Video Game Chat

The following games were also announced for Switch during the show: Ender Lilies: Quietus of the Knights from Binary Haze Interactive: In this dark fantasy 2D action-RPG, encounter horrific enemies against whom a moment of inattention could be fatal. Overcome these hardships and seek the truth with the help of fallen knights. The game releases on June 22 the same say it releases out of Early Access on PC. It is also coming to PS5 via backward compatibility with the native PlayStation 4 on July 6. Xbox Series X/S and Xbox One will come at a later date. The House of the Dead: Remake from Forever Entertainment: The classic arcade rail-shooter is back with a new makeover and exciting gameplay changes. In this multiplayer game, you’ll suit up as a pair of government agents sent to investigate disappearances only to find hordes of undead monstrosities. It releases for Nintendo Switch later this year. The Longing from Studio Seufz: With a beautiful hand-drawn art style and an intriguing story, the game is unlike anything you have played before. The big twist: You don’t actually have to play to see how it ends. But that doesn’t mean you should just sit idly by. As main character Shade, you must wait 400 days for your king to awaken. While waiting, you can explore dark caves, complete time-based puzzles and collect items. Start your countdown clock now, as it releases for Switch later today. Aerial_Knight’s Never Yield from Aerial_Knight: This is not your typical “runner” game. Run, jump, slide and dash through a futuristic Tokyo-styled Detroit to a head-bopping soundtrack as the protagonist Wally to save what’s left of the future. Aerial_Knight’s Never Yield slides onto Nintendo Switch on May 19. A demo will be available in Nintendo eShop later today. There is No Game: Wrong Dimension from Draw Me A Pixel: Despite its title, this really is a game! There is No Game: Wrong Dimension is a point-and-click comedy adventure filled with riddles and puzzles. If you’re looking for something different and experimental that’s full of surprises, look no further. It releases on Switch later today. GetsuFumaDen: Undying Moon from Konami Digital Entertainment and GuruGuru: Showcasing a stylized Japanese aesthetic, the game delivers a dynamic hack-and-slash rogue-lite experience, filled with perilous dungeons, fierce boss battles, and intense, skill-based combat. It’s coming to Nintendo Switch next year. Beasts of Maravilla Island from Banana Bird Studios, LLC: In this 3D adventure game, take on the role of a young wildlife photographer who traverses Maravilla Island’s magical ecosystems to discover extraordinary creatures, learn their behaviors and, most importantly, photograph their majesty. It’s out in June. Skul: The Hero Slayer from SouthPAW Games: Take on an entire army to rescue your king in this 2D fast-action rogue-lite. And the best part? To progress in the game, you’ll need to swap abilities, which is done by swapping heads. With 90 playable character variations, each with its own special abilities, you might think you’re out of your skull in real life. It’s out this summer. KeyWe from Stonewheat & Sons: This cooperative postal puzzler stars two small kiwi birds working in a whimsical post office. They must jump, flap and butt-slam across an interactive landscape of levers, bells, and buttons to get those messages delivered on time. It releases in August. Weaving Tides from Follow the Feathers: Call your Weaver and soar across a stunning woven landscape. Set out on a journey to explore ancient dungeons, solve puzzles, wrap up your foes and unravel the great mysteries of a long-forgotten past. The game is a charming single-player adventure set in a world of magic and textile, and releases for Nintendo Switch in May. Labyrinth City: Pierre the Maze Detective from Darjeeling: Adapted from the children’s book series, the game takes you across detailed mazes to retrieve a powerful artifact. On your quest, you will interact with more than 500 items or characters, find over 100 hidden objects, and wander about in beautiful locations. It will be made available this spring.

The first major system update for PlayStation 5 is due to launch tomorrow (April 14), bringing with it a handful of highly requested features for the next-gen console. The hardware's most substantial update since launching last November will include the ability for players to move PlayStation 5 games onto an external hard drive, a feature the console was roundly criticised for lacking at launch. At present, it's only possible to move PlayStation 4 titles from the PlayStation 5 onto an external HDD, and many users have simply had to delete next-gen games and redownload at a later date to make space. Over on the PlayStation Blog, senior vice president of platform planning & management Hideaki Nishino confirmed this, and several other changes set to arrive as part of the update. "With this feature, you can now transfer your PS5 games to USB extended storage from your console's internal storage," he wrote. "It's a great way to extend the storage capabilities of your PS5 console, and you can seamlessly copy your PS5 games back to the console's internal storage when you're ready to play. It is faster to reinstall PS5 games from USB extended storage than to re-download or copy them from a disc." It still won't be possible to load up game's directly from the hard drive, but this is still a big step forward for players who are starting to feel restricted by the console's 667.2GB of useable storage. The update is also set to introduce a range of expanded social options across PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5. Players will be able to Share Play between the two consoles, opening up new cross-generational possibilities for multiplayer. There's also a new 'Request to Join Game Session' feature, which Sony promises will reduce the time it takes to jump into games with friends. Finally, Sony is introducing a number of customisation options for PlayStation 5 users. Among them, you'll be able to fiddle with individual notifications for any parties you're in, magnify your screen, change the kind of trophies your console automatically takes screengrabs of, and manually adjust the volume of your loudest and most annoying friend's audio.

It looks like PlayStation is eager to adapt some of its more popular IP for mobile, and the company is already working on going more mobile. Sony has posted a new job listing for a Head of Mobile at Sony Interactive Entertainment PlayStation, with the successful applicant having the leadership and talent to “lead the development and strategy of mobile gaming and help shape the future of gaming for a world-class studio”. “As Head of Mobile, you will own and develop the mobile games strategy for PlayStation Studios and help build a foundation for future growth opportunities,” states the job listing (via VGC). As per the role, Sony’s new hire will be working across departments to better leverage the company’s IP and brands and find new success in the mobile market. “You will lead all aspects of the expansion of our game development from consoles and PCs to mobile & Live Services with a focus on successfully adapting PlayStation’s most popular franchises for mobile,” the listing continues. It stands to reason this will focus on the likes of Gran Turismo, God of War, The Last of Us, Uncharted, and so on. “You will be responsible for building and scaling a team of mobile leaders and will serve as the Head of this new business unit within PlayStation Studios.” This seems in line with what we’ve seen from Sony’s overall strategy lately, where the company is focusing on its proven successful games, rather than experimenting with more niche projects.

New Pro games arriving in April including Resident Evil 7. SpongeBob SquarePants: Battle for Bikini Bottom Rehydrated Ys VIII: Lacrimosa of DANA: PIKUNIKU But importantly 5 games are leaving. Including the SteamWorld Quest, SteamWorld Dig 2, Superhot and F1. The SteamWorld games are great little games, if you are on the fence I'd recommend signing up and adding them to your account. Leaving March 31st: SteamWorld Quest, SteamWorld Dig 2, SUPERHOT MIND CONTROL DELETE, F1 2020, and Hotline Miami.

The Spring Sale arrives on PlayStation Store Wednesday, March 31. It brings with it promotions on a multitude of games, add-ons and more, including the likes of Ghost of Tsushima, Fortnite: The Last Laugh Bundle, FIFA 21 and GTAV. While the Spring Sale runs for the next four weeks*, it’s so big, they had to split in two. Part 1 starts Wednesday, March 31 and be sure to check back here on Wednesday, April 14 when they announce the next wave of titles joining the promotion. You can check out the full list of titles below. Click through to find out your regional discount, or head here for the dedicated Spring Sale page on PlayStation Store. *Spring Sale starts Wednesday March 31 and finishes on Wednesday, April 28, 11.59pm local time. Some titles will leave the promotion early, so please check a title’s PlayStation Store product page for their end date.

Evo, the premier fighting game tournament, has joined the PlayStation family. Sony Interactive Entertainment has acquired fighting game tournament Evo. PlayStation now co-owns Evo, along with a new esports venture called RTS. The 25-year-old tournament will return this year, as an online-only event. Evo co-founders Tom and Tony Cannon will remain involved with the tournament in “advisory roles.” As for this year’s event, it will take place entirely digitally on August 6 – 8 and again 13 – 15. The line-up so far includes Street Fighter 5: Champion Edition, Tekken 7, Mortal Kombat 11 Ultimate, and Guilty Gear Strive. The tournament’s open format will be available to players from North America, Latin America, Europe, and Asia, and qualifiers will be livestreamed. Entry will be free, and more details will be announced over the coming weeks. “For PlayStation, today’s announcement marks an exciting step in our journey to foster the growth of the fighting game community and esports, and support competitive gamers widely on our consoles,” Sony said in a statement. “Fighting games are hugely popular on PlayStation consoles, with gamers logging more than 1.1 billion gameplay hours in 2020 alone. We’re committed to breaking down the barriers for gamers to compete at all levels and providing a best-in-class, global platform for them to showcase their skills and passion.” For their part, EVO organisers said this won’t change what Evo is. Business development lead Mark Julio confirmed on Twitter that the tournament is still open to all platforms. “The teams at PlayStation and RTS are enabling us to continue working with our community to support fighting games,” said Julio. “In order to deliver on the trust you have all put in EVO, we realise that we need an experienced strategic partner who truly respects that spirit of the FGC [fighting game community],” said organisers Tom and Tony Cannon.

Sony is expanding its Play At Home initiative by offering nine games for free starting March 25, including some PlayStation VR games. Play at Home will continue into April, with Sony making Horizon: Zero Dawn Complete Edition available for free beginning April 19. The first round of Play at Home free games will be available March 25 through April 22 at the same time. It includes: Abzu Enter the Gungeon Rez Infinite Subnautica The Witness Thumper Paper Beast Moss Astro Bot: Rescue Mission Horizon: Zero Dawn Complete Edition will be free from April 19 until May 14 at the same times. There's no gimmick to obtaining these. Just like with 2020's Play At Home games, all you need is a PSN account. From March 25 through April 22, Sony is also offering an expanded Funimation trial, extending the usual two-week free trial to a full three months.

Japanese publisher Capcom has issued a warning about a scam claiming to offer folks early access to the upcoming Resident Evil Village. The firm said that it is not messaging people this way and this isn’t someone working on their behalf. Capcom warned people who received these emails to delete them straight away without downloading any files. “We’re sending this message as we’ve been made aware that there are currently emails circulating that pretend to contain ‘Early Access invitations’ to Resident Evil Village,” the company wrote. “The sender address is being displayed as “no-reply(at)capcom(dot)com. “We want to inform you that these messages are NOT from Capcom and appear to be phishing attempts by an unauthorized third party. If you have received such a message, please DO NOT download any files or reply, and delete the message immediately.” This isn’t a new phenomenon by any stretch of the imagination. Last month, Ubisoft had to issue a similar warning about an email scam doing the rounds claiming to offer access to a Far Cry 6 beta. Meanwhile, at the end of 2020 Polish games giant CD Projekt had to warn users about a similar scheme for its upcoming Cyberpunk 2077.

If it works as well as Edge Chromium does on desktop, I would say the Xbox crowd are in for a treat. It is a very good browser in my experience.

Did anyone actually buy/rent any films or TV shows from the PlayStation Store in the first place? ? I've never fully understood its inclusion, it just can't compete with the likes of Netflix and Amazon..

After a long wait, we are finally getting a sequel to the Pokemon picture taking simulator, titled simply New Pokemon Snap. The game will come in April, but today we got a trailer highlighting the various things you can do in the game, as well as its region. In a new trailer from the Pokemon Presents, we got a big highlight for the Lental region, where the game will take place. The video also showed some of the Pokemon you’ll be taking shots of. Much like the original game, you can do things to change their expressions or movements, such as throwing baits to get reaction shots. Your pictures will get rated based on rarity, leading to more rewards. The game will also have a social element, where you can share pictures online, where people can like it, and those with the most likes will be featured. This is most likely the online portion that was referenced when the eShop listing went live earlier in the year. New Pokemon Snap is set to release as a Nintendo Switch exclusive on April 30th.

Microsoft has announced the first set of backwards compatible titles to take advantage of FPS Boost. The team at Microsoft has added enhancements to backwards compatible titles by developing FPS Boost, which employs a variety of new methods for nearly doubling the original framerate on select titles. This results in higher, steadier framerates to make games visually smoother. Games that will benefit from FPS Boost first, starting today, are Far Cry 4, New Super Lucky’s Tale, Sniper Elite 4, UFC 4, and Watch Dogs 2. Microsoft said it chose these titles because they are popular with players, and to also highlight “several different ways” FPS Boost can improve the experience. This means New Super Lucky’s Tale can now run up to 120fps, and UFC 4 can now run at 60fps. More titles to feature FPS Boost will be announced and released soon. This spring, the firm will also roll out new menu icons and system settings via system update where you can go to “Manage Game” to find a “Compatibility Options” button that will allow you to toggle FPS Boost on or off. There will also be a new indicator informing you when a game is running with FPS Boost whenever you hit the Xbox button on your controller. Many of these FPS Boost games will also be made available in Xbox Game Pass. New Super Lucky’s Tale and Sniper Elite 4 are both currently available with Xbox Game Pass.

Here's an announcement we didn't expect to ever land in our email inbox. Six Days in Fallujah, the formerly cancelled tactical shooter that was the subject of controversy all the way back in 2009, has been resurrected by Highwire Games for a release at the end of this year. Development is headed up by a team of veteran industry members that includes the lead designer of Destiny and Halo: Combat Evolved Jaime Griesemer as well as composer Marty O'Donnell. Get a first look at what Six Days in Fallujah looks like a whole 12 years later in the announcement trailer below. This unexpected revival is an "all-new game" told from the first-person perspective, aiming to recreate the "true stories of Marines, soldiers, and Iraqi civilians who fought Al Qaeda during the toughest urban battle since 1968." You will take control of a squad faced with real-life combat encounters, which have been put together following more than 100 interviews with those who were present during the second battle of Fallujah. A press release reads: "The game gives these stories voice through gameplay and first-person accounts captured in original documentary interview footage. Six Days in Fallujah aims to be the most authentic military shooter to date and to tell these military and civilian stories with the integrity they deserve." Upon its cancellation back in 2009, Six Days in Fallujah was criticised for attempting to release in far too close proximity to the actual real-life events it was based on. In response, former Marine Sergeant Eddie Garcia, who was wounded during the battle for Fallujah, said: "Sometimes the only way to understand what’s true is to experience reality for yourself. War is filled with uncertainty and tough choices that can’t be understood by watching someone on a TV or movie screen make these choices for you. Video games can help all of us understand real-world events in ways other media can’t." Victura CEO Peter Tamte adds: "It’s hard to understand what combat is actually like through fake people doing fake things in fake places. This generation showed sacrifice and courage in Iraq as remarkable as any in history. And now they’re offering the rest of us a new way to understand one of the most important events of our century. It’s time to challenge outdated stereotypes about what video games can be." More information and footage of Six Days in Fallujah will be shared soon.

2021 will see the release of a brand-new Call Of Duty title to take the place of 2020's Black Ops Cold War. Rumours circulated last week that Sledgehammer Games, the studio behind Advanced Warfare and WWII would be developing the new title, while Infinity Ward (Modern Warfare) and Treyarch (Black Ops Cold War) continued with their own projects, including the constantly evolving battle royale Warzone. Now reliable leaker and Call Of Duty insider Tom Henderson, who first claimed that Sledgehammer was stepping up to develop Call Of Duty 2021, has dropped some hints about the upcoming game's title and setting. As you can see from the below tweet, Henderson is either claiming that Call Of Duty 2021 will be called Guerrilla Warfare, or Apes VS. Soldiers. I suspect the former, though I wish for the latter. Meanwhile, TheGamingRevolution, another well-known industry insider shared a cryptic tweet in response to Henderson that fans believe to be a reference to a potential 1950's setting. Interestingly enough, Reddit user NahuChurch also managed to spot a now-deleted tweet from a third reliable Call Of Duty source: ModernWarzone. They claimed that Call Of Duty 2021 will most likely be set in the 50s and feature guerrilla warfare, which would imply that the game's story will be focused around the Korean War. Activision doesn't tend to officially unveil its Call Of Duty games until around May, so take all of this with a pinch of salt for now.

You can save on thousands of titles, now through February 15. Valve has kicked off the Steam Lunar New Year Sale and you can save some money on tens of thousands of titles, now through February 15 at 10am PST, 1pm EST, 6pm UK. You can also earn points again, and kick off the Year of the Ox with an animated profile, mini profile, avatar frame, and animated avatar. Bundles are now available in the Points Shop, and you can save 10% when you purchase a Points Shop Bundle. If you already own a few items in a Bundle, you can complete the set. In celebration of the New Year, you can also claim a free animated sticker each day of the sale, celebrating the Year of the Ox. Hit up the link to see everything on sale and enjoy some savings.

The new Xbox Series X/S controller can easily switch between the different devices you use it with. As pointed out by Microsoft’s global customer success account manager Timo Wolf, the gamepad can remember which what it has been connected to. Holding the controller’s sync button will hook it up to the last mobile device or PC it was used with, with the controller flashing two or three times. Meanwhile, double-tapping the sync button will connect it to your Xbox console. This isn’t a new feature; Wolf points out that a Reddit post made on November 18 last year discusses this functionality. It’s a handy thing to know given that people can play games across their Xbox consoles, Windows 10 PCs and on mobile devices thanks to Microsoft’s Cloud Gaming streaming service. The new Xbox Series X and S controller was revealed in March 2020. This new gamepad came with a brand new D-Pad with Microsoft apparently making it easier to hold than its predecessor. Though they boast a number of improvements, Microsoft is apparently asking Xbox owners whether its new controllers feel “next-gen” enough. In particular, the company wanted to see what people thought about the rival PlayStation 5’s DualSense controller and the innovations it introduced including improved haptic feedback and adaptive triggers.