Starbound remains a grand time for people who want to play Minecraft in a 2D environment, with a science-fiction twist. The latest update has arrived in the game where players are recruited to serve as a bounty hunter, capturing criminals and detaining them. The Starbound Bounty Hunter update 1.4 is now live, and players can jump in to catch their first targets right now.

It's not going to be easy, as players have to track down these dangerous criminals using clues to determine their target's location. These targets usually have a large number of gang members protecting them that the player has to shoot their way through before getting to their intended objective. You'll start at on a standard base, and steadily make your way through the galaxy traveling to different planets before you find yourself at the final hideout.

To join the bounty ranks, players have to speak to the latest faction in the game called Peacekeepers. You'll have to follow the faction's storyline through a series of missions, rising the ranks to gain more prestige with the group. Eventually, you'll get to explore the bosses owned by this faction.

Additionally, the Bounty Hunter update 1.4 adds procedural dungeons and bounties players can interact with at any time. The dungeons contain a variety of foes players need to shoot their way through, attempting to capture their ideal target at the end.

The update also introduces a brand new elemental species of creatures, which players can capture to add to their collection. You're also going to find seven new weapons, drones, eight new armor pieces, a mining laser, and plenty of new furniture.

The bounty hunter update for Starbound was first discovered back in late 2017. 

We have the full patch notes listed below. The Starbound Bounty Hunter Update 1.4 is now live, so update your game and jump in.

Starbound Bounty Hunter Update 1.4 Patch Notes

Bounty Hunting

• New procedurally-generated quests that see the player travel to worlds and into space, hunting down criminal gangs
• New Peacekeeper stations for bounty hunters – work your way through promotions and restore law in the universe
• Take the fight to criminal gangs at their hideouts, including a climatic final mission & boss fight!
• New quests: Becoming a Peacekeeper, Rookie Assignment, Rising through the Ranks, The Good Fight, Keeping the Peace, Going after the Occasus
• New generated bounty quests
• New generated criminal hideout microdungeons

New Music

• Four new music tracks by Starbound composer Curtis Schweitzer

Rare Monsters

• Elemental Monster variants - they are capturable, and earn progress in a new collection.
• New Collection: Rare Pets collection
• New monster variants: Fire Gleap, Electric Voltip, Poison Smoglin, Ice Peblit, Albino Poptop, Electric Anglure, Fire Bobot, Poison Bulbop, Electric Capricoat, Ice Crabcano, Electric Crutter, Ice Fennix, Elecrtic Hemogoblin, Ice Hypnare, Fire Lilodon, Poison Mandraflora, Ice Miasmop, Ice Narfin, Fire Oogler, Poison Nutmidge, Ice Orbide, Electric Petricub, Poison Pipkin, Electric Quagmutt, Ice Ringram, Poison Scaveran, Elecrtic Snaunt, Poison Snuffish, Poison Sporgus, Fire Taroni, Fire Toumingo, Poison Trictus, Electric Yokat, Electric Ignome, Fire Lumoth, Poison Pyromantle, Electric Skimbus, Fire Spookit, Fire Squeem, Fire Wisper, Ice Agrobat, Poison Batong, Poison Bobfae, Fire Monopus, Poison Paratail, Fire Pteropod, Cultist Scandroid, Ice Crustoise, Ice Iguarmor, Fire Oculob, Poison Pulpin, Ice Snaggler, Electric Tintic, Fire Gosmet

New Furniture

• Egyptian set: Egyptian Bed, Egyptian Chair, Egyptian Crest, Egyptian Pillar, Egyptian Statuette, Egyptian Table
• Office set: Office Cabinet, Office Computer, Office Desk, Office Desk Lamp, Office Noticeboard, Office Scanner, Office Server, Office Stapler, Office Table
• Peacekeeper objects: Peacekeeper Chair, Peacekeeper Computer, Peacekeeper Desk, Peacekeeper Door, Peacekeeper Emblem, Peacekeeper Rusty Emblem, Peacekeeper Furnishings, Peacekeeper Lamp Post, Peacekeeper Mug, Peacekeeper Notes, Peacekeeper Painting, Peacekeeper Tall Poster, Peacekeeper Wide Poster, Peacekeeper Store, Peacekeeper Table, Peacekeeper Vending Machine, Peacekeeper Poster
• Neon objects: Bounty Board, Neon Hologram, Neon Lamp Post, Neon Magenta Light, Neon Peacekeeper Emblem, Neon Store, Neon Triangle
• Occasus pieces: Cultist Airlock Door, Cultist Airlock Hatch, Cultist Banner, Cultist Chest
• Other: Dark Computer, Extractor Drill, Hanging Guardian, Mech Platform
• New Teleporter: Peacekeeper Teleporter
• New Wireable Object: Numeric Keypad

Other New Additions

• Drones: Peacekeeper Drone, Mining Drone
• New Weapons: Neo Magnum, Neo Magnum-E78, Neo Magnum-RX, Neo Magnum-ZZZ, Glue Sprayer, Lazercaster, Stun Grenade
• New Tool: Mining Laser
• New Unique Monster: Cosmic Intruder
• New Mission: The Dantalion
• New Boss Encounter: The Swansong
• New Armor: Captain Noble Head, Cultist General Hood, Cultist General Tentacles, Groucho Glasses, Pharaoh Headdress, Sheep Hat, Shirt Top,
• Peacekeeper Set (Peacekeeper Hat, Peacekeeper Shirt, Peacekeeper Trousers)
• New Figurines: Cosmic Intruder Figurine, Swansong Figurine
• New Mech Parts: Neo Laser Mech Arm, Peacekeeper Mech Body
• New Augments: Peacekeeper I Augment, Peacekeeper II Augment, Peacekeeper III Augment
• New vehicle: Red Sports Car
• New world spawn vehicles: Dropship, Mini Tank, Mini UFO, Sportscar, Jeep
• New object tags: Cultist, Egyptian, Peacekeeper, Office
• New Tenants: Egyptian, Peacekeeper, Office
• New blocks: Sloped Glass Panel, Polygon Platform
• New currency: Peace Credit

Changes and fixes

• Changed the crafting requirements for all mech parts to match materials in the system where the blueprint is found.
• Changed name of 'T-Rex' fossil pieces to 'T. Rex'
• Fixed bug where Triplod Figurine was not properly awarding credit to the Collections Library
• Various lua bindings added
• Added /setdungeonid command
• Updated instrument audio position to follow the player
• Display for gendered armor in tooltips
• Add hover state to mission/crew/tech interface lists
• For radial tile brushes, damage tile center instead of tile origin
• Allow equalsSelf material render rule to also match on hue
• Add a glow to inventory button when inventory has new items
• Add a cooldown to ouch noise
• Remove monster families and variantParameters
• Allow bursting particle emitters multiple times in the same frame
• Fix latch object animation bug
• Only suffocate if mouth position is inside collision geometry
• Fix energypickaxe animation state
• Fix projectiles not dealing damage if spawned after the parent projectile has died
• Minor bugfixes

Source: Rockpapershotgun

The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening is coming to the Nintendo Switch later this year on September 20. Nintendo showed off a bit more of the gameplay during this year's E3 conference, and several journalists got their hands on the title to give it a try. Another thing Nintendo is developing for the game is an exclusive Link Amiibo based off of the design from Link's Awakening. You can pre-order that Amiibo right now, and we're going to break down to detail what it does and where you can purchase it.

The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening Amiibo

What Does it Do?

There's little information about what added effects the Amiibo is going to have for Link's Awakening when the game goes live. What details we do have to describe the Amiibo as having an added effect to the customized dungeons that are coming to the game. The additional impact comes in the form of a Shadow Link. The Shadow Link is on the same level as the mini-bosses in the dungeon; however, it follows the player around until it is defeated.

It's a fun element to add to the dungeons during critical moments players are going to face off against overwhelming odds. It's an excellent way for players to increase the difficulty, making their dungeon stand out far more than others. Given how creative and dangerous the levels on Mario Maker were, the community can undoubtedly come up with some overwhelming labyrinths for others to attempt to overcome.

We do not know if there are additional effects from the Amiibo, outside of the Shadow Link function.

Where Can You Purchase Link's Awakening Amiibo?

There are a handful of places you can place your pre-order for the item right now. BestBuy and Gamestop, both of the item up on their pages, allowing anyone to put money on the item. As of this writing, the Amazon page for the Amiibo does not have an official pre-order option. But you can add the item to your list, ensuring you're notified immediately when the item arrives at their storefront. The links are located below.

• BestBuy
• Gamestop
• Amazon

The Amiibo runs for $15.99 across all websites.

The current release date for the item is on the same day of the game, so anyone who preorders the Link's Awakening Amiibo can expect it to arrive when their game does.

What's Coming to The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening?

Beyond the Amiibo, what can you expect from The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening? It's going to be a remake of the original 1993 title, which released on Game Boy and later on the Nintendo 3DS. The game is going to come with updated graphics, controls, and is going to remain faithful to the original title as much as possible.

A brand new mode is coming to the game that's a dungeon creator. In it, players can craft custom dungeons and then release those to share with other players. It's similar to Nintendo's Mario Maker game, where players make their own Mario levels and publish them for others to try. The Link's Awakening Amiibo directly influences this mode.

You can preorder The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening for the Nintendo Switch right now. The game releases later this year on September 20.

The Kombat League for Mortal Kombat 11 will finally be made available to players later this week.

Kombat League is a new ranked mode that players can play online. The developer decided not to bring Kombat League to Mortal Kombat 11 from day one, instead to work on it separately and add it to the game via an update at a later date.

NetherRealm Studios has finally revealed when the Kombat League will be arriving. In a video released today, the company announced that the Kombat League will be added to Mortal Kombat 11 tomorrow, June 18.

The Kombat League is a seasonal mode, where players face off against other players via online. The first season for the League will last for four weeks. Gamers are rewarded with exclusive items if they play daily, or take part in seasonal quests.

The Kombat League will have nine rank levels for players to work up. All players start as Apprentices, and they can level up to Elder God. Gaining a rank rewards players with even more exclusive items.

Tomorrow’s Kombat League season will be titled Season of Blood, and it will offer gamers exclusive skins for characters.

The Kombat League will begin tomorrow, June 18, in Mortal Kombat 11.

While Destiny as a series has had its ups and downs, it is a game that I enjoy, and have spent thousands of hours playing. So, when Bungie held a new stream to talk about the future of the game after their split from Activision, I was curious. Were we going to see new content? New modes? New characters? What we got was a hint of Destiny's future, and while I will be reading into a few things, and making some bold predictions, I am happy to theorize if it means some entertainment. 

One of the most essential features that we now know is coming to Destiny 2 is a cross-save function. The cross-save function will allow you to link your PS4, Xbox One, PC and Stadia accounts to a single profile, meaning the progress that you make will then be shared profile wide, across all systems. This is something the Destiny community has wanted for years, and while it is perhaps unfair to lay all the blame at the feet of Activision, it is telling that it is finally coming to the game after they have left the Destiny fold.

A more likely event is that cross-save is not something that Bungie would have been able to bargain for with Microsoft and Sony for the original game. Yes, Bungie made Halo, but Destiny was a whole new thing and could have failed. Now, Destiny has shown itself to be a solid earner, and attitudes towards functions like crossplay are softening from console makers, so Bungie were likely able to bring it up as a possibility when they found their own hands once again on the reins. 

There has also been a lot of talk about the crossplay, and while Bungie is not committing to the function any time soon, they have expressed a keen interest in bringing it to their title in the future. When Destiny first launched, I couldn't help but imagine a game like World of Warcraft, a central title that was bolstered from time to time with expansions. Influenced by the famous "10 years" quote, I imagined playing the same characters, in the same game, for a decade. If you think this is a foolish dream, look at Warframe, which is on course to do just that. Content injections, visual and system updates, and expanding lore can all be used to push a game forward.

Instead, we had Destiny, and then Destiny 2. Market forces need that follow up, so the dream of a continuous gaming experience died on the sharp edge of that need. With cross save and cross play, could we finally be moving towards a future where Destiny is just like those other games? I certainly hope so. A new version of Destiny 2, called New Light, is planned to pull more players into the title when it goes free-to-play later this year. New Light will be free to play version of the game that is, you guess it, bolstered by the option to buy into new content and Seasons. When it comes to visuals, Destiny 2 is a beautiful game; it has a long time to go before it looks dated. 

I would also rather see the lore continue to unfold, in a continuous universe, than have another long campaign that is primarily designed to act as a hook for people who never play past that final credits screen. The move from Destiny into Destiny 2 was disastrous for me because it left behind all the high systems that been implemented by the end of the original game's lifecycle. The Taken King was, perhaps, the best Destiny has ever been, and we are only now getting back to those heights with Destiny 2. 

Functions like cross save and cross play would enable Destiny to never die, on any platform. Even if I was the only person left playing the title on PC (a highly unlikely scenario, but hyperbole servers a purpose, if only as an example) I would always be able to play with other people. That kind of assurance helps to keep people invested. Nobody wants to love a game, only to have to watch it die. At the end of the day, I am just a guy who writes about games. I have never worked for a development studio that has produced not one, but two multi-billion dollar franchises. I do know what I would do if I want to ensure the future of my game and live up to the promise that a game like Destiny has. If I genuinely wanted to lean into the MMO aspect of the game, I would try to have the game exist the way that the greatest MMO of all time has done for years now. 

There is little reason to think that I am right, outside of the fact that Bungie has been making some very unexpected moves and they have to lead somewhere. There has to be a bigger picture that they are working towards. As such, I am happy enough to predict that the game we now know as Destiny 2 is going to be the foundation of the future of the game. A looter-shooter, free to play, slowly expanding world that we will still be running around five years from now. It just makes sense, but that doesn't mean it will happen. And besides, if we do end up getting a Destiny 3, I doubt I will even be mad. 

Artifact is a relatively unknown game with fewer than 100 viewers on average. It was unusual, then, when it suddenly gained traction on Twitch on May 25, 2019. The result of the coordinated efforts of a handful of trolls, pornography, violence, and other terms of service violations surged through the game's Twitch section. Now, as reported by Kotaku, Twitch is out for blood. 

Perhaps not blood, as that would violate their terms of service, but at least out for some legal ramifications. 

Twitch Interactive is a huge streaming service. One that boasts nearly three million new streamers per month on the platform, streaming anything from games, to art, to "in real life" content, as mentioned in the parties section of their lawsuit. The platform, like many social media platforms, utilizes categories to organize its content. Users find their desired games and topics by browsing these categories. Trolls, however, can abuse them as much as use them.

Artifact is a quiet game from Valve (Steam's parent company). The Steam page describes the game as "The card game reimagined!" The game itself is just that, a digital trading card game that is very much like Yu-Gi-Oh for us 90s kids. Its reviews are "overwhelmingly negative," but the fans that love the game love the game.

The lack of popularity and the low viewer count made Artifact the ideal target for trolls. As detailed in the lawsuit, on May 25, 2019, trolls used bots and other means to violate Twitch's terms of service and get around safety measures. Pretending to stream Artifact, these users flooded the category with pornographic, misogynistic, and racist content. Violence wasn't forgotten. Many even streamed the events of the Christchurch shooting in New Zealand on these channels. To boost their viewer count and make sure the casual Twitch browser was more likely to stumble on their pages, they used bots. "As the streamer's viewer count increases, his or her stream becomes easier to find for Twitch users seeking content," as stated in paragraph 38 of the document. While Twitch was quick to respond, they quickly remade new accounts to continue broadcasting, as the lawsuit details.

Twitch details in their lawsuit that the parties are currently unknown, as they avoided detection with automated methods of registration. The streaming giant was forced to delete all new accounts made two days before the event. Since the parties are unknown, Twitch hopes to identify them at a later date and use that information to bar them from using its services ever again. The document concludes that Twitch, the plaintiff, demands a jury trial for the case. 

Since the defendants, in this case, remain unknown, it might just be Twitch hoping to scare off future copycats, but Twitch may also seek some legal retribution for their actions. Either way, the presence of a lawsuit is a suitable preventative measure for future events.

Picture this. You look out on a vast, beautiful vista, filled with wildlife, picturesque villages with a beautiful mix of traditional and modern buildings as you stroll down a mountain path and to a nearby park, where groups of eager young people are gathered. They have their prized Pokémon in front of them as they watch an ensuing Pokémon Battle. It’s one of many parks where Pokémon battles can take place amongst friends. You approach the park and watch in wonder as one trainer's Charizard fills the battlefield with fire while the opposing Electabuzz sends down a thunderbolt from the skies. It's beautiful.

It’s perhaps not easy to precisely describe what a fully fledged Pokémon RPG would look like. Every Pokémon fan would have their interpretation of what being free and open to tackling your adventure how you want would look like. Having that amount of freedom has not been seen so far in a mainline Pokémon adventure, sticking to the formula of a semilinear experience while the game has remained the Premier series on the handheld.

But now, the mainline series is on the mainline console. And we can bet you that very few envisioned a Pokémon RPG looking like Sword and Shield does.

A big world with freedom is something that we know the Switch is capable of. Breath of the Wild has an enormous open Hyrule to explore, while Xenoblade Chronicles 2 has shown that a full JRPG can fit and play well on their portable hybrid.

And yet, Pokémon Sword & Shield, despite being a mainline Pokémon game on their home console, which is well into its third year of the sale, looks little more than an upgraded version of Pokémon Sun & Moon, with some of the features from spin-off games Let’s Go Pikachu & Eevee thrown in.

Gamefreak have generally stuck to the portable formats for games development. It’s where they are comfortable, and where they know what they are doing. The problem though is that Nintendo’s hardware has evolved into something that is beyond the portable format, and Gamefreak has not evolved with them. With a move to their new platform, a new engine should have been a priority, an updated format that serves the purpose of delivering a Pokémon experience that is worthy of a new generation.

But it isn’t. It’s a Pokémon game that’s rooted in the past, and looking at it doesn’t evoke the feeling that it’s a new adventure as much as it’s a change of scenery from the Alola region. Nintendo knows they can do better.

Pokémon Battle Revolution released on Nintendo Wii in Japan in 2006, providing an update to the classic Pokémon Stadium games. The graphical level of detail in battles, animation, and user interface are streets ahead of what Sword and Shield offer. A game that is two generations back looks better than the upcoming one by Gamefreak. The worst part? Battle Revolution was by most counts a reasonably poor game.

Does that mean that Sword & Shield will be bad? It’s unlikely. It’s a Pokémon game, and Nintendo would never let a mainline Pokémon game out of the door unfinished or in a poor state. But is it as good as it could be?

As it’s a game that has been created off the back of Gamefreak’s previous engines, it’s arguable that this is a portable entry to the series in a home console skin. While for some fans of the series, this is fine, it does feel like a missed opportunity from Nintendo. Considering the number of excellent studios that they could have called upon to make it (like Retro Studios before they were given the reins of Metroid Prime 4), the chance to break the series out of its comfort zone and go for a genuinely innovative new Pokémon adventure was there, or at least a proper Pokémon RPG. They could have even worked with Gamefreak to get the mechanics right.

Plans for one may still be there, but the marketing for Sword & Shield has been very strongly targeting existing fans, and if the game sells well (which is almost a certainty), there isn’t going to be much incentive for them to go for the more mature route.

The approach has proven to work for another big Japanese franchise in Monster Hunter World. Their previous games were usually on a handheld and used a more colorful art style to tiptoe technical limitations. Monster Hunter World brought about a more serious, mature look to the series powered by the home consoles. Not only was it arguably the best game in the series, but it’s also now the best selling Capcom game. Ever.

Even their live-action Detective Pikachu has performed well. It’s still a family friendly movie, but it’s got enough adult themes that adults could enjoy the show too. It’s proof that there is an audience out there for something more grown up.

While there’s no guarantee that a change of direction would work with the mainline Pokémon franchise, it needs some genuine freshening up. The art style hasn’t changed since the Red & Blue, and the game engine is still pretty much identical. Stagnation has well and truly set in.

Regardless as to whether the news was a good thing for Nintendo, the recent change to remove the National Pokédex was the right one. As pleasing as having that many Pokémon available may be, it was the right direction to take to evolve it beyond its current incarnation.

Their mistake in this was taking only half a step forward. Making it into a full RPG, somewhere the game should have gone some time ago, and with a modern and updated look, would have people excited for the future instead of bickering online about a half-baked idea for a next generation.

Pokémon Sword & Shield could have Exploud-ed. Instead, it will merely Whismur.

Dr. Mario World will be coming to mobile devices this summer.

Nintendo continues to push more games on mobile devices, and have finally released a new trailer for their upcoming Dr. Mario game for mobile. Called Dr. Mario World, this new game functions mainly the same way as past Dr. Mario games.

In Dr. Mario, you need to destroy the red, blue, and yellow viruses with special pills. The game plays similar to Tetris; to kill a virus, you need to connect the virus with the same color pill. Each full pill counts as two different spaces on the grid. A pill can be either one or two colors.

In Dr. Mario World, you can drag the pill on the screen to where you want it to go. There are also new obstacles and items on the screen that can help you pass the level. There are Koopa shells that can get rid of a full row of viruses if the player puts a pill on them. There are also bombs on levels that you can activate to destroy the surrounding viruses.

There’s a meter in the game that, once filled up, allows your character to perform a special skill. There are also rainbow pills that can match any color virus. Dr. Mario World will release with five worlds to explore, but the trailer promises more will be revealed at a later date.

You have a certain amount of hearts in the game. Hearts allows you to perform stages. Once you run out of hearts, you aren’t allowed to do any stages. Hearts are refilled automatically over time. The game also has special items that help players pass levels.

Hearts and items can be purchased with diamonds, the special in-game currency. While players can accumulate diamonds by just playing the game, diamonds can be purchased with real-world money. Coins are another currency in the game, and you use them to buy new characters.

Dr. Mario World will have multiple playable characters to choose from. Other than Dr. Mario himself, you can also play as Dr. Luigi, Dr. Peach, Dr. Toad, Dr. Yoshi, and even Dr. Bowser. Most of these characters will need to be purchased with either coins or diamonds.

Dr. Mario World is expected to release on mobiles on July 10.

Final Fantasy VII Remake has been around since 2015 when it got a surprise reveal at E3 during the PlayStation media briefing. Four years have passed since then, and five will pass when the title - or at least its first chapter - will finally release on PS4.

We learned a few days ago that even Square Enix doesn't know how many episodes will be released when the remake will be over, but the development team has at least knowledge about the time it will take them to complete the work on it.

"Due to the work already done on the first game we anticipate the development of the second game [part] to be more efficient," said Yoshinori Kitase, a producer on the game. "We have our own internal schedule and plan, but for now we’d like to focus our information on the first game in the project."

Sure enough, after all these years spent working on the title, you don't need to work on characters anymore, the combat system has been fixed, and the main assets are all complete. So, the next episodes will have different environments, outside of Midgar, which is what will require a bit more time to work on.

Interestingly, we've been told that each game will have the size of a mainline Final Fantasy title and that the project has been built with Final Fantasy XIII trilogy in mind. So that's how long we should expect each game to be, although the Midgar section was just a few hours long in the original Final Fantasy VII.

Final Fantasy VII Remake is releasing on March 3, 2020, for PS4.

Source

In an interview with GamesIndustry International, Strauss Zelnick, CEO at Take-Two Interactive, has admitted that the eight-year wait for Red Dead Redemption 2 was perhaps a bit too long and that the publisher anticipates gaps between releases in existing franchises will get smaller in the future.

"I don't see it expanding further," Zelnick said about that gap. "In fact, I would expect in many instances it may compress. I think you're right in that our ability to engage with consumers on an ongoing basis has [resulted in] some less pressure on getting to market with an all-new title."

However, the CEO also thinks that "building anticipation is a good thing," as proved by how much successful Rockstar Games titles have been lately, and for how long. He added that "I was a real outlier 12 years ago when we said we don't think it makes sense to annualize non-sports titles, and now most people would agree."

With that said, the "eight years [wait] is probably too long," even for a game like Red Dead Redemption 2, and the label is doing the proper work to avoid such things to happen again in the future. One trick which could be used going forward is building shorter stories for titles at launch and then adding upon their base with the post-release support, which is something Rockstar has been doing great on GTA V.

"It's possible that games may be a bit shorter than they were in certain instances," Zelnick said, and it's not a case since RDR2 has a 60+ hour storyline. "It's possible that the ability to deliver content on an ongoing basis for a long time after an initial release of a hit would mean that perhaps that initial release wouldn't be as long in terms of number of hours of gameplay as previously had been demanded in a world where that was all you were getting."

So, could this mean that GTA VI could be shipping earlier than anticipated? We don't know and maybe it's too late to say that the game could be coming earlier, since we're already six years into GTA V post-release support. Other franchises like BioShock are missing in action, so Take-Two really has to do something on this topic if it wants to take advantage of all its big IP.

Source

As we know, Gears of War is one of those big video game franchises which is getting a movie adaption. It'll still take a long while before we can see it happen, unlike Uncharted that's releasing in 2020 after a considerable wait, but we have now more specific ideas about how it will work when it does come to theaters.

Talking to IGN, studio head at The Coalition Rod Fergusson has confirmed that the movie won't be canon, as it will be set in an alternative reality, despite carrying the location of Sera and some of the main characters, to grant creative freedom to the director and scriptwriters.

Dr. Mario World is an upcoming mobile game that will be releasing worldwide on Android and iOS on July 10. Interestingly, it will only be available on specific platforms in some countries. Dr. Mario World will be a free-to-play, match-three puzzle solving game, and we can assume it will have micro-transactions because the game is not scheduled to release at all in Belgium. 

Recent changes to the law about in-app purchases in Belgium seem to have made Nintendo not want to operate their mobile games in the market, like Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp and Fire Emblem Heroes have both been shut down in the region.

Now, why Dr. Mario World will only be available on one platform in some regions is anybody's guess. Nintendo has provided a full list of launch countries, with the platform it will be launching on in that region. They have also advised that there is a chance that the list will change in the run-up to launch. 

• Anguilla [iOS Only]
• Antigua and Barbuda
• Aruba [Android Only]
• Australia
• Austria
• Bahamas
• Barbados [iOS Only]
• Belize
• Bermuda
• Canada
• Cayman Islands
• Costa Rica
• Cyprus
• Denmark
• Dominica [iOS Only]
• Dominican Republic
• El Salvador
• Finland
• France
• Germany
• Greece
• Grenada [iOS Only]
• Guatemala
• Haiti [Android Only]
• Honduras
• Hong Kong
• Indonesia
• Ireland
• Italy
• Jamaica
• Japan
• Liechtenstein [Android Only]
• Luxembourg
• Macao
• Malta
• Mexico
• Montserrat [iOS Only]
• Netherlands
• Netherlands Antilles [Android Only]
• New Zealand
• Nicaragua
• Norway
• Panama
• Portugal
• Saint Kitts and Nevis [iOS Only]
• Saint Lucia [iOS Only]
• Saint Vincent and the Grenadines [iOS Only]
• Singapore
• South Korea
• Spain
• Sweden
• Switzerland
• Taiwan
• Thailand
• Trinidad and Tobago
• Turks and Caicos Islands [iOS Only]
• United Kingdom
• United States
• Virgin Islands (British) [iOS Only]

While most countries seem to be fine, some are Android only, and a handful that are iOS only. Once again, I have no idea why they would be restricted to a single platform in some regions, but hopefully, you will not be affected by this if you do want to play the game. 

If you're a FIFA player, you do know that momentum is a thing or at least that a considerable part of the community believes so. Recently, this belief has been bolstered by the discovery of an Electronic Arts patent involving dynamic difficulty, which has led many to think that all that speculation was legit.

However, in a couple of different statements reported by GamesRadar+, developers from the EA Sports team have debunked such speculation, claiming that the patent is being used in other titles from the same publishers to help people who have issues in certain games -- not in FIFA 19 nor 20.

"We’ve heard your concerns around the Dynamic Difficulty Adjustment patent family, and wanted to confirm it’s not used in FIFA," wrote community manager Andrew Mears. "We would never use it to advantage or disadvantage any group of players against another in any of our games. The technology was designed to explore how we might help players that are having difficulty in a certain area of a game have an opportunity to advance."

Corey Andress, global franchise lead, also addressed the topic both on the EA Sports forums and on Twitter, claiming that the team took its time to make sure that the patent wasn't being used in the game, and found out it isn't.

For those among you who don't know what momentum is; it's a feature that doesn't officially exist that makes teams controlled by AI much stronger in certain moments of the gameplay. For example, when they're losing and are in the final minutes of a match, or makes your players worse than they should be when you need them the most.

It's a topic which is quite common in the FIFA community and hopefully gets less spoken about as we approach FIFA 20, where you'd hope for momentum (which, again, doesn't officially exist) to never pop up back at any moment. 

For those that will ask why it took us a while to respond:

We wanted to be 100% sure that this patent didn’t exist in the game. This includes all aspects - every mode and gameplay.

Hopefully this ends speculation, and appreciate the patience while we got the answer.

— Corey Andress (@EACoreySA) 17 giugno 2019

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Dr. Mario World is a match-three puzzle game that will be launching on July 10 for iOS and Android. In the game, you use medicine capsules to clear the screen of different colored viruses and have a set amount of capsules to use to get through each level. The game will also have a versus mode, where players can go head to head.

Match capsules with viruses and watch them disappear! Simply match three objects of the same color vertically or horizontally to clear them. Luckily, Dr. Mario and friends have virus-busting skills, and you can use leftover half-capsules to strategically zero in on especially meddlesome viruses.Take your time, because each puzzling configuration of viruses must be cleared using a limited number of capsules. Keep calm to plan your approach, and you'll rid Dr. Mario's world of viruses in no time!

How To Pre-Register For Dr. Mario World

To pre-register for the game on iOS, you can go to the Apple Store and hit the pre-register button. Please note, if you visit the page on PC the pre-register button will not populate, so make sure you do it from your Apple device.

To pre-register for the game on Android, visit the Google Play Store, and hit the pre-register button. Before you pre-register, there are a couple of essential notes from the game descriptions that may be important to you.

• This game is free to start, with optional in-game purchases. 
• Persistent Internet and compatible smart device required. Data charges may apply. 
• May contain advertising. 

And that's it! Pre-registering for Dr. Mario World is very easy to do. You might also want to check out the full list of countries the game will launch in before you register, because it may only be available on either Android or iOS in your region, depending on where you live. 

Google’s Patrick Seybold has confirmed in a statement to IGN that users of their new video-game streaming service Stadia will be able to change their username at will, with the first instance being free to the user.

The new subscription service is currently being prepared for release in November 2019. The Founder’s Edition, which includes three month’s early access, a buddy pass for a friend to join you, the Stadia’s remote control in Night Blue, a Chromecast Ultra to hook up to your TV and a Founder’s Stadia Name, available to purchase on the Google Store for $129.

It was announced last year and first introduced through a closed BETA, where players were able to try Assassin’s Creed Odyssey on their mobile devices and through Chromecast. It garnered some reportedly impressive results, with a low level of input lag, high quality, and low latency, though how sustainable this is in low-speed broadband areas remains to be seen.

The service was always going to have multiplayer, but it will include multiplayer profiles that allow players to go online with. Being able to change this was not something that was made visible but has now been confirmed by Seybold at Google. However, the cost of replacing your name after the first time was not revealed.

For comparison, Xbox Gamertag changes cost $9.99, while PlayStation users, who have only had access to the name changing service since April, are set back $4.99. PC users in comparison for the two main storefronts, Steam, and the Epic Game Store, do not charge for changing name, though the EGS is limited to one change every two weeks.

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In an interview with IGN, Hidetaka Miyazaki has provided the details of the work that George R.R. Martin has conducted on Elden Ring, the much anticipated next title from the creators of Dark Souls and Bloodborne at Japanese developer From Software.

From what we learn, Miyazaki has always been a fan of Martin, and this is the main reason why he asked him if he wanted to work together on something from the studio. As he accepted, he embarked on the quest of building the mythology which Elden Ring is based on.

We'll get the chance to learn about that mythology in a way which is somewhat similar to Dark Souls', as we'll get more details on that overarching lore by finding objects and meeting people throughout the game. The main story has been written by Miyazaki as usual, instead.

"It all started with me being a fan of Mr. Martin’s works. A Song of Ice & Fire and its drama adaptation Game of Thrones are both masterpieces. I am also very fond of Fever Dreams and Tuf Voyaging. When we sat down together, it clicked right away. I proposed to make a game together, and he said yes. I was really surprised by how smoothly it all went," he said.

Miyazaki has also said that the characters and the world of the game will have more "personality" and "depth" in comparison with the previous outcomes of From Software. Thanks to the involvement of Martin, and that he would be open to the idea of a novelization after the release even though he fears that something like this would end up disclosing too many particulars on the story.

Elden Ring is releasing in 2020 for PC, PS4 and Xbox One.

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Hideo Kojima has revealed that he and Nicholas Winding Refn will be at San Diego Comic-Con, which is planned to kick off on July 18, 2019. The two will be talking about their relationship similar to how Kojima and Norman Reedus have done at the latest Tribeca Film Festival, and more.

We do not know the details of this participation, but it'll probably involve a panel with the two of them talking about the incoming Death Stranding, which has been recently revealed as coming on November 8, 2019 after a long livestream on Twitch and a similarly extended trailer.

The Japanese game director and designer has only shared a tweet with a photo of him and Refn, who is the movie director behind Drive and The Neon Demon among the others, and said that they are "coming to SDCC 2019" in some way we're not being told about yet.

It's worth noting that Refn has a great friendship with Kojima, and he was the one who introduced Mads Mikkelsen to him a few years ago when the Japanese were searching for cast members on Death Stranding.

He has also been revealed as a cast member himself in the latest trailer, as he will play Heartman in the game, although he has only been scanned and put his face in the story, and won't be voice acting for the character (nor he has been mo-capped at all) just like Guillermo del Toro.

Kojima himself has played a small part in the Amazon Prime Video TV show Too Old To Die Young, which you can watch right now if you're a subscriber of the platform.

HIDEO KOJIMA x NICOLAS WINDING REFN.

Coming to SDCC 2019. pic.twitter.com/7hj3aoYLOR

— 小島秀夫 (@Kojima_Hideo) 18 giugno 2019

Cyberpunk 2077 has been rumored to be featuring a multiplayer component of sorts in the past and, while it has not been confirmed yet, CD Projekt RED is not ruling out this idea and is doing some work to see what could be done in the future of the title.

At the time being, though, as shared by a member of the Polish development team in an interview with Eurogamer, the studio is only focusing on making the best single-player experience possible and on making it in time for the launch planned for April 16, 2020.

"We’re not really working on multiplayer; our sole focus is single-player," said lead quest designer Pawel Sasko. "We’ll do that, then we’ll see. We’re not saying no [to multiplayer], but we’re not saying yes. If something does happen, it will definitely be post-launch, and that’s as much as I can say right now." 

"I mean we’re known for good stories, amazing characters, choices, and consequences. So this is something for sure we’d be going with if anything happened regarding that. We’d avoid anything that’s not that. If we do it, it’ll be our style."

So, at least for now, you'll better not expect anything multiplayer by Cyberpunk 2077, although we're quite sure you weren't expecting anything at all since CDPR is a developer you want single-player experience from. 

However, the door is still open and who knows what can happen in one year, or even after the original release or whenever the game comes out on next-generation systems. That could be a nice addition to the base title coming in 2020.

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The original The Last of Us has several multiplayer modes that allow you to play with, and against, your friends online. This is the main reason why people almost gave for granted that the sequel, The Last of Us Part II, would feature something similar, even though that's not been shown yet.

However, based on the writings on the Limited Edition Days of Play PS4, it looks like the latest title from Naughty Dog could not come equipped with a multiplayer mode at all. This would explain why there's not been any mention of it since the reveal of the follow-up.

The picture, which you can see above and has been uploaded by PushSquare, clearly reports that "…God of War and The Last of Us Part II do not support online multiplayer." While we do know that for sure for God of War, that TLOU II doesn't feature "online multiplayer" is somewhat surprising.

It could be just bad wording as God of War, again, doesn't actually support multiplayer, while The Last of Us Part II could still do and found itself in the middle of a phrase where it could not belong. Or, it could be quite a neat way to leak news ahead of them being made official by the developers.

Multiplayer isn't something I look forward to in a The Last of Us game, and I'm quite sure that you're into it because of the story and the single-player gameplay, too. I've fallen in love with the characters and the world, and the way storytelling has been conducted throughout the entire title.

However, it would be a surprising move from Naughty Dog since it has included multiplayer modes in all of its previous titles since the PS3 days, and it could be a hint at the fact that the studio might have removed it to ship the game in time for the PlayStation 4 lifecycle.

We'll report more as we get official information. The Last of Us Part II is expected to release at some point in early 2020, as rumors claim it should be around in February.

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The head of acclaimed Japanese developer Platinum Studios Atsushi Inaba has revealed that his enthusiasm for the next-generation consoles has been dampened as more details about the architecture of both the PS5 and Project Scarlett are revealed, stating that it's “hard to get enthused” about them owing to their lack of new ideas.

The new systems have promised to bring about several significant upgrades to their predecessors, including utilizing an SSD, the next generation of AMD Zen 2 chips, and power that will support 8K displays.

But Inaba has stated that he's not as excited about the idea of ‘off-the-shelf’ hardware being used compared to the custom-made chips of previous generations. Instead of custom hardware, he says the consoles are made up of ‘stuff that already exists’ instead of bringing innovation to the gaming console market.

When asked for his reaction to the plans by Sony and Microsoft speaking to the VGC, Inaba stated “It’s OK. And by that I mean, I’m sure that things will move faster, graphics will be better, and maybe it will be easier with less wait times… that’s good for the consumer.

“But it’s more of the same, quite frankly, compared to previous generations. It’s nothing that’s disruptive or super innovative, if you ask me. Game hardware used to be about custom chips that you couldn’t do on PCs. Now you look at it and they’re just grabbing stuff that already exists.

“The Switch, for example, is a Tegra which already existed and the other consoles are using very similar chips and graphics cards to what you see on PCs, but maybe slightly updated. None of it seems unique to that hardware anymore.”

Instead, he is more intrigued by the rising quality and prominence of cloud-based technology, with services such as Google Stadia, id Techs Orion, and even Microsoft's xCloud providing further innovations in technology.

“It’s hard to get excited about stuff that kind of already exists, but has been repurposed to a certain degree,” he told VGC.

“That’s why for me, things like cloud platforms represent innovation and something very, very different – they’re platforms that excite me and where I feel there is a lot more innovation happening.”

This comes after also confirmed that Bayonetta 3 is still in development and doing well, and their showing of Astral Chain during Nintendo's E3 direct Conference.

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The highly awaited Castlevania-style adventure Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night has been released today on PS4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, and PC (Steam). First impressions of the game have so far has been good, receiving some high praise for its fantastic art style, animation, and fighting mechanics.

But there has also been a confirmation that the game is experiencing a known issue with players and using their Beta save files during their first playthrough on the retail release, where the files are corrupted, and it doesn’t allow you to continue on it. It appears to occur when overwriting an existing Beta save and then coming back to it, at which point it shows that it has corrupted and it cannot be used to continue.

It is something that has been confirmed in a post on the Steam Community forums. This should mean that the game’s issue will be ironed out over the next few days as the dust settles upon the release.

Which platforms are affected is currently unknown though it’s possible that issues exist on all of them, you can’t be expected to wait for the fix of your new game, of course. With this in mind, there is a way around this issue which has been confirmed to work for now, at least until the fix has been issued.

To make sure that you don’t lose your progress on your first playthrough of the game from Beta saves, ensure that you save the game to a new slot when starting with the full release of the game.

If you want to play this safely, you can use a new slot each time you want to save your progress to ensure that you can keep your progress until the issue has been confirmed to be fixed before saving over the old beta file. On consoles, you are given a large number of slots with which to keep track of your progress, though the issue should be OK if you save it to a new slot the first time opening up the game.

We hope that this provides a solution to you potentially losing progress on your first playthrough of the new release title. We would recommend keeping track of the official Twitter page for the game to keep up with any updates about fixes to Beta game save files and ensure that you have a smooth first playthrough.