significant expansion in March 2020 with Warlords of New York, which added lower Manhattan into the game, returning to the stomping grounds of the original game. Will we see similarly grand expansions in future? We'll just have to wait and see.

At the time of its release, we said in our The Division 2: Warlords of New York review:

Warlords of New York is a welcome addition to The Division 2 and it probably marks the most fun I've had with the series to date. While some content falls a little flat, each one of the special encounters is a manic and explosive experience that will bring you to the edge of your seat. The quality of life changes, including the refined loot systems, also breathe life back into one of last year's more enjoyable looter-shooter titles.

The future might still feel uncertain, but for the time being, The Division 2 has been given a shot in the arm with Title Update 12.1 adding support for the new consoles and bringing 4K 60fps gaming to the table. Though a mid-season update for the game, there's also the Resident Evil 25th Anniversary cross-over event and a major reduction in the cost of Optimization Station.

Rigid Force Redux Review

R-Type was a game seemingly so effortless in its excellence that it made the idea of developing a side-scrolling shoot 'em up appear to be an easy prospect. The decades worth of pale imitators since have proven that it's anything but. Pinpoint controls, exceptional visual feedback and the kind of collision detection that makes grown men weep are not exactly easy to emulate. This is what makes Rigid Force Redux such an accomplish; it meets the bar that R-Type set all those years ago and, in some aspects, even exceeds them.

Rigid Force Redux has been around in one form or another since 2018, when it was originally released as Rigid Force Alpha on PC. In 2020 the game was ported to Nintendo Switch and Xbox One and gained its 'Redux' suffix, as many PC to console ports tend to do. We've had to wait a little while for the good ship Rigid Force Alpha to finally touch down on to PS4 but that wait has been worth it, as many of the technical issues that dogged the initial release of the other console versions are now wonderfully absent.

Flying horizontally from left to right, Rigid Force Redux is one of the most bombastic light displays my shmup loving eyeballs have ever witnessed. This is a gorgeous game filled with chunky and charming 2.5D visuals, almighty explosions, more bullets than in all of America and, to top it off, silky smooth 60fps action throughout. com8com1 has crafted a love letter to the side-scrolling shooter, and I felt warm and safe in their hands throughout.

What really makes Rigid Force such an accomplishment is its ability to finely balance accessibility with challenge. All too often new players can bounce right off the nasty difficulty spikes of a shmup, never to return to the genre again. Thanks to a well structured and informative tutorial as well an easy mode that's – surprisingly – fairly easy, Rigid Force welcomes in new players with an open hand, whilst also taking great delight in punching experienced players repeatedly in the face with the closed fist of its ultra-mean Hard mode.

Weapon power ups are a destructive delight; as you fly through space or across the surface of a number of elemental themed planets, defeated enemies release a glorious cavalcade of picks ups for you to collect. Multiple turrets can be gathered to affix to your craft and, with just a few minutes of play, your unassuming shuttle will be coating the screen in a thick layer of laser beams, rockets and bombs. In a neat touch, turrets can be rotated around your craft with a touch of a button. This allows the player to focus their fire on a fixed point, opt to spread it over a wider surface area or even take out targets behind them. It adds a neat layer of strategy to all the pyrotechnics, especially when you consider that these turrets can absorb enemy fire. Sacrificing a favoured turret can be a necessary tactic to reach the end of a particularly tough level.

In another generous contribution to the player's attempts of continued living, the Alpha has a number of lives, represented by a health bar, and so can absorb some damage – the amount is dependant on the difficulty level, of course. I thoroughly appreciated the attempt of the developer to ease my shmup rage, but this aspect proves to be one of the game's few mis-steps. The rules on what constitutes the loss of health are irritatingly vague. One orange bullet will wipe out one chunk of health, whilst a stream of orange bullets will still, confusingly, remove only one lump of health too. Terrain can also be vague in the damage it causes. Some environmental hazards will result in the loss of health, whilst others in the complete destruction of the ship. Admittedly this is only an issue in Easy or Normal difficulties, on Hard mode contact with anything just results in a severe case of premature death.

Each mode does have continues, though, to be honest, their inclusion is entirely irrelevant. You might think it would be handy to have another crack at one of the game's impressively varied bosses, but you'd be mistaken. When you restart you are stripped of every power-up you'd gathered to that point, making boss battles impossible – well, certainly far exceeding my abilities anyway. Easy mode does provide you with a brief opportunity to gather your discarded power-ups, but doing so proves overly fussy. Your flashing ship may well be temporarily invulnerable, but it also proves temporarily incapable of collecting the power-ups properly. I'm assuming this is a feature, rather than a bug, but it is one that would benefit from an explanation in the otherwise exemplary tutorial. Either way, you shouldn't bother with continues and a full restart of the level will be necessary to gather the required firepower to fell a boss.

These irritations can soon be forgiven when you're back in the thick of it, wiping out hordes of enemy space craft with the touch of a button whilst perilously dodging their return fire. Success or failure on a knife's edge, dictated by a momentary hesitation when unthinking reaction action should have been the response. It's a heart thumping experience, one that is rendered all the more intense by a terrific synthwave soundtrack, the tempo of which seems to perfectly enhance the on screen action.

And what action it is. One standout sequence that sees you having to flee a future boss is tense and surprisingly innovative. Having the game switch from a horizontal to a vertical shooter during this escape is a genius touch, one that helps keep the player guessing about the obstacles and challenges they'll encounter until the very end.

It's just a shame that the end comes far too quickly. With only six levels to be had, Rigid Force Redux can be polished off in an hour or two. Sure, there's an arcade mode, league tables and a boss rush for those who fancy it, but there's no denying the fact that you'll have seen everything the game has to offer in an afternoon. Rigid Force Redux is a blast whilst it lasts, you'll just have to relish every second of its blasting brilliance whilst you can.

EA is acquiring Kim Kardashian: Hollywood developer for the price of two Codemasters

Electronic Arts have announced the acquisition of Glu Mobile, the developer behind such mobile game hits as Kim Kardashian: Hollywood and a litany of other celebrity games. Glu Mobile is set to cost EA $2.4 billion in an all-cash deal – or to put it another way, it will cost EA two Codemasters – and is expected to close during the quarter ending on June 30th. I'm sure that many console gamers would scoff at the notion that a mobile developer could be worth double one of the most storied brands in British game development and racing games in particular, but there you are!

There is, of course, a good reason why EA are prepared to throw down $2.4 billion. EA Chief Executive Andrew Wilson said the company believes "mobile is the fastest-growing platform on the planet." This move doubles the size of EA's mobile business and dramatically grows the kinds of games that they make.

It's a major acquisition that echoes that of King by Activision Blizzard in 2016. As in that example, Glu will continue to work independently, though we can expect them to create games based on EA's IP, and EA will leverage their global marketing presence to try and grow Glu's audience.

Glu Mobile, has worked with Britney Spears, Nicki Minaj, Jason Statham, Gordon Ramsay, and more on mobile games, typically leaning on a free-to-play business model with microtransactions. EA are, of course, no strangers to microtransactions, raking in billions of dollars in microtransactions through their sports series like FIFA and NFL Madden, and shifting their existing mobile game business over to microtransactions almost a decade ago.

That's not been without controversy, however. The company notoriously released Star Wars Battlefront II and quickly suspended the game's microtransactions over its loot box monetisation, before reworking the system and reintroducing it months later. It was a fiasco that helped spur on a number of world governments to investigate microtransactions in games and the perception of this being tantamount to gambling, EA have selectively removed things like FUT packs from FIFA games in Belgium, while asserting that their "quite ethical" loot boxes are really just "surprise mechanics".

Source: EA

Destiny 2 update 3.1.0 notes are here, the Season of the Chosen begins!

Destiny 2: Beyond Light has a new patch which also heralds the beginning of the Season of the Chosen, the patch notes are rather huge so let's not dilly dally and get straight to them!

ACTIVITIES

Europa 
  • New Landing Zone added in Eventide Ruins for all players who complete the Beyond Light campaign.
Dreaming City 
  • The Reverie Dawn armor set has been reissued with a new max power cap and the Combat Style mod socket.
  • The Waking Vigil, Vouchsafe, Retold Tale, and Sleepless weapons have been reissued with a new max power cap and new perk pools.
  • Dreaming City weapons that have reached their max power caps will no longer drop once you have obtained the item once, allowing collectors to fill out their collections while ensuring that subsequent item drops remain usable in difficult activities.
  • Fixed an issue where Petra's map icon could blink even when there was no quest to talk to her.
  • Fixed an issue where one-way connection or temporary connections between areas weren't accounted for by the waypoint system.
  • Fixed an issue where one of the portals to the Confluence was missing.
  • Fixed an issue where some Shuro Chi dialog lines could play twice when picking up a patrol beacon.
  • Fixed an issue where lighting would noticeably pop when moving between Rheasilvia and Harbinger's Seclude.
  • Malfeasance Quest
      • Fixed an issue where Taken Acolytes were missing their Void shields during the Malfeasance mission.
      • Fixed an issue where it was possible to fight the Ogre bosses without triggering the darkness zone.
  • Dark Monastery
      • Fixed an issue where some areas that were supposed to be private were, in fact, public, and fireteams could block each other's progress.
  • Fixed an issue where Toland could be missing from Ascendant Challenges.
  • Fixed an issue where patrol completions in Dreaming City weren't counting towards the "Wisdom of the Witch" Triumph.
  • Fixed an issue where Ahamkara Bones were failing to spawn in Agonarch Abyss.
  • Fixed an issue where Ahamkara Bones were failing to spawn in the Cimmerian Garrison.
  • Fixed an issue where the Lore of Luna Triumph was not progressing when completing Toland patrols.
  • Fixed an issue where the Run the Gauntlet Triumph wouldn't progress when completing the time trial in the Cimmerian Garrison Ascendant Challenge.
Cosmodrome 
  • Fixed an issue where some rocks and grass were floating in the air.
Tangled Shore 
  • Fixed an issue where some Fallen Skiffs could fly through the environment during public events.
  • Fixed an issue where one-way connection or temporary connections between areas weren't accounted for by the waypoint system.
  • Fixed a lighting issue in Hellrise Canyon where cracks in the environment were highlighted by a bright light emitting from behind a wall.
  • The Rider
      • Fixed an issue where the tank summon pad could de-spawn.
  • The Mad Bomber
      • Fixed an issue where a Dreg Pike driver would ignore the player.
Moon 
  • The Dreambane armor set has been reissued with a new max power cap and the Combat Style mod socket as well as a dedicated Nightmare mod socket.
  • All three Altars of Sorrow weapons (Apostate, Blasphemer, Heretic) and the Premonition Pulse Rifle have been reissued with a new max power cap and new perk pools.
  • A Mysterious Disturbance
      • Fixed an issue where players could accidentally bypass a trigger volume and end up in a blocked state.
      • Fixed an issue where the first combatants of this mission had their Power Level scaled too high.
  • Fixed a bug where some players' weapons could remain up near Eris.
  • Fixed an issue where environment decorations were floating near the K1 Logistics Lost Sector.
  • Fixed an issue where players could experience the "Harp" error code when approaching Eris on the Moon.
  • Fixed an issue where a chest puzzle during Moon free roam would get stuck and not restart.
  • Fixed an issue where Fallen combatants would spawn from a Hive ship.
  • In the Deep
      • Fixed an issue where a Hive Cutter would pop into existence without playing its spawn visual FX.
  • Symphony of Death
      • Fixed an issue where the boss could get stuck in an immune state if the fireteam hard-wiped during the boss encounter.
Nessus 
  • Fixed an issue where one-way connection or temporary connections between areas weren't accounted for by the waypoint system.
  • Fixed a floating patrol beacon.
EDZ 
  • Fixed an issue where ambient squads could fire on the player before they finish loading in one of the Silent Fang missions.
  • Fixed an issue where one-way connection or temporary connections between areas weren't accounted for by the waypoint system.
  • Fixed an issue where the combatants from the final encounter could respawn during the end-of-mission countdown timer at the end of one of the Silent Fang missions.
  • Fixed an issue where some water reflections had graphical errors in cave areas.
Public Events 
  • Ether Resupply
      • Fixed an issue where Fallen Servitor teleport attack was missing audio.
      • Fixed an issue where a Fallen Ketch could clip through the environment.
  • Glimmer Extraction
      • Fixed an issue where the Glimmer Extractor public event would occur too infrequently in The Gulch on EDZ.
  • Disrupt Vex Construction
      • Fixed an issue where Vex combatants wouldn't despawn after this public event ended.
      • Fixed an issue where the capture plates could remain after it was too late to achieve Heroic, but capturing them would do nothing.
  • Altar of Sorrows
      • Fixed an issue where the Altar of Sorrows' music would play for players in the Sorrow's Harbor area even if they were not engaged with the public event.
      • Fixed an issue where Knight Swords could spawn too high in the air after killing the Knight that drops them.
      • Fixed an issue that was preventing the Altar of Sorrows bosses from rotating each day.
  • Defend the Warsat
      • Fixed an issue where the public event would not always count towards public event completions for certain bounties and quests.
      • Fixed an issue where an Ogre boss in the Skywatch area would sometimes teleport around the Warsat.
  • Cryo-pod Freeze
      • Fixed an issue where the orbs used to trigger the heroic completion would continuously spawn after one vent was broken.
  • Stop the Ether Ritual
      • Fixed an issue where all of the objects and combatants in this public event could suddenly disappear if no players had engaged them.
  • Taken Blight
      • Fixed an issue where the rally flag and public events would appear in different spots in the area.
      • Fixed an issue where the public event might not always happen if players had previously engaged with the rally flag.
Strikes 
  • Warden of Nothing
      • Fixed an issue where a Minotaur miniboss would teleport to attack the players too early, before the shield that was supposed to block it came down.
      • Fixed an issue where the lift tube could close after the first member of a fireteam went through, preventing the other fireteam members from proceeding.
      • Fixed an issue where the strike boss was facing the wrong direction during some animations.
      • Fixed an issue where some combatants could pop into existence instead of spawning properly with animations.
      • Fixed an issue where players could progress too far without putting a lever, and then have to backtrack to find it.
  • The Insight Terminus
      • Fixed an issue where the fireteam could get stuck behind a locked door after a hard wipe.
      • Fixed an issue where the boss could fail to teleport away and players couldn't proceed, forcing them to quit the strike.
  • The Scarlet Keep
      • Fixed a bug where a line of dialog would sometimes not play.
  • Lake of Shadows
      • Fixed some bugs with waypoint locations.
      • Fixed an issue where it was possible to bypass a trigger volume and break the mission flow, blocking the fireteam from progressing.
  • The Corrupted
      • Fixed an issue with waypoint locations.
      • Fixed an issue where players could encounter missing environment objects if they backtracked to the elevator.
  • Broodhold
      • Fixed an issue where some combatants would pop into existence without showing proper spawn visuals.
      • Fixed an animation issue where a Hive barrier would briefly pop back into existence before despawning.
  • The Inverted Spire
      • Fixed an issue where platforms would despawn and players in a fireteam could get stuck in the Cistern area if their fireteam went too far ahead.
  • Exodus Crash
      • Fixed an issue where players should have been pulled to the boss room to join their fireteam but were instead seeing a countdown timer and dying.
Crucible 
  • Crucible Tokens and Crucible Token Gifts have been deprecated.
  • Crucible Valor rank rewards are now visible on Lord Shaxx.
Maps 
  • Bannerfall
      • Fixed an issue where the Bannerfall Crucible map would sometimes display the incorrect name.
  • Burnout, Wormhaven, and Midtown
      • Fixed an issue where map music would play too early, during the load screen.
  • Radiant Cliffs
      • Fixed and issue where the map name was missing from some screens.
      • Fixed out-of-environment issues.
  • Twilight Gap
      • Fixed an issue where players could get caught on invisible geo.
  • Exodus Blue, Javelin-4, Fragment, Midtown, and Deadcliffs
      • Fixed out-of-environment issues.
Gambit 
  • Gambit Infamy rank rewards are now visible on Drifter.
Raids 
  • Raid reward sources now include Masterwork materials as follows:
      • Enhancement Cores and Prisms now have a chance to drop from hidden chests in Last Wish, Garden, and Descent Raids.
          • These are on a weekly lockout, per chest, per raid (cannot be infinitely grinded).
      • Ascendant Shards are obtainable via a reward from a weekly director challenge connected to the featured raid.
      • Ascendant Shard Weekly Director challenge requires players to complete all encounters of the featured raid before paying out.
The Last Wish 
  • Encounters and challenges should now award the intended standard XP amounts.
  • Fixed an issue where players could experience network desyncing.
  • Fixed an issue where some Knight combatants would spawn inside of wall.
  • Fixed an issue where too many Taken Captains were spawning during the Riven encounter.
  • Fixed an issue where Morgeth the Spirekeeper would pop into existence within view of the player.
  • Fixed an issue that allowed the fireteam to skip some platforming gameplay once the first player in the fireteam got through.
  • Fixed an issue where players could die after clearing the platforming encounter, and have to redo the platforming gameplay.
  • Fixed an issue where killing a second Eye of Riven at just the wrong time would break the encounter and force a restart.
  • Fixed a bug where a Drifter dialog line would play even if you hadn't activated the relevant wish.
  • Fixed an issue that prevented the Strength of Memory challenge from being completable.
Garden of Salvation 
  • Fixed an issue where the finale music was not always playing at the proper times.
Deep Stone Crypt 
  • Atraks-1's health bar should exhibit less rubber-banding behavior.
  • Free Roam Scanner augment will now be removed from players when starting the first raid encounter.
Dungeons 
  • Shattered Throne
      • Shattered Throne chests will no longer drop items that have reached their max power caps.
      • Reverie Dawn armor that drops in the Shattered Throne dungeon will roll with higher stats, comparable to raid armors.
      • Dreaming City weapons that drop in the Shattered Throne dungeon can roll with perks that are unavailable from drops from other reward sources.
      • Fixed an issue where music might not play during the final encounter.
      • Fixed an issue where a door could get stuck locked and prevent players from progressing.
  • Pit of Heresy
      • Pit of Heresy chests will no longer drop items that have reached their max power caps; all Essence quests will still have a chance to drop from Pit of Heresy encounters.
      • Dreambane armor that drops in the Pit of Heresy dungeon will roll with higher stats, comparable to raid armors.
      • Weapons that drop in the Pit of Heresy dungeon can roll with perks that are unavailable from drops from other reward sources.
      • The final chest in Pit of Heresy will no longer drop a fully Masterworked Dreambane armor piece.
      • Instead, the Dreambane armor piece that drops will have 7 armor energy and is guaranteed to drop with at least a +16 in two different stats and higher stats overall.
      • Dreambane class items will not drop from this chest.
      • Fixed an issue where relics could have the incorrect visual effects.
      • Fixed an issue where audio was missing from some Hive barrier objects.
  • Prophecy
      • Fixed an issue where a boss combatant might not disappear properly after completing an encounter.
      • Fixed an issue where fireteam members who stay behind in the Drifter's ship could be locked out of the dungeon when their team progresses forward.
      • Fixed some issues where pillars of light could show progress on the wrong objects.
      • Fixed an issue where light pillar visual effects were offset from certain platforms.
      • Fixed and issue where the Kell Echo boss's teleport animation and VFX wouldn't sync up with the actual teleport, causing some odd animation.
      • Fixed an issue where player's Ghosts could appear in an inaccessible location if they died shortly after stepping through a teleporter, forcing them to wait for 45 seconds before respawning.
      • Fixed an issue where join-in-progress players would spawn way back near the beginning of the dungeon if they joined late.
      • Fixed a bug where players could pick up motes without receiving credit for it.
      • Fixed an issue where a Devoured Ogre would sometimes teleport to the players if they moved too far away.
      • Fixed an issue where two of the mote-gathering rooms would prevent players from respawning within them.
General
  • Fixed AI behavior bugs across numerous activities, where combatants could be found standing still, teleporting, or moving to the wrong location.
  • Fixed an issue where some Lost Sector combatants' Power Levels were too low, sometimes lower than the same combatants in the public free roam areas.
  • Fixed issues where the incorrect name was shown above the health bar for various named combatants in various activities.

UI/UX

General
  • Collection categories now allow players to mark all new items as seen to clear the new item indicator for that category.
  • Vault has a button with information about how to access the Destiny Companion App and others built by the Destiny community.
  • Menu header bars correctly stretch to widescreen monitors.
  • Logo updated for the BNOC team (formerly known as DOC).
  • Shout out to the folks who've kept our services running for years, and cheers to many more!
  • Fixed an issue where sometimes the Legacy Triumphs were displayed when first accessing the Triumphs screen.
  • Subclass toggle icon correctly displays inactive state when equipment is locked.
  • Updated Stasis Aspect Fragment display to correctly show zero slots.

EVERVERSE/ECONOMY

General
  • Weapon and armor ornaments will no longer be gated on player entitlement state.
  • Weapon and armor ornaments tooltips in the store now clearly indicate when a parent item is not owned.

SANDBOX

Abilities 
  • Fixed an issue where certain Arc and Solar grenades could apply their "hit" visual FX to animated doors and floors.
  • Fixed an issue where using Shiver Strike near Stasis crystals could send you into the stratosphere.
  • Fixed an issue where using certain abilities near Stasis crystals could push you through a closed door.
  • Fixed an issue where Sunbreakers would trigger Roaring Flames with Solar Sword kills.
  • Fixed an issue where Sentinel Shield single attacks via Heavy attack input did not consume Super energy.
  • Fixed an issue where players could be damaged by the shatter of their own Stasis crystals if the opponent had Whisper of Fissure equipped.
  • Fixed an issue where Wormhusk Crown and Vesper of Radius would trigger their perks upon breaking out of Stasis.
  • Fixed an issue where Duskfield Grenades can freeze Stasis crystals and barricades.
  • Improved reliably of Frostpulse Aspect when enemies were on different elevations.
  • While using Jumper or Cold Shoulders, Glacial Quake Super melee attack is now also mapped to LT/L2 for accessibility.
  • Decreased the height at which Glacier Grenades will launch the player who threw them.
  • Duskfield Grenades can now kill to prevent players from using it to continuously trap others in Stasis.
  • Iceflare Bolts no longer grants grenade energy when shattering a frozen target.
  • Ensured that Iceflare Bolts correctly tracks the number of seekers created before going on cooldown.
Stasis Freeze Breakout 
  • When playing with a controller, the input for breaking out of Stasis Freeze is now double-press B/Circle for all classes.
  • The controls for the breakout action can be changed via controller remapping.
  • Stasis Freeze
      • Increased the damage frozen players can take before shattering from 100hp to 200hp.
      • When frozen by Stasis, players now take 50% less damage from Primary-ammo weapons.
      • When frozen by Stasis, players now take 50% more damage from Special-ammo weapons, Heavy-ammo weapons, and non-Stasis abilities.
      • Note: We're planning a more in-depth abilities tuning pass, but in the meantime, we've implemented this change to increase players' chances of surviving being frozen.
      • When frozen by Stasis, AI combatants now take 5% less damage from Primary-ammo weapons.
      • When frozen by Stasis, AI combatants now take 5% more damage from Special-ammo weapons, Heavy-ammo weapons, and non-Stasis abilities.
  • Withering Blade
      • No longer does critical headshot damage.
      • Increased base damage from 60 to 90.
      • Melee lunge range reduced by 1m when Withering Blade is charged. Allows players to more reliably use Withering Blade when up close.
  • Handheld Supernova
      • Reduced self-damage from 100% to 25%.
Armor 
  • Reduced the cost of Deep Stone Crypt raid mods significantly.
  • With the Taking Charge mod equipped, you will no longer pick up Orbs of Power if you are already at your maximum Charged with Light stacks.
  • The Aeon Cult arms Exotic armor pieces for all three classes have been redesigned and now feature selectable, role-based perks oriented toward teamwork.
  • The Overshield buff timer granted from IceFall Mantle Exotic will no longer be refreshed when a Titan is shot by Allied players in PvE.
  • Damage from enemy combatants and opposing players in Gambit/Crucible will still refresh the buff's timer.
  • Fixed an issue where Dreambane armor wouldn't drop above 1050 Power until players complete the Shadowkeep campaign.
Weapons 
  • Catalysts for the following weapons have had their sources and objectives updated to not be associated with Vaulted content:
      • Bad Juju
      • Izanagi's Burden
      • Sleeper Simulant
      • The Huckleberry
      • Worldline Zero
      • Polaris Lance
      • Telesto
      • Legend of Acrius
      • Skyburner's Oath
  • Fixed an issue with Sturm's Exotic perk.
      • Sturm will once again reload any equipped Special slot weapon on kill provided the Special weapon's clip isn't full already and there's available reserve ammo.
  • Bow weapon kills or multi-kills no longer incorrectly progress the Fusion Rifle Calibration bounty from Banshee.
  • Fixed an issue that was preventing Merciless from increasing its charge rate on non-lethal hits.
  • This also fixed an issue affecting the Exotic perks of Jade Rabbit, Eriana's Vow, Coldheart's perk not triggering when shot through a Citan's Rampart barrier, and Mulligan activating on hits when used with Anti-Barrier Rounds.
  • Fixed an issue that caused Line in the Sand to have broken gear and play the wrong reload animation.
  • Fixed an issue causing Thunderlord and possibly other weapons to not render their scope and/or reticle.
Weapon Archetype Changes 
  • Rocket Launcher
      • Increased Rocket Launcher damage by ~30% against Miniboss tier enemies and above.
      • Exotic Rocket Launchers have been adjusted individually and are affected by this change to different degrees.
  • Fusion Rifle
      • Increased Fusion Rifle damage falloff start distance, by an increasing amount based on range (6% with 0 range, 16% with 100 range).
      • Reduced camera movement from firing a Fusion Rifle by 9.5%.
  • Breech Grenade Launcher
      • Breech Grenade Launcher projectiles will now detonate on impact with enemies, even if holding the trigger.
  • Submachine Gun
      • Reduced camera movement from firing an SMG by 24%.
  • Pulse Rifle
      • Reduced camera movement from firing a Pulse Rifle by 7%.
  • Machine Gun
      • Reduced camera movement from firing a Machine Gun by 9.5%.
  • Sniper Rifle
      • Scaled flinch from damage from other players while aiming a Sniper Rifle by 1.6x.
  • Sword
      • Damage against Miniboss tier enemies and above reduced by ~15%.
Perks 
  • Demolitionist
      • Added a short cooldown on the reload effect.
Mouse and Keyboard Recoil Scalars 
  • Reduced the recoil scalar on mouse and keyboard (previously mouse and keyboard had ~40% less recoil than controller, this change brings mouse and keyboard closer to controller).
  • Affects these weapon archetypes:
      • Auto Rifle
      • Scout Rifle
      • Pulse Rifle
      • Submachine Gun
      • Hand Cannon
      • Machine Gun
Exotics 
  • Fixed certain Exotic weapons losing their buff when pulling out a Ghost Shell (they will still lose the buff if you stow them).
      • Ace of Spades
      • Tarrabah
      • Hawkmoon (final round only)
  • Borealis and Hard Light now have a custom (short) animation for switching damage type.
  • Duality
      • Increased damage falloff distance by 1.25m (in both hip fire and aim down sights).
  • Reduced maximum buff stacks from 7 to 5, each stack now grants more of a damage bonus, extended buff duration slightly.

POWER AND PROGRESSION

Updated Power bands 
  • Power Floor: 1100
  • Soft Cap: 1250
  • Powerful Cap: 1300
  • Pinnacle Cap: 1310
  • When below the Soft Cap, increased the upper limit of Power upgrades dropped from weekly powerful sources.
  • Increased XP rewards for the Last Wish raid to match Garden of Salvation and Deep Stone Crypt.
  • Fixed an issue where the Power preview for some vendor items did not match the Power of the gear received.
Player Identity
  • Several title Seals now support Gilded Titles. After completing the base Triumphs and claiming the Seal, several gilding Triumphs become available.
  • Completing all the gilding Triumphs changes the Title to its gilded state, represented by new color and icon in menus and player waypoints.
  • The Title only remains gilded through the remainder of the Season, as gilding Triumphs will be reset at the end of each Season.
  • This functionality exists for these Titles:
      • Gambit – Dredgen
      • Crucible – Unbroken
      • Nightfall – Conqueror
      • Trials – Flawless
  • New titles were made for Conqueror and Flawless that support gilding. The base Triumphs within these title Seals can be completed in any Season.
  • Players who have completed Triumphs associated with previous version of the Flawless or Conqueror Titles will have those completions applied to the new versions of the titles' Triumphs where applicable.
  • Triumphs to complete flawless carries in Trials no longer require the person being carried to never have gone flawless, and now require that they have not gone flawless during the current Season.
  • Fixed an issue where players could acquire more currency for acquiring fragments than there were fragments in the game.
  • Bounties and Pursuits
      • The Exo Stranger has a new Stasis Aspect quest available.
      • Requires Beyond Light ownership, campaign completion, and acquisition of all prior Stasis Aspects from the Stranger.
      • Reduced the completion values for many Stasis Fragment pursuit objectives to be less frustrating.

PLATFORMS AND SYSTEMS

  • PC
      • Switching teams during a Private Match has been moved to Shift key.
      • Remove the notifications and sound options that didn't do anything.
  • Consoles
      • Removed voice chat volume slider setting that didn't do anything.

GENERAL

  • Season of the Worthy Eververse items have been added as potential drops in the Bright Engram.
  • Spider now sells Glacial Starwort and Spinfoil. Spider and the Gunsmith no longer accept Phaseglass Needle, Alkane Dust, Simulation Seed, or Seraphite.
  • Remaining Phaseglass Needle, Alkane Dust, Simulation Seed, or Seraphite can be turned into Spider for a small quantity of Glimmer.
  • Starter gear has been removed from Suraya.
  • Collections version of the Generalist Ghost Shell now has full Ghost mod and Masterwork functionality.
  • Riskrunner has been removed from Xur's vendor pool as it's tied to a New Light quest.
  • Legendary Engrams can no longer be claimed from the Season Pass rewards when inventory and Postmaster are both full.
  • Wrathborn Hunt trail improved to better support colorblindness.
  • Fixed an issue where players could sometimes receive no reward from Dreaming City weekly bounties and Shattered Throne encounters.
  • Fixing this required the removal of very rare fixed-roll drops of the Dreaming City Scout Rifles and Sniper Rifles.

LOCALIZATION

For Season of the Chosen, some of the localized voice actors were recast permanently or temporary due to ongoing challenges imposed by the pandemic.

  • Permanent Recast
      • Spanish Mexican voice actor for Ghost permanently replaced.
  • Temporary Recast
      • Polish Zavala voice actor temporary replaced for Season of the Chosen by sound-alike actor.
      • Russian Ghost voice actor temporary replaced for Season of the Chosen by sound-alike actor.
      • Brazilian Osiris voice actor temporary replaced for Season of the Chosen by sound-alike actor.

We intend to return to the original cast as soon as possible.

Season of the Chosen picks up after the events of Season of the Hunt which knocked the established order of the solar system with the Pyramids and some Hive-y shenanigans. Empress Caiatl, the daughter of Calus and new leader of the Cabal, has arrived and seeking an alliance. However, when negotiations break down, you must now strike out from the H.E.L.M., acquire the Hammer of Proving and battle her war council to stave off the threat she poses.

Season 13 adds the new Battlegrounds mode, a three-player matchmade activity where you fight against Caiatl's chosen warriors. It also brings a few Strikes into the game, with The Devil's Lair and Fallen SABER returning from Destiny 1 in the Old Russia location. Later in the season an all-new Stirke, Proving Grounds, will see you fight the Cabal to save the Last City once again.

New gear is arriving, with Season Pass owners immediately unlocking the seasonal Praefectus Armor Set and Exotic bow, Ticuu's Divination, which fires Solar arrows that track multiple targets. More than 25 Exotic, Legendary and ritual weapons will be available to collect.

The new Seasonal Artefact is the Bell of Conquests, which as per usual will increase your Power every time it's upgraded, letting you grab some Seasonal mods to tweak your build.

Source: Bungie

Crash Bandicoot 4 is coming to PS5, Xbox Series X|S & Switch in March

Activision have announced that Crash Bandicoot 4: It's About Time is heading to a whole host of new platforms over the next couple of months. Having initially spun its way onto PlayStation 4 and Xbox One in October 2020, Crash 4 will be released for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S and Nintendo Switch on 12th March, 2021, with a PC release via Battle.net also planned to arrive later this year. As is fairly commonplace across the industry, those who have already bought the game on PS4 or Xbox One will be entitled to receive an upgrade to the new generation within the same console family at no extra cost.

Pre-orders are now live on Nintendo Switch and PC, both set at $39.99 (which is significantly less than the $59.99 SRP of the PS4 and Xbox One version), with anyone that purchases the game digitally receiving the Totally Tubular Skins upon completion of the game's second level.

On PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X, you can expect the usual set of upgrades through the game, with a native 4K resolution at 60fps, faster loading times, and so on. Xbox Series S will have an upscaled resolution to 4K.

The game will take advantage of Microsoft's Smart Delivery system to seamlessly bridge the generational divide with your save data, and while trickier, you can still transfer your save from PS4 to PS5.

Here's the step by step process:

  1. Launch Crash Bandicoot 4: It's About Time on your PlayStation 4.
  2. Navigate to the Select a Save Slot screen.
  3. Select the data slot you wish to transfer.
  4. Select Upload to Cloud.
  5. Confirm your selection, then select Upload to Cloud again.
  6. Once the upload is complete, select Continue to return to the game.
  7. Launch Crash Bandicoot 4: It's About Time on your PlayStation 5
  8. Navigate to the Select a Save Slot screen.
  9. Select an open data slot, then select Download Cloud Save.
  10. Confirm your selection, then select Download Cloud Save again.
  11. When prompted, enter your initials and select Next.
  12. When prompted, choose Modern or Retro playstyle.
  13. Once the download is complete, select Continue to return to the game.

What a faff!

For Crash Bandicoot fans, though, it's sure to be worth it. In our Crash Bandicoot 4: It's About Time review, Steve wrote:

Crash Bandicoot 4: It's About Time really is the definitive Crash game. Toys For Bob have taken all the series' trademarks, refined them into a challenging and polished experience and given us tons of levels to play and secrets to hunt for. There's new characters to play as and masks that shake up the gameplay when they appear, but Crash 4 is the same old Bandicoot who's learnt a few new tricks.

Source: Activision

Persona 5 Strikers Review

Last summer we saved the world from certain ruin. Sure, nobody remembers the metaverse subsuming reality, or the fact that we saved them from annihilation, but such is life for the Phantom Thieves. We don't do it for the fame and glory — we do it to make the world a better place, one reformed criminal at a time.

Of course, in the few months since Joker went away, someone has been poking around with the metaverse again, setting in motion a new wave of ruin that only you and your Persona-wielding confidants can avert. You're not sure who's caused this, or what their end-game is, you just know that responsibility for stopping the end of the world falls squarely on your shoulders once more.

So begins Persona 5 Strikers — a sequel to Persona 5, but specifically not to Persona 5 Royal's additions – and a first for the series in that it blends Koei Tecmo's musou gameplay with the standard Persona mechanics we know and love.

As I previously wrote, Persona 5 Strikers is the action-packed spin-off you didn't know you needed, putting a thoroughly refreshing spin on proceedings. Think the hack and slash of Dynasty Warriors coupled with the rock-paper-scissors, gotta catch 'em all of Pokémon, and multiplied by social commentary and real-world lore and mythology instead of random ducks with headaches. You take direct control of one character at a time, switching between them to create combo attacks on the fly. While you do give over some control of the party members you aren't currently using, it's still wonderfully freeing to hop between Joker, Haru, Morgana and beyond, stringing together their attacks one after another.

You'll be diving into city-sized Jails this time, instead of Palaces, facing off against Monarchs instead of Rulers. It's action-packed, but it's not as big a challenge as in Persona 5, thanks to the forgiving way you can jump in and out of Jails at will, giving your party a break to replenish their HP and SP.

While the gameplay is significantly different, as a sequel it's excellent and I have absolutely loved getting to kick back and hang out with the original Phantom Thieves once again. The writing is as engaging as ever, and the music in Persona 5 is and always will be exemplary. A couple of the tracks have been slightly reworked, meaning that Rivers in a Dry Land now slaps like never before. It's the same soundtrack you know and love, but now with extra metal. It's basically like Makoto before and after she meets Johanna.

The most compelling reason to pick up Strikers is the chance to hang out with your friends one more time. Although you can play this as a standalone adventure with no knowledge of the series, you do yourself a massive disservice if you do this. That's as nonsensical as trying to play Final Fantasy X-2 before Final Fantasy X. You can do it, but that doesn't mean you should.

In a nutshell, Strikers is a road trip around Japan with your friends, and the game excels in this regard. Although you don't quite get to go where you want in each city, you do get to see some really cool places that are pretty true to the cities they represent. Sapporo looks and feels like Sapporo, and I got a giddy kick out of seeing the Glico man on Dotonbori Street. It felt just like I was back travelling around Japan, albeit with a slightly different set of friends this time.

Persona 5 Strikers also has the bonus of not being a race against the constant march of time, as the main releases always have been. Those of you who like completing these games to 100% know the feeling of checking a walkthrough every 10 minutes to make sure you're seeing the right person at the right time, on the right day, saying the right things to max out your relationship stats. This is not a problem in Strikers, and you can happily see the whole thing without a walkthrough or guide. There are activities and side missions restricted to each city, but it's pretty obvious when you're about to move on, so you can relax and just enjoy the trip.

However, this lack of focus is also to the game's detriment.

Gone are your friends from the last game — the weapons dealer, medic and journalist who helped you attain stronger personas — along with the other NPC confidants. Gone too are your maxed out friendships with your party members. If one of them was your girlfriend by the end of the last game, they're no longer aware of it, which feels a bit disingenuous.

Likewise, your friends from Persona 5 Royal never existed in this universe, so if you're looking forward to catching up with Kasumi, you're out of luck. Instead, your new characters Sophie and Zenkichi step up to the plate to steal your heart. Both are excellent and Sophie in particular will melt even the coldest goddamn heart.

As with these forgotten relationships, the maxed out Personas from the main game have also disappeared. Instead of assuming that you got to bestie status with your party members, unlocking their ultimate Persona, the game lumps you with the default throughout. If you poured as many hours into the last game as I did, seeing your hard work overlooked leaves a bit of a bad feel.

My last issue with Persona 5 Strikers is that there are a couple of quality of life tweaks that would go a long way to improving the game. Although there are some light improvements here and there, it feels in some ways like one step forward, two steps back. Some of these are little things like your friends seeing locked chests through walls, or locking you out of Level 3 lockpicking until almost the end of the game, when you will encounter Level 3 locks by the midpoint.

Other, more substantial issues are sprung up by changes to the persona system, in that you acquire Personas through enemies dying into masks, rather than negotiating at gunpoint as per franchise convention. Any masks you pick up beyond what you can carry get turned into points that you can use to strengthen your personas. That's fine, but it doesn't give you the option to keep a mask that you've just picked up if it's one you don't have but want — instead, it is indiscriminately ground into level-up resources, which is less useful on the whole.

Little Nightmares II Review

If you go down to the woods today, you're sure of a big surprise, namely a massive log to the face or a bear trap snapping you body in half. Make no mistake, you are going to die an awful lot in this follow up to Tarsier Studios 2017 hit Little Nightmares. The sequel stars Mono, a little boy who wakes up in a forest on the outskirts of the massive, foreboding city that was glimpsed in the first game, joining up with Six, the yellow raincoat wearing protagonist from the first game, to traverse hospitals, crumbling buildings, and the darkest of basements.

The gameplay remains roughly the same as the first game, Mono can jump, climb, push, and hold certain objects, solving environmental puzzles and moving deeper in to the city. There are a few instances when pixel perfect jumping is required, including sections where you are running, and if you aren't very careful Mono will jump in the wrong direction and plummet to his death.

The puzzles may look complicated at first, but all have very simple solutions. However, as the game gives you no hints whatsoever, you may find yourself stuck for a while – I spent a good few hours stuck in one room after trying the obvious solution which failed, and only after running, jumping and literally throwing my in-game toys about in frustration did I try my first solution again and it worked. It turns out that if you are really small, shopping trolleys need a really good push to get them over a plank.

Like the first game, the nightmares you encounter are not chainsaw wielding vampiric monsters that adults might have bad dreams of, but the twisted versions of a seemingly innocent tableaux that might haunt children,. A teacher takes a class, a trip to the hospital, and even the simple act of watching television become warped and twisted and are far more disturbing than any axe murderer who might be hiding in a cupboard. The enemies are themed to the location you are in; wandering in to a school will find you beset by what I can only describe as a hoard of evil Pinocchios who are very eager to rip Mono limb from limb.

New to the series, but only in select locations, is a combat mechanic. Mono can use pipes, ladles, and even a shotgun to dispatch enemies, but that doesn't make this an action romp. Timing is the key here as, like everything else in the nightmare, the objects are much larger than Mono an you only get one chance to land an attack. When the game starts throwing multiple enemies at you this can be frustrating, especially when you have having to fend off enemies from all angles, but it's also very tense and a blessed relief when it's over.

Little Ng

The core theme to the story's escapism and how you interpret what is on screen is up to you, but given the current state of the world the sequences where the city's inhabitants stare zombie-like into television screens hits home rather harder than the developers could have ever hoped for when they began creating the game a few years ago.

Running on a PlayStation 5 via backward compatibility – the native PS5 and Xbox Series X|S versions are coming later in 2021 – it manages to be one of the best looking games I have played in the last few months (if you could call bags of corpses hanging from the ceiling good looking). At points the camera zooms out, it leaves Six and Mono as mere specs on the screen to show the vast, desolate city with the foreboding Signal Tower glowing in the distance. The levels themselves are packed with envorinmental storytelling, from scribbled pictures on walls to buildings that lean forward as you move closer. It's as if the city itself were alive.

Try out the Little Nightmares II demo

Accompanying the visuals is a stunning soundtrack created by Tobias Lilja, the Audio Director for the game. The sound effects are just as unsettling as the visuals; bones are crunched, slimey things drip and the main enemies are accompanied by some of the the most disturbing sounds your console will make. One of the large enemies can be heard make constant, huffing, guttural sounds as if he is about to cough something up. It's truly unsettling hearing him wheezing as he scuttles about above our tiny protagonists.

There are a number of chase sequences, and while the first is terrifying, by the fourth they have lost some of their impact and become annoying rather than exciting. Holding a button Running, pressing another to jump and then timing to grab onto ledges all at the same time feels rather fiddly. There are also a couple of puzzles that require you to listen for sound, so if you are hard of hearing you may have problems. Without trying to be 'woke' I should also mention one level features creatures made entirely of prosthetic limbs. We've seen that many times before in the past but equating disabilities to evil scary things isn't really something we should be seeing in 2021.

Bravely Default II Preview – Fortune favours the brave

Waking up on a beach must be a scary thought, especially when you're fairly sure you were spoken to by an ethereal voice after being shipwrecked, but Seth (our hero) takes it rather well. The first people you see after opening your eyes are, conveniently enough, Princess Gloria and her knight Sir Sloan who proceed to bring you to the nearby town to recover.

After some political intrigue and typical fantasy nonsense involving some laughably obvious villainy, you begin travelling across the world in search of the four Crystals of Light; Fire, Water, Earth and Wind. So far, so JRPG, but this time around you have the aforementioned princess with you, along with a travelling Scottish scholar and a chipper mercenary to round out your misfit JRPG party.

This plays out much like before, with turn-based battles, a myriad of Jobs for your characters to adopt, and various towns to explore. The Brave/Default system also returns, allowing the player to pass on a character's turn to allow more options on subsequent turns. Furthermore, you still have the ability to have two Jobs equipped at once, giving a large amount of party utility even with just a few Jobs.

Speaking of which, Bravely Default II hits usual beats through the first few chapters, so your White Mage, Black Mage, Vanguard (essentially a knight) and Monk are your first Jobs out of the gate. It doesn't matter who you equip them to as the characters appear to have no particular affinity to a certain role, so once you defeat the Asterisk holder for a Job, it's good to just experiment and see what works with your playstyle.

Having spent twenty-something hours with the game so far, Bravely Default II has mostly made small but worthwhile tweaks from the 3DS originals. There's now checkpoints in dungeons that warp you to the beginning so you can rest and save before warping back into the fray, for instance. Also, enemies now appear in the field, giving scope to avoid combat should you wish, and weaker enemies will run from your party too, which is a neat twist.

It would be remiss of us to not mention the addition of character skits called Party Chats that appear throughout, which are unvoiced text dialogue between the party members in a similar fashion to the skits from the Tales series. These are optional, but they do often help with remembering the task at hand or give additional information about where you should be going.

The biggest change, even if it initially appears inconsequential, is the sword slash that Seth has outside of combat. On the world map or in dungeons you can swipe with a blade at will. If you use it to strike an enemy in either instance, you gain advantage in the battle, with your entire party starting with a Brave Point each. Also, you can cut grass and bushes in the field to find money, items, or even weapons and armour. Taking a swipe at everything you see is a good strategy. 

Aesthetically, this is a bit of a mixed bag. The classic fairytale book style visuals are back from previous titles in the series, as you can see above (plus the characters still have tiny feet), but the visuals look rough when played in TV mode. Not bad enough to ruin the experience but, based on my time with the game, Bravely Default II looks far better in handheld mode.

Bravely Default II makes up for it with the audio. The full voice acting really adds to the player characters, and makes the villains so much easier to dislike. Furthermore, Revo returns to compose for this title, so expect a similar whimsical soundtrack to the first game, with some more epic-sounding moments for good measure. The battle theme is a particular highlight here.

Bravely Default II might not be messing with the formula much, but this luckily falls into "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" territory, and feels somewhat cosy and familiar. What has been tweaked really benefits the game on the whole, especially the addition of the blade in the overworld and dungeons, and the great voice acting really adds to the overall experience.

There's so much more to tell as we work toward a full review, but we're clearly only just scratching the surface of what Bravely Default II has to offer, especially given some of the Jobs we've come across towards the end of the first few chapters and the options they give in battle. We're looking forward to seeing what the rest of the game holds for us… we'll just be playing in handheld mode from now on.

Episode One of We Were Here is free on the PlayStation Store right now

Lucia de Visser, Managing Director & Co-founder of Total Mayhem Games has taken to the PlayStation Blog to announce that the first episode of co-op puzzler We Were Here is out now and free for a limited time. The rest of the series, which you will have to pay for, will come to PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5 via backwards compatibility on February 23rd.

"If you don't know, our games are cooperative first-person puzzle adventures where your goal is to escape, and all you have is a pair of walkie-talkies," explains Lucia. "You and your partner will be challenged to work together on the same wavelength in order to solve puzzles and explore."

"Each game is two player online co-op only, in which players take the roles of Antarctic explorers. The first two games We Were Here and We Were Here Too see players forced to seek cover by a blinding snowstorm, when they come across Castle Rock – a mysterious medieval castle in the wastes of Antarctica. Upon entering, you become separated from each other – can you and your friend escape Castle Rock?"

The twist is that although you are playing together you won't ever be in the same place, " you might occasionally see the other player from a balcony or on the other side of bars, but often your only direct interaction will be speaking via walkie-talkie," says Lucia.

The rest of series will continue the story, just how is there a large castle in the middle of Antarctica? "Think of it like a TV series where the episodes are individual stories, but also tie together in the longer term," says Lucia.

You can download episode one right now by following this link, the game series has been on Steam for a while where is has a Very Positive rating.

Source: PS Blog

Brawl Stars Starr Force balance changes now live

A new update for Brawl Stars has gone live, swooping in with a fresh list of midseason balance changes and other game fixes. You will need to download and install this latest balance patch to access the popular three-versus-three mobile hit, developer Supercell having tweaked a number of brawlers since rolling out their last major season update while also stamping out some bugs. Specifically, there are five playable characters who have been adjusted to help balance the Brawl Stars meta including Bo, Edgar, Jessie, Bea, and Byron. Supercell have also been working on Sprout's super, which can you read more about in the patch notes below.

Brawl Stars has just kicked off season 5 – dubbed The Starr Force – which includes a bevy of new content. Up top, we have a new Brawler: the eyepatch-wearing space commander, Colonel Ruffs. Yes, Ruffs. He's a dog. Season 5 is also stuffed with sci fi themed goodies including a number of new skins as well as a Starr Force Brawl Pass loaded with items that unlock as you play Brawl Stars. Here's a comprehensive rundown of everything added in this new season – in the meantime, the latest Brawler balance notes and bug fixes:

Bo
– Super Totem's effect gets weaker the more it charges a player's super
– First Super charge is charged at full speed. The ones afterward charge 1% less per second until the Totem reaches a 50% reduced charging rate.
– This effect is tracked individually per player

Edgar
– Decreased Super charge rate from Main Attack from 10 to 12 hits

Jessie
Decreased Main Attack damage from 1120 to 1060

Bea
– Rattled Hive Bee count increased from 3 to 4
– Rattled Hive Bees now stop at the first target hit
– Rattled Hive Bee maximum damage decreased from 800 to 600
– Rattled Hive Bee fly pattern changed slightly to move slower and cover less area

Byron
– Decreased Health from 2500 to 2400
– Decreased Main Attack damage from 400 to 380

Bug fixes
– Fixed an issue with player-made map reporting that caused some maps to get banned unintentionally
– Fixed Brawl Ball behavior issues related to Sprout's Super
– Fixed Showdown boxes being knocked back by Sprout's Super
– Fixed Ruffs' Pins unlocking incorrectly from Pin Packages
– Added Colette and Lou Pins to Pin Packs

Source: Brawl Stars

Marvel Contest of Champions Mixed Emotions update adds new heroes and more

Kabam have released a new patch for their popular comic book fighting game, Marvel Contest of Champions. The new updated – dubbed Mixed Emotions – adds two new playable champions to the game's ever-growing roster, including Psycho-Man and Kl'rt (aka Super Skrull). The mega mobile hit will also be celebrating the Lunar New Year and Valentine's Day, filling out its in-game events calendar with new challenges and rewards for Marvel Contest of Champions regulars. Players can spread the love by sending cards, redeeming shards, and throwing down in the Romance Arena. As with every update, expect a fresh wave of bug fixes and champion balance tweaks.

Continuing the ongoing Marvel Contest of Champions storyline, Kabam released a trailer for the game's Mixed Emotions content update depicting the two new heroes.

Related reading: our review of Kabam's new Marvel MOBA, Marvel Realm of Champions Review

Here's a snippet of lore to get you in the mood for this exciting new chapter:

You're not the only one noticing Heroes acting strangely! Something sinister is afoot, and Johnny Storm is tracking down all the cuddle-hungry robots and lackadaisical super-scientists suddenly occupying The Battlerealm. Who or what could be inverting their personalities? What does it have to do with the Super-Skrull? Find out this month!

You can review the latest Marvel Contest of Champions release notes below. If you'd like to know more about the new heroes, Kabam has published champion profiles for both Psycho-Man and Super Skrull.

Marvel Contest of Champions Update v30.0 Patch Notes

2 NEW CHAMPIONS TOY WITH SUMMONERS' EMOTIONS

Psycho-Man is a genius scientist and ruler of a technocratic system of worlds in the Microverse. Obsessed with conquering the normal-sized universe, he crafted a mechanical exoskeleton so he could interact with things not on a microscopic scale. He carries with him the Control Box, a device capable of creating and controlling the emotions of anyone he chooses, especially feelings of Hate, Fear, and Doubt.

Kl'rt was a highly decorated soldier of the Super-Skrull Empire. But when the Super-Skrull invasion of Earth was thwarted by the Fantastic Four, he was made into Super-Skrull. The first and the greatest of the Super-Skrulls, he was imbued with all the powers of the Fantastic Four. When charged by cosmic power beamed directly into his body from the Super-Skrull homeworld, he becomes even more powerful than those whose powers he mimics. Nothing can stop him, and he shall make the Earth pay for what it has done to his people!

LOVE IS A BATTLEREALM 4 ONE

Much like that ex that should really stop calling you, Deadpool is back! Just in time for the season of love! Deadpool aims to track down Psycho-Man and use his Control Box to solve his emotional equations, but things don't always go as planned when love is involved. Things get introspective as Deadpool faces his biggest enemy yet. Himself.

This content may be hard to defeat without love on your side, so bring in Romance Synergy Champs to feel the Power Of Love Buff, or dose yourself with a bit of Self Love Boost to get the same warm fuzzy tingle!

VALENTINE'S DAY CALENDAR

More like Valentine's month! Check-in daily to get Love Juices, Shattered Heart Shards, Valentine's Cards, and Self Love Boosts! The Calendar resets weekly for the duration of the event so be sure to collect all your complimentary items before they vanish.

SHATTERED HEART CRYSTALS

Available from Love is a Battlerealm 4 One, Special Arena Milestones, and Solo Objectives. Collect these Shards to get Champions involved in the "Romance" or "It's Complicated" Synergies in Shattered Heart Crystals!

FIND LOVE IN THE ARENAS

No one ever said relationships would be easy. Battle for your love in new Weekly Arenas to complete Solo Events, earn Shattered Heart Crystal Shards and more! Using and Defeating Romance Synergy Champions will help towards the Romance Arena Solo Event!

VALENTINE'S CARDS

Don't keep that love all to yourself! Send out some Valentine's Cards that grant Shattered Heart Shards! Gifting counts towards Solo Events, so don't hold back, let the whole Contest know you've got love on your mind!

LUNAR NEW YEAR

Battle monstrous opponents and celebrate the Lunar New Year in the Contest of Champions with this accessible and beginner-friendly Quest! During the event, log in every day to claim Crystal Shards, Gold, Units and Red Envelope Tickets from the special Lunar New Year Calendar! Spend Red Envelopes to gift your friends and Alliance mates, and contribute to the Lunar New Year Alliance Gifting Event!

RIGHT IN THE FEELS

All Summoners will receive a 3-Star Psycho-Man this month to ensure they get in touch with emotions! Use Psycho-Man to complete Solo Objectives as he takes on some of his foes in The Battlerealm to get special rewards, exclusive Profile Pics, and Self Love Boosts!

CHAMPION UPDATES:

Terrax, Mole Man, Kingpin, and Yellowjacket have been updated! Watch for their Champion Spotlight updates for more information.

BUG FIXES:

– Professor X: Fixed issue where the Surge abilities were not treated as a passive.

– Rocket Raccoon: Updated Signature description to show Crit Rating potency every hit in the combo instead of every 10 hits. Fixed issue where the Signature Critical Rating potency was calculating as 1 less than the combo meter specified.

– Vulture: Fixed Special 3 effects which were overlapping other effects.

– Armored Assault Buff: Added the Unblockable icon when the defender becomes Unblockable.

– Auto Fight Button: Turning off Auto Fight while the attacker is blocking no longer keeps the attacker in the blocked state.

– Do Not Go Gentle Buff: Edited Description to clarify the buff in more detail. Edited description to clarify Intercepting and Heavy attacks reduce charges even when the opponent is not about to be KOed.

– Power Sting 3.0 Buff: Updated to now inflict the Attacker with a permanent Power Sting with infinite duration that deals the Defenders Attack rating as direct damage to the Attacker when casting specials.

– Scientific Method 2 Buff: Edited Description to specify the max is 55.5% instead of 50%. Edited Description to specify 11.1% is removed every 10 hits.

Source: Marvel Contest of Champions

CD Projeckt Red has been hacked, release the ransom note they have been sent

Cyberpunk 2077 developers CD Projeckt Red have issued a statement stating they have been a victim of a "targeted cyber attack" which compromised some of their internal systems. The hacker claims they have managed to collect source code for Cyberpunk 2077, The Witcher 3 including the forthcoming next-gen versions, and accounting, financial and HR information.

The hacker has told the CDPR that they have just 48 hours to contact them else the documents and source code will be leaked online. We know all this as in an extraordinary move ,the company has released the ransom note they have been sent. That's very odd thing to do and a cynic may suggest it is to drum up online support for the developer, one who's reputation is already rather low due to the Cyberpunk 2077 release fiasco.

The ransom note. All your base belong to us.

CD Projeckt Red have said they do not believe any personal information of any of their players has been breached, and that they have already contacted law enforcement, forensic IT services, and the Data Protection Office and they will "closely cooperate with them in order to fully investigate this incident."

Cyberpunk 2077 Review – A different kind of cautionary tale

With lawsuits hanging over them for the shonky state of the game at release and lack of transparency, the company has committed to a string of updates in 2021. The first of these arrived in January, intended to stamp out crashes, bugs, glitches and issues, and to improve performance on base PlayStation 4 and Xbox One (so that they can get Cyberpunk 2077 back onto the PlayStation Store). This forced CDPR to delay the free DLC that was planned for the start of this year, as well as postpone the PS5 and Xbox Series X|S upgrades to later in 2021.

The last thing they really needed was to start introducing new issues, which is exactly what's happened with mods. It took just a matter of days after the Cyberpunk 2077 modding tools were released for this to be used for swapping character model so that you could have 'joytoy' sex with Keanu Reeve's  character Johnny Silverhands. That went a bit far for CDPR's liking (and probably Keanu's as well), with the company stepping in and saying that any such use of a real person's character model must first be authorised by them.

Source: Twitter

Report: EA to decide Anthem's future this week

Bloomberg's Jason Schreier is reporting that EA executives will decide the fate of the much maligned looter-shooter Anthem this week. A review of the game will be held and it is said EA will make a firm decision if they are to allocate more developers to the project or scrap it completely.

Schreier reports that just thirty people have been working on the game following a management restructure in December which moved Executive Producer Christian Dailey off the project and on to the next Dragon Age game. Sources (and quite frankly, anyone with an ounce of common sense) say that thirty people is just not enough staff to rework the game and add new content.

The game quickly dropped in price after launch and within a few months could be picked up for less than five pounds. In February 2020 Bioware announced that they were going to rework the game following very average reviews and complaints about post launch content. Since then very little has been heard about the game.

Here is the full text from Bioware.

Hey everyone!

One year ago, we were preparing to launch Anthem – a game that represented a big leap into new territory for us as a studio.  It was an exhilarating and terrifying experience to go out to the world with something new and different, and we are grateful to all the players who have come along with us on the journey.  It has been a thrill for us to see the creativity of our players in designing customized Javelins, and watching them master Anthem's flying and fighting gameplay.  I am so proud of the work the team has put into this game, and at the same time there's so much more that we – and you – would have wanted from it.

Over the last year, the team has worked hard to improve stability, performance and general quality of life while delivering three seasons of new content and features.  We have also heard your feedback that Anthem needs a more satisfying loot experience, better long-term progression and a more fulfilling end game.  So we recognize that there's still more fundamental work to be done to bring out the full potential of the experience, and it will require a more substantial reinvention than an update or expansion.  Over the coming months we will be focusing on a longer-term redesign of the experience, specifically working to reinvent the core gameplay loop with clear goals, motivating challenges and progression with meaningful rewards – while preserving the fun of flying and fighting in a vast science-fantasy setting.  And to do that properly we'll be doing something we'd like to have done more of the first time around – giving a focused team the time to test and iterate, focusing on gameplay first.

In the meantime, we will continue to run the current version of Anthem, but move away from full seasons as the team works towards the future of Anthem. We'll keep the game going with events, store refreshes, and revisiting past seasonal and cataclysm content – starting with our anniversary towards the end of the month.

Creating new worlds is central to our studio mission, but it's not easy.  Sometimes we get it right, sometimes we miss.  What keeps us going is the support from players like you.  Your feedback gives us guidance on how we can improve, and your passion inspires us with the courage to create.   I look forward to working together with your involvement and feedback towards the best possible future for Anthem.

Source: Bloomberg (Paywall)

HyperX QuadCast S Microphone Review

This time last year I didn't own anything that had RGB. I thought I was too good for all of those silly lights. "I'm an adult who pays rent, why would I want lights coming out of my PC?" I would say to myself in the mirror.

Good people of the internet, I was wrong and I'm sorry. Every single bit of kit I own with RGB lighting on it has improved my life by around 5%. That means I'm currently around 15% better at life than I was this time last year.

Despite knowing this, I was still a little bit reticent about the idea of a microphone with RGB. Like, what's the point? So, when the HyperX Quadcast S was revealed, I once again became a fool – "This is stupid, why do you need RGB on your microphone?" – and I was once again wrong.

RGB lighting has once again improved my life. With light glowing from behind the grill of the microphone, I've got my Quadcast S set to flow between colours slowly from the top and bottom. It's like a lava lamp on my desk, and it helps keeps me calm in times that would otherwise be stressful. It also makes it really simple to know if the mic is on or not because the lights turn off if you mute it.

If full on RGB is a bit too much for you, there's also a counterpart microphone which just has the red and none of the green or blue. It still lights up in use and dims when muted, but it's a little more subdued for those wary of garish colours.

I should probably talk about the quality of the mic too, given that it's so obnoxiously high.

The sound quality for general speech is absurdly good. This is thanks to a built-in pop filter alongside an anti-vibration shock mount. The result is that anybody listening to you, whether that's your mates in whatever game you're playing together, or your viewers if you're a streamer, will hear absolutely everything that comes out of your mouth. They'll also hear your cats meowing as they pretend they're starving despite the fact that you fed them half an hour ago.

You can easily mute the mic by simply tapping the top of it, which is nice if you need to rush off for whatever reason, or just if you're going to sneeze or something.

There's a volume control built into the body of the microphone, which allows you to raise or lower your own voice without fiddling with Windows menus, and you can even change where it's picking up sound from thanks to having an array of polar patterns to choose from. For most gaming situations, the standard cardioid pattern helps pick up sound in one direction, but you also have stereo, bidirectional and omnidirectional, so you can use the mic for one-on-one interviews or group chats around a table. You know, for when that's allowed again.

A built-in headphone jack lets you monitor the audio to can allow you to check you're sounding alright. This is great for people who want to feel incredibly professional, but isn't likely to be used by the average gamer.

Grand Theft Auto V has sold 140 million copies, Take-Two have 93 games in development

Take-Two are having one of those oh-so-exciting investor calls and a couple of remarkable figures have been released. Grand Theft Auto V has now sold 140 million copies, a ridiculous amount, and it's still holding firm in the UK top ten sale charts nine years after it was initially released, this week at number six. Take-Two have also said they have 93 upcoming games , of which 63 are 'core gaming' titles, and 72 of them are for console and PC rather than smaller mobile titles. 47 of these are based on existing IPs and there will be more announcements on these "in the coming months". 

A fair chunk of these will be sports titles on the 2K sports label and I doubt we will be seeing anything of Grand Theft Auto VI, but perhaps the next Bioshock game may be revealed.
That is currently in development at Cloud Chamber, a studio set up by Take-Two last year with former Bioshock developers Hoagy de la Plante, Scott Sinclair, and Jonathan Pelling all on the payroll.

One game we know is on the way is the debut title from 31st Union, a studio set up in February 2019 with with Sledgehammer Games co-founder Michael Condrey as its lead and many former Sledgehammer and Visceral games staff on the roster. Their title was meant to be revealed last year but nothing has been announced. Hangar 13, the team behind Mafia: Defintive edition, are also working on a new IP, as are Civilization and XCOM developers Firaxis Games.

In other good news Take-Two have said that "We don't believe and have never believed single-player games are dead" and they are committed to releasing both single player and multiplayer games.

Grand Theft Auto VI was trending on Twitter during the Super Bowl yesterday, some fans thought the game would be revealed during a half time ad break, it's unclear where that rumour came from but it obvious proved to be inaccurate.

Source: Twitter

Jamie Lee Curtis joins the cast of the Borderlands movie

Scream queen Jamie Lee Curtis is the latest star to join the forthcoming Borderlands movie. She will be playing an archaeologist named Tannis and may just have the information needed to unlock a mythical vault on Pandora.

Curtis joins Kevin Hart who will be playing Roland, a "serious acting turn for the star", and Cate Blanchett who will be playing Lilith, a character who appeared in the very first game. Eli Roth is directing the movie having previously worked with Blanchett in the film "The House With a Clock in Its Walls."

Back in June 2019 Full Circle reported that Lilith will be the main protagonist in the movie but it's unlikely Kevin Hart will be taking a backseat. A plot summary was also released last year.

The movie will find Lilith in the Atlas Corporation space prison when the CEO gives her the chance to earn her freedom by rescuing his daughter, the foul-mouthed Tiny Tina, on the planet Pandora. The mission takes an unexpected turn when it becomes clear that the little girl is the key to unlocking a valuable alien vault that Atlas wants all for itself.

Joining her on the adventure will be series mascot Claptrap, Tina's bodyguard Krieg, and a group of vault hunters, but it is unclear if they will be established game characters.

The film has been in development for a good few years and was announced way a back in 2015.

Jamie Lee Curtis is having bit of a Mcconaissance having spent may years away from big budget Hollywood films. The rebooted 2018 Halloween film brought back her character Laurie Strode and she quickly followed it with a star turn in Knives Out. She will also be starring in to the two Halloween sequels that are currently in production, Halloween Kills and Halloween Ends.

Source: Deadline

Forza Horizon 4 is coming to Steam in March – Hot Wheels DLC also announced

Playground Games has announced that Forza Horizon 4 will release on Steam next month on 9th March. Already available on PC via the Microsoft Store, the hit open world racer will screech onto the new storefront as part of Microsoft's commitment made in 2019. Set in an idyllic recreation of Northern England and Scotland, it will arrive alongside everything that's already been released or added to the game, including the two paid DLC expansions, Fortune Island and LEGO Speed Champions, and the extra free game modes that have been added to the game over the last few years, The Eliminator and Super7.

Playground also announced a new Hot Wheels Legends Car Pack, which will be "coming soon" to the game as part of Series Update 32. This leans on a familiar tie in for Forza Horizon fans, with Forza Horizon 3 having received a glorious Hot Wheels expansion that covered the game world with miles of orange rubber track.

Set in the UK countryside, the game advanced the series with shifting seasons that altered the content and races available for you to play. In our Forza Horizon 4 review, Dom said, "Beautiful, British and bold, Forza Horizon 4 sets a new benchmark for open-world arcade racing."

Since then the game has received plenty of updates, as well as two major expansions, heading to Fortune Island and then on to the rather awesome Lego Speed Champions DLC, before getting a Battle Royale-style Eliminator mode in December 2019. Already a showcase on Xbox One X and PC, it was the perfect candidate for Microsoft to revisit and update for Xbox Series X as well, giving straight up 60fps performance without having to settle for a performance mode. Now they're bringing the game to a broader audience on PC than ever before.

Most recently, Playground added Super7 at the end of 2020, a new mode that allows for users to create tracks and events within the world, adding on top of the existing environment with a Blueprint Builder. Similar user generated content options have featured in the series previously, but this takes things to a whole new level, comparable with Grand Theft Auto Online's creation tools.

Forza Horizon 4 launched back in 2018 for Xbox One and PC to great acclaim, just a few months before Microsoft committed to bringing their future PC releases to Steam, day and date alongside their Microsoft Store and Xbox Game Pass release. They have periodically also brought older titles such as State of Decay 2 and Sea of Thieves to Steam as well.

Source: press release

Final Fantasy 7 Remake reveal teased – is a PS5 and Xbox announcement coming?

This weekend, Square Enix are planning to share some new details on Final Fantasy 7 Remake it has been confirmed. On February 13th there will be a live orchestra broadcast featuring music from the game – it's sure to be quite the performance though Final Fantasy fans have been teased with an exclusive reveal. The event is only accessible to those in Japan who purchased a ticket for the show, Final Fantasy 7 Remake's co-director, Motomu Toriyama, announcing that there will be a special section in which new information on the game is shared with viewers.

This news comes via the official Square Enix Music Twitter account with tweets being translated by Final Fantasy enthusiast, Audrey.

With this being an orchestra – and one that's only being shown in Japan – the FF fandom have been speculating as to how big the reveal could be. However, Audrey points out that in the build up to Saturday's show (which will begin at 5PM JST), it looks like Square are bringing key developers on board to help hype the forthcoming announcement including producer Yoshinori Kitase. In a previous Final Fantasy orchestra event, attendees were the first to see the E3 2019 extended trailer before it was later shown at the publisher's own press conference.

It's very unlikely that we will hear news of a sequel this weekend. With the PS4 12-month exclusivity period about to expire on Final Fantasy VII Remake, our money is on the reveal of additional versions coming to Xbox One and PC with an enhanced edition or upgrade coming to PS5 and Xbox Series X|S.

Final Fantasy 7 Remake scored an unstoppable 10 out of 10 in our review, fusing what made the original game so special with some truly clever modernisation. Here's how Tuffcub capped off his review:

An utter joy to play from start to finish, packed with memorable scenes, moustache-twirling baddies, and epic battles. The first part of Final Fantasy VII Remake isn't just polished, it's opulent.

Final Fantasy VII Remake went on to take the top gong in our Game of the Year showdown last year.

Source: Twitter

Maquette is a first person puzzler coming to PS5, PS4, and PC in March

Annapurna Interactive and developer Graceful Decay have confirmed that the first person puzzle game Maquette will be coming to PS5, PS4, and PC on March 2nd. Maquette was originally revealed last year for PC before there was confirmation it would also release on PS4 and PS5. The game is a recursive puzzler and that means that the world of Maquette you explore is found within a larger version of itself. This will allow any movement or change you create in the small world to ripple into the bigger world with changes being mirrored. The game is not just a puzzler but also a love story.

The description for Maquette reads:

Maquette is a first-person recursive puzzle game that takes you into a world where every building, plant, and object are simultaneously tiny and staggeringly huge. Maquette makes it possible by twisting the world into itself recursively in an MC Escher-esque fashion.
Head to the center of the world and you'll feel like a giant, towering over buildings and walls. But venture further out, and start to feel small as things get larger and larger – to the point where cracks in the ground become chasms.
In Maquette, you will explore the scales of everyday problems in a modern-day love story. Where sometimes the smallest of issues can become insurmountable obstacles.

Maquette follows the relationship of Kenzie and Michael and their first meeting and some rather awkward flirting as they enter into a relationship. The cast has been confirmed for Maquette as well with Bryce Dallas Howard and Seth Gabel taking the roles of the main characters as they explore the relationship. Partnering up with Sony for the PlayStation Indies initiative seems a pretty good way to try and steal the limelight of an ever busy video games industry.

Source: YouTube

Diving into the arctic world of Subnautica: Below Zero

In the memorable words of Jacksepticeye, we're going into the deep down dark deep down… That's right, Unknown Worlds is back with their much anticipated Subnautica sequel, Subnautica: Below Zero.

If you're not familiar with the original, Subnautica wass a survival game that predominantly takes place underwater, and the sequel follows in its wake. As someone who has a fear of underwater in video games, the idea of a whole game of underwater antics used to terrify me – honestly, it still does – but while the dark crevasses of these Unknown Worlds' titles are sure to give even the bravest explorer the chills, they have undeniable charm. Arguably, this charm comes from the ability to research alien aquatic creatures, build and customise your bases, and hopefully unlock the secrets of an alien planet.

These elements are what primarily drove the first game, with its story feeling almost secondary to the survival and investigative aspects; yes, there were important details about the Aurora Station to be found, but it was so easy to get sidetracked by everything else. It's a belief that's arguably behind the story-rich approach Subnautica: Below Zero is taking.

Story spoilers ahead — don't go any further if you want to learn about the story organically through play.

During the early access preview and developer discussion, the devs made it abundantly clear that they've taken the series in a more story-driven direction. This is why we're introduced to the main character, Robin, and her reasons for being on planet 4546B very early on — because it's what compels us deeper into the depths of the ocean. That being said, they were quick to reiterate that they wanted to make sure the story wasn't too linear. Consequently, those who've seen YouTube let's plays of the title through early access will notice that Robin's story has been given a massive overhaul.

Back in its early stages of development, the reason for Robin being on planet 4546B was related to her job: similar to her sister, Sam, she was a researcher tasked with learning more about the planet. Fast forward to the latest builds of Subnautica: Below Zero, and we find Robin on the search for answers after learning something's happened to her sister. As one of those devout gamers who's been religiously awaiting news about the game, I couldn't help but ask why this change came about.

Risk. It's a simple, but incredibly valid reason for the decision — without that sense of needing answers, of wanting to learn the fate of her sibling, players didn't get the full effect of this immersive world. There were external risks, such as the squid sharks (a new creature to frantically swim away from), but it wasn't personal enough to make us invested. As if family crisis wasn't enough of a risk factor, there's the planet's harsh elements to set our hearts racing faster.

In the original game, we encountered plenty of fantastical thunderstorms, but nothing quite as unforgiving as the arctic. By having greater challenges on land, the game takes on a refreshed feel — we don't feel like we're merely playing a rehashed game, we feel like this is a whole new chapter of Subnautica. This is exactly what the devs wanted, and that I feel they've achieved thus far. During the events of the first game, we rarely had to spend much time on land, however, this time around there's many reasons to keep our feet on solid ground. Though, as always, the main action is down in the darkness.

Ultimately, these subtle but vital decisions succeed in creating a more open world for us to roam as opposed to a rigid one. Of course, this means the gating of the game is dramatically different from the first, with several revelations coming earlier on, though still in a way that doesn't reveal too much too soon. This being said, do keep in mind that Subnautica: Below Zero is still in early access with a rough target for release in spring 2021, meaning that things can, and will, change as the game develops further.

Moving away from the story and to customisation, it's time for us to talk about bases. As fans of the first game will know, bases are crucial for survival. What's more, they provide a quirky avenue to express some of your personality in the game — you're able to design the base in your own vision, meaning your playthrough will always be slightly different from your friends'. If this was one of the reasons you loved Subnautica, you're in for a lot of fun because Unknown Worlds have built in a lot more range.

Players can look forward to changing the exterior colours of their base, can have larger glass-domed spaces, jukeboxes for some fan-created musical interludes, and plenty of other innovations. Partnered with this, there's some old equipment making a comeback, as well as some new alien hybrid tech to test drive. Essentially, these all act as a way of upgrading your character's capabilities as the game progresses, but in a way that continues to deliver the non-violent survival experience we've come to expect from Subnautica.

Naturally, before we wish you luck on your next expedition, we know you're all dying to know the answer to the biggest question of all: will there be more games in this series?

I put this to the devs during the event and was met with a message of hope; the team would love to return to this world again in the future because there's still so much more to discover. However, with the company and its team wanting to explore new directions, and with the knowledge that they're working on a new game in secret, if and when that'll happen is nothing but guesswork right now.

Considering that Robin's story is only just beginning, perhaps we should focus on the here and now rather than looking too far ahead? We don't want to be caught off-guard roaming the part of planet 4546B.

Total War: Wahammer II The Twisted and The Twilight update released

Creative Assembly has released a small update for Total Warhammer II's The Twisted and The Twilight Lords DLC pack. One of the main fixes that has come with this patch is that the multiplayer will not desync anymore if a single player does not own the DLC pack. Durthu's campaign has had a fix where the first battle will load the correct Athel Loren map. In the Vortex campaign trade agreements can be formed, and more victory objectives have been added. The full patch list can be found below, giving you all the details of the changes to expect once the download is done.

BUG FIXES

  • Recruiting Ariel will no longer cause a desync in multiplayer campaigns if one player does not own The Twisted & The Twilight
  • Forest Health now provides scaling diplomacy benefits, with each Forest affecting a different culture
  • Bonus decrease behaviour of Wood Elves' teleportation cooldown is more consistent when it is applied to active cooldown
  • Durthu's starting battle in Mortal Empires now correctly loads an Athel Loren forest map and not a Lustria jungle map
  • Added additional Victory Objectives for Throt the Unclean in the Vortex campaign
  • Norscan factions in the Vortex Campaign are now able to form trade agreements with other factions
  • Buildings in the building browser will now only show enabled recruitment of units that your faction has access to
  • The unit disband menu in the Flesh Lab is no longer lost when switching between armies
  • Units in Skaven separatist armies now show the augments symbol on their unit card if they have any
  • Intervention armies will now focus on ritual sites correctly
  • Mutant Rat Ogres now have a chance to not be knocked back, increasing their combat performance
  • Malevolent Branchwraiths (Beasts) will now cast Amber Spear

Last week, SEGA confirmed Total War: Warhammer III. Total War: Warhammer III will explore the mysterious Lands of the East and the daemonic Realms of Chaos for the first time in the series. It will dramatically expand on the factions of Chaos found in the game, featuring Khorne, Nurgle, Slaanesh and Tzeentch as they wage war against Kislev and Cathay. The new grand campaign will see you tasked with saving or exploiting a dying god, with each race having a different journey through the Chaos Realm that builds up to an endgame to decide the fate of the world.

Source: Total War

Empire of Sin PC patch 1.03 is a huge update for the mobster management sim

Romero Games has released update 1.03 for Empire of Sin on PC, making sweeping changes to the mobster empire management sim after a less than stellar launch back in December. There's no word on when the update will come to PS4, Xbox One or Switch, but it is a big one for PC players, aiming to answer some of the many complaints that the community had about the game. In summary, it addresses poor combat AI, limits the overpowered fast travel and makes it so that you must be at War in order to attack an enemy faction.

Empire of Sin launched for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, PC and Mac on 1st December, but was immediately criticised for a number of issues and flaws, including some troublesome save file corruption issues. Some of the biggest issues were quickly addressed in a hotfix (albeit a week later on console), but given the proximity to the holiday break, Romero Games could only promise a further update in Q1 2021.

Update 1.03 is now here to tackle some of those issues with game design, making safehouses hidden, beefing up combat AI for the turn-based battles and cutting out some of the spammier ways to succeed to grow your empire. A further change is coming in update 1.04 to add a full auto-resolve, but for now the "mini-resolve" will let you choose to run away from fights.

In our Empire of Sin Review, Nic Reuben wrote, "Empire of Sin is a promising strategy game but one that feels woefully incomplete. I can't recommend it, but I can recommend following it's hopeful transition into something genuinely wonderful."

It looks like they've already taken a good stride forward in that regard.

Here's the full patch notes:

Empire of Sin 1.03 Patch Notes

The Highlights

  • Safehouses are now hidden
  • Combat AI has been improved and provides more challenge
  • Added a Mini-resolve option to avoid nuisance combat demands. A new system will be implemented in the next update (1.04)
  • Fast travel has been limited
  • You can no longer attack an Enemy Faction you're not at War with

General Changes

  • The game no longer pauses and minimizes when it loses focus
  • AI ignores temporary alliances when deciding to break an alliance
  • Loot crates are now rebalanced
  • Adjusted racket income filter list to take the prosperity modifier into account
  • Added separate notoriety gains for raze, ransack, and smash up
  • Prevented Personality Traits from reapplying every time you save/load
  • Removed time-free teleporting
  • Fixed disappearing gangsters
  • UI polish
  • Locale polish
  • Prevented alcohol resource errors when ransacking that could lead to inventory corruption
  • Fixed instances of disappearing actors when upgrading ambience
  • Fixed severe issues when a game is loaded where "master hotelier" is in effect
  • Fixed an issue where actors could be sent to the void if two buildings changed their racket type at the same time
  • Added more building and colour variety in the neighbourhoods
  • Gangster Talents now need to be unlocked
  • Fix boss ability items inheriting incorrect modifiers through weapon stats
  • Add a wait to the flee action so players can see the characters leave the area
  • Character model improvements
  • Fixed an issue where if a player added a space or lowercase letters when editing a building name, the building name would not be displayed correctly
  • Added more building variety throughout the neighbourhoods
  • Better telegraphing and delay for Hotels Disbanding
  • Better notifications for players when hotels are disbanded
  • Fixed a softlock when assigning Lieutenants
  • Fixed issue where if a character has more than 9 Status Effects on them, the UI will start to overlap. If they receive 28 or more, the icons will start to go off screen
  • Empire screen filter lists scroll resets on repopulating
  • The missing synergy icon has been found and returned to its rightful slot
  • The Crew screen and Black Market now have no whitespace issues when viewed in 4:3
  • The issue when switching to Asian languages and switching back would cause text to disappear in the tutorial is now resolved
  • Updated the hiring costs for the starting gangsters
  • An issue with Safehouse discovery resetting on load has now been laid to rest
  • The awkward silences in sitdowns have now been filled with conversation
  • Cleared the truce/end war sitdowns when war is removed
  • Missing translations in the Settings window from the Title screen have been replaced
  • Increased the difficulty of the difficulty levels
  • Changed Threaten Option in sitdown pop up
  • Fixed alcohol resource being released twice
  • Save upgrader to fix older saves not loading from alcohol issue
  • Saltis issue with rackets being locked fixed
  • DMJ issue for Thompson not on map in Blues fixed
  • Capone softlock when talking to Guard fixed
  • When skipping to Ronnie's phone call in the tutorial, we didn't have a valid reference to the brewery. This has now been fixed
  • Increased the tiers for racket guards for all major factions
  • Multiple tooltips were missing in the Empire Overview, Finances and Alcohol info screen. We found them and the are now back where they belong
  • The name of the neighborhood is now added to the surrender dialog options
  • Various UI fixes
  • Fixed an issue where sitdown and mission icons stayed fixed on screen if the player pressed 'f' to transition to another neighbourhood
  • Made sure that the tutorial safehouse doesn't spawn exterior guards while the tutorial is active
  • Added new advertisements, see if you can spot them all!
  • Fixed Safehouse Discovered Softlock in Tutorial
  • Friend In Need mission fix for not completing after killing lodge members
  • Jacques Attacks mission fix for not completing if you upgrade all rackets at once
  • Fixed crate positions
  • Increased the sitdown timeout from 5 minutes to 15 minutes
  • Unknown characters will no longer reveal the faction name if we start pre-combat near them
  • Mark Target will now work in pre-combat and start combat immediately when activated
  • Resolved an issue where the AI could initiate combat while a sitdown was beginning. This would result in a soft lock in some cases
  • Added recruiting time to AI squads
  • Removed war-free attacks. You want a fight, start a war
  • Raul was placed so close to a building that his arm was in it
  • Genna fix for Round The World mission not completing
  • When the player refuses the police request for cash, their rating with the police is reduced depending on their notoriety. If they pay up, their rating with the police is increased
  • Fixed a cursor issue when cancelling a load game request
  • Nicknames should now display how you got them in a pop up
  • Fixed an issue where all tutorial attacks by player were asking for confirmation
  • Fixed an issue with safehouse storages being nil
  • Prevented Moles from being added to selection
  • Non-tutorial AI Factions now start with a safehouse security level of 2 instead of 1
  • Fixed bookshelf collisions in bars
  • Created a Sal's Tips update for 1.03 to advise players in-game as to what the updates are
  • Updated Large Casino interiors
  • Different colors for the Explore and the Exterminate Agenda icon outline on the minimap and street view. This change also fixes colors of agenda icons not updating when you encounter a squad from an unknown faction
  • Fixed Status bar icons overlap with combat status UI
  • Police now resume patrolling correctly after TurningABlindEye is over in a location
  • Made all loot in crates uncommon
  • O'Banion's mission POI not updating if racket becomes invalid is now fixed
  • Fixed Duarte's mission racket showing 0 cost for buildings after takeover, CMA mission not continuing
  • Injured Gangsters are now correctly disappearing after taking over a racket when they become injured
  • Fixed Word on The Street mission not continuing because combat was starting during a conversation
  • Various save game fixes
  • Made prosperity only update on weekly events
  • Fixed issue where character entered into a T-pose if they travel while paused
  • Fixed issue where players could end up not being able to move long distances
  • Traffic no longer brought to a standstill on completing the tutorial
  • Fixed the issue with loot screens popping up when other factions find them
  • Removed cash from loot crate drops
  • The Municipal Pier is now properly named on the map screen
  • Additional checking by minor faction AI to ensure target faction has requested alcohol before making trade request

Combat Fixes/Changes

  • Issues with the AI not using grenades if they have to step out from cover have been fixed.
  • Dead combatants can no longer panic during combat
  • Allowed the boss to gain notoriety if anyone in their faction performs an execution
  • Ensured that AI squads that are about to attack a building are not using other tactics before they attack
  • Reduced the OW Angle for Dart Gun from 180 to 130 degrees and reduced the OW Angle for LP08 Pistol from 180 to 150 degrees
  • Suppressed Fire shot does not deal damage to targets
  • Ensured that combat can't start during conversations
  • Fixed issue where player is able to equip regular rounds on dart gun
  • Tweaked Last Rites as it can deal more damage than it is supposed to: All attacks with more than one shot would always deal crit damage after the first crit shot
  • Fixed issue where certain conversations couldn't start combat
  • Stopped heal over time effects being applied when their item is equipped
  • Fixed a softlock in combat when moving characters who had been revived from bleeding out as the result of an overwatch shot
  • Fixed Ability & Melee descriptions being truncated during combat
  • Fixed issue where Gun panel would stay up with no gun icon
  • Fixed an issue where entering combat during the war tutorial softlocks the game
  • Remove the drunk animation while in combat to fix characters teleporting across the map
  • Ensured errors in AI tactics don't block AI behaviour
  • Fixed softlock related to a primary faction being eliminated in a war
  • Fixed softlock when a revenge reaction turn was triggered after shooting
  • Fixed softlock when using batter up on a character that doesn't die
  • Weapon Balance: Reduced the effectiveness of a number of weapons. Critical hit damage has been reduced across the board. Removed the instant kill modifier from the Funeral Arranger Shotgun and the Deceiver Rifle. Added Knockback and Bleed to the Deceiver
  • Fixed knife attack animation freezing
  • Fixed save games with broken melee weapons after using a batter up reaction attack
  • Fixed an issue where Knocking Out a character with an overwatch shot would softlock the game
  • Fixed issue where character could be stuck in the knocked out pose after combat ends
  • Last Rites ability has limited range, which was not implied by the game in any way. This is now fixed
  • Fixed issue with Remedy not appearing on action bar
  • Fixed issue with Hair Trigger ability activation popup showing even when character is knocked down
  • Fixed an issue where certain combat reactions were using stale position / vision data. Could cause an issue where a character would "step out" to an old position several meters away
  • Time Bomb will now disrupt overwatch when thrown
  • Characters no longer get up after they have been executed if they were put in the BleedingOut state by a critical hit
  • Fixed issue where Last Rites didn't indicate that DMJ's Mauser has 10 shots leading people to believe it is bugged
  • If a gangster or boss will be affected by the exterior combat, the dialogue offering surrender now shows their name
  • The camera will no longer move after the player abandons exterior combat when the attackers are attacking the outside of a building
  • AI attacking building exteriors will now attack between 8-15 metres from the building door instead of between 0 – 5 meters
  • Fixed issue where corpses would block player moving to tiles
  • Vicekings boss Daniel leaned on us for getting his name wrong in German
  • The camera will no longer move after the player abandons exterior combat when the attackers are attacking the outside of a building
  • We have ensured the Run Away option is displayed in surrender dialogue if the character is under attack outside
  • Added even more variety in the buildings
  • Made sure characters cant get stuck in the overwatch pose at the end of combat
  • Characters now rotate back to their overwatch direction after getting attacked
  • Increased the duration before an AI will declare war without an antagonizing incident
  • Adjusted weapon ranges and stats
  • Smooth out the curves for weapon ranges to reduce a number of sharp drop offs.
  • Lowered a number of critical damage multiplier values for numerous weapon types.
  • Removed critical hit chance from a number of explosives weapons.
  • Removed armor damage from rifles
  • Fixed an issue where the AI would get close to the player
  • Added new movement parameters that allows the AI to want to move towards the effective range of their weapon
  • Improved the performance for moving towards enemies and grouping with allies
  • Fixed an issue with all tiers of Saltis melee racket guard being equipped with Brass Knuckles. Now each tier of Saltis melee racket guard is equipped with appropriate tiers of melee weapon
  • Wandering thugs and thugs near loot crates will no longer attack the player on sight. They will attack if the player opens a loot crate near them
  • Guards of major and minor factions will now only attack the player faction characters on sight if they are at war
  • Melee attacks now trigger the correct animation if the target bleeds out
  • Fixed that combatants who start a battle while in sitting pose, will no longer stay in that pose for the whole fight
  • Guards in rackets will no longer sit in chairs
  • Resolved a UI Overlap in combat with large text settings
  • Further updates to the combat AI to help them move when no targets are visible and stay put when they can do actions from their current position
  • Made sure bleeding out targets are prioritised correctly in the chance to hit order
  • Friendly fire no longer removes non-aggression types of pacts (ceasefires/defense agreements..etc)
  • Fixed issue where Unleash Fury could fail to activate
  • Reduce the movement debuff from exhaustion from -2 to -1
  • Fixed an issue where clicking the "Exit Ambush" button did nothing in combat
  • Character speed returns to normal if Drunk status wears off during combat
  • Gut Shot sfx now only plays when someone gets shot in the gut
  • Fixed issue with the Lifeline ability which could cause it to be applied incorrectly to characters close to the action
  • Fixed an issue with Lifeline where the bonus could become stuck on a character
  • Fixed a bug where characters could be warped out of the combat bounds at the beginning of combat if that character had been knocked down or killed by an overwatch shot in a previous combat

Mission Fixes/Changes

  • Auto focusing missions that come from quest givers and boss missions
  • Fixed failing Ryley mission when Alfred dies
  • Fixed Helen being placed in Dyer mission when placement invalidated
  • Removed repeated objectives failing missions
  • Fixed alcohol production being stopped forever in CMA mission and Burned Booze and Ruined Barley event
  • Fixed unclickable option for DMJ's mission
  • Added placement invalidated to RPC missions so they stop failing when a building is upgraded
  • Moved Kicking the Habit mission to mid game to stop both Maria missions spawning together
  • CMA fixes – Stopping All Good Things on Alt time auto-completing, fix for Jacques Attack and They're onto Us
  • Boss mission fixes – Stopping NPCs from spawning on band stand, buildings taken over by killing boss now count as conquering and progress mission, fix for DMJ mission Down Hearted Blues
  • Fixed missions not completing in groups
  • CMA fixes, Auto accepting mission rewards instead of relying on resolution pop up
  • Persisting mission NPCs that are going to be resurrected to stop them from disappearing, misc boss mission fixes
  • CMA fixes, body bag removal fix, removing persistent POI over Maria's head, adding do not revive tag to mission NPCs to stop them getting up after combat
  • Moved any mission NPCs standing on stages in bars off them
  • Fixed an issue where interior guards could duplicate themselves after winning a defensive fight
  • Union mission, family business mission and NPC approaching player to talk fixed
  • Lost and Found: After interaction with thugs, we have fixed the loading freeze when trying to enter racket
  • Fixed some missions giving rewards even when they are failed
  • Fixed Broken Menagerie not continuing if fight happens before thug fight

Thug Variants

  • You should now see 13 variations of thugs
  • The appearance is randomly selected

Racket Guard Changes

  • Any old saves that were made before these changes were introduced will keep their previous racket guards until that racket is upgraded or sold and purchased again. Once upgraded or purchased the racket will start using the new guard setup.
  • With each level of security upgrade the guards will now become much tougher
  • A new tier of racket guard has been introduced at security upgrade levels 4 and 5
  • These changes only attribute based. The number of guards has not changed and there has been no changes made to the guard inventories
  • Fixed issue with racket guards not being replenished

Faction Changes

  • Allowing the boss to gain notoriety if anyone in their faction performs an execution
  • Fixing Spiffing Brit minor faction exploit
  • Faction AI no longer attacks buildings outside of war. Existing attacks outside of war in older saves are cancelled.
  • The diplomacy option for retribution demands has been removed

Safehouse Changes

  • Safehouses now start out as hidden (white buildings you can't interact with)
  • Discovery chance increases by 1% a week from meeting a faction
  • Once a month a safehouse discovery chance checked and the safehouse is revealed if the check passes
  • Diplomacy screen shows your current discovery chance
  • Taking over that faction's rackets further increases the discovery chance and checks (dynamic percentage based on faction rackets remaining)
  • Event fires on safehouse being discovered
  • Guards don't show up outside the safehouse until the safehouse is discovered by the player
  • Ensuring taking over safehouses correctly assigns lieutenants
  • Fixed issue with gangsters flagged as "away" being able to be assigned to a safehouse

Source: Paradox