Y'all, it has been a busy week here in the Engadget community. There is just a ton of stuff happening behind the scenes (more on that next week), and there are a few dozen articles in the queue, and over a hundred registrations awaiting approval, and several emails that need some urgent responses, and some exciting upcoming stuff we're looking to roll out, and some not exciting details that need to be attend to, and I've been sick so this is essentially what the week has looked like in GIF form:
It's more than a little weird that it's taken until now for the folks behind last year's Mafia 3 to announce add-on packs for the game. But that's just how the world works lately. The additional story missions start with "Faster, Baby!" at the end of March. The expansion focuses on stunt driving and car chases, according to the game's blog. More than that, it offers up a new section of the New Orleans-esque setting.
The first two Global Missions for Pokémon Sun and Moon were resounding failures, but the third time is in fact the charm. For our third mission, Game Freak has tasked players with trading as many Pokémon as possible through the GTS, and as of today, we've exceeded the initial million-trade goal.
As such, if you haven't signed up, you really should! Head into the Festival Plaza and talk to the lady in the castle so you'll get 2,000 Festival Coins when everything's said and done.
Assuming we can reach two million trades by February 14, which should be entirely doable given the current pace and the Great Magnemite Scheme, participants will also get a free Friend Ball.
ESPN isn't slowing down its plans to make eSports mainstream. The network has now teamed up with EA to broadcast FIFA tournaments on most of its channels, including ESPN, ESPN2, ESPN Deportes and the internet-based ESPN3. Last year, ESPN embraced competitive gaming with a dedicated section on its site, followed by coverage of different championships across the world. It's a significant cultural shift for a company whose president, John Skipper, not long ago expressed that he didn't see eSports as "real sports."
Sometimes it can be the best experience we ever had, opening our eyes to things we had never known. The sound of an ocarina. That time heroic moogles came to your rescue. Or maybe you found yourself mostly alone in a mansion loaded with undead horrors and felt a certain thrill in overcoming great odds despite your limited resources.
No matter what the experience was or which game or genre left that strong first impression, such experiences have the potential to open our eyes to the rich history of a series or genre. With any luck, we might find even more to love or something better. A great first experience with RPGs could lead to an undying love affair.
The Alps aren't the only place with a hella lot of fresh pow. Alaska's got it too. And you can make first tracks next week.
Ubisoft's adding a free new location to Steep. On February 10, players will be able to shred through the Alaskan wilderness on a snowboard. Or calmly float through it while paragliding. Steep lets you pick your poison like that.
We don't know much about the Alaska setting quite yet. We don't know how big it'll be or how many different mountains it'll feature. We can probably estimate that it'll have a bunch of new challenges, but we don't know how many. Answers are coming in a week, but we have this brief teaser trailer for now.
This isn't the only Steep news as of late, though. We recently learned that Steep will be coming to the Nintendo Switch. The rule is that whenever a console shares its name with a sweet snowboarding term, all snowboarding games have to be ported to that console. Hey, I don't make up the rules; I just share them.
Roms and hacking culture have always been a gray legal area, but I've always appreciated the pure artistry of it. Until today I didn't think it was possible to combine two of my favorite childhood loves, Darkwing Duck and Capcom's DuckTales 2, but a mad genius out there just made my dreams come true.
Thanks to Romhacking.net user Ti, Ducktales 2 now has a hacked two-player mode with a playable Darkwing Duck. I didn't know it was something I wanted, but now it's all I can think about. Now, if you'll excuse me, I'll be singing both the Darkwing Duck and DuckTales themes for the rest of the day.
Did you know there's a new DuckTalescoming soon? I'm so hyped.
Those who don't have a 3DS or Vita and want to get in on the Zero Escape games will be excited to know that the collection, dubbed The Nonary Games, will be releasing on March 24, 2017 for PS4 and Vita with a PC release scheduled for the next day. The compilation combines the first two chapters of the Zero Escape saga into a single package to catch people up to last year's finale, Zero Time Dilemma. Why that third game wasn't included for PS4 users, who have no access to the game, is beyond me.
As for any changes to the games, 999 includes all of the endings from the DS original, but excludes the ending exclusive to the iOS port. Oddly, though, there will be a "Novel" mode for people who just want to experience the story in both games, which makes the omission of the iOS ending confusing. Either way, all the voice actors from Virtue's Last Reward will be reprising their roles for the characters that were featured in 999, so that is a pretty neat plus.
For any Japanese gamers out there, the collection will be releasing on April 13, though no PC version is planned for that territory. I never got the chance to play 999, so this sounds like a great way to finish the trilogy to me. 999 may be lacking some of the features unique to the DS, but at least I won't be missing a crucial part of the storyline.
We were excited enough to hear that Sony is at long last planning external hard drive support for PlayStation 4 with its impending 4.50 update, but there's another alluring reveal for PS4 Pro owners.
The company is beta testing a "Boost Mode" option that's said to offer "improved gameplay, including higher frame rates, for some games that were released before the introduction of PS4 Pro."
As you might know by now, developers have needed to make an extra effort to support Pro with their games, hence all those patches. Owning the console doesn't give you better-looking or smoothing-running games by default, and that's intentional as a means to keep things from going awry. But with this experimental mode, older titles that haven't been patched for PS4 Pro could see benefits.
Retro Studios has developed some of the greatest games of the past few generations. Both Metroid Prime and Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze are some of the best examples of their respective series and fans have been eager to figure out what Nintendo has the Texas-based company working on next. This isn't really a definitive answer, but it is good for a laugh or two.
When asked what game they were making on Twitter, Retro responded with a gif of food and the words, "Something Delicious."
Stardew Valley is coming to retail courtesy of 505 Games, so if you still intend to buy the farming life sim on Xbox One or PlayStation 4 and would prefer a physical copy, look for that starting on April 11 in North America and April 13 in Europe.
At $30, this is pricier than the standard digital version, but you're getting a few extras: a poster of the Pelican Town map, a "Mini-Guidebook" by Kari Fry, and a download code for the excellent soundtrack.
These past few weeks before Resident Evil 7 and now Nioh, this game was absolutely dominating my gaming time -- and I had already played a ton of the initial PC version! Oh how I love it.
It's only been a couple of weeks since a very public incident of face meeting fist, and already there's a proverbial app for that. Punch A Nazi, as the name suggests, lets you smack virtual members of the alt-right without the inconvenience of heading to a liberal protest. The politically-charged game comes thanks to the speedy work of developer SuperDeluxe, eager to ride the waves of recent Nazi face-punching memes.
Nearly two years later, Fallout Shelter is cracking open the mobile-and-PC-only vault it has been hiding in. There's a whole world of possibility out there; it's gonna go test the waters and hope they're not too radiation-polluted.
Bethesda has announced that Fallout Shelter is coming to Xbox One and Windows 10 PC next week on February 7. It'll be part of Microsoft's much-ballyhooed Play Anywhere program -- the initiative that allows for cross-buy and cross-saves for certain games. It's usually restricted to Microsoft's first-party titles but there have been exceptions. Notably, Resident Evil 7 was a Play Anywhere game.
Originally released on iOS devices, Fallout Shelter came to Android just a few months later. Then, in July 2016, it released on PC but through Bethesda's PC game-launching service. Now it'll be available on all Windows 10 PCs without necessitating the use of Bethesda's dedicated launcher.
Like its mobile counterpart, Fallout Shelter will be free on its new platforms. That doesn't mean it won't make money, though. Fallout Shelter made millions through microtransactions when it initially released. A lot of that was thanks to a very successful E3 press conference and because it served as a Fallout 4 hype machine. Still, there's certainly money to be made even if it is almost two years later.
Bethesda and Microsoft also note a couple of enhancements/changes that accompany this version of Fallout Shelter. Maybe most obvious is that the game has been fully adapted to work with an Xbox One controller. Also, all features that have been added over time will be included in this port.
Come next Tuesday, it's time for all those Overseers to get back to work. A two-year break is long enough. Those vaults are going to be in awfully poor shape. I bet the radroach situation is just ridiculous.
When life gets you down and the world appears to be coming apart at the seams, nothing calms a troubled mind quite like a good run through the park with your favorite doggo. Now thanks to WeRateDogs, the internet's number one professional dog rater, you can do just that from just about anywhere.
Angels of Death released on Steam late last year. It's an anime-styled psycho horror RPG, and you can probably tell from that description that it is very Japanese. It is! Congratulations, you have passed the first part of the test.
The second part will yield far fewer winners. You'll need wit and savvy. You'll need honesty and luck. Most importantly, you'll need a Disqus account.
To commemorate Angels of Death's English localization and Steam release, we have teamed up with Playism to host a giveaway. We've gotten a hold of five Angels of Death limited edition acrylic phone charms. Some of you are going to get them.
There are a few cool things happening with these phone charms. First, they were only sold in Japan and now they're no longer for sale. Second, each box's contents are a mystery and we don't want to ruin the surprise. Playism intentionally left each box sealed so no one actually knows what each winner will get.
But, if you want a general idea, check out the gallery below. That's what we're working with. To get in on this, leave a comment telling us what your first anime was. No lying. If you lie, the internet police will show up at your house and smash your favorite lamp.
I'm thinking we'll leave this contest open for a week. For logistical reasons, we're only keeping this open to people in the US. Sorry, Guatemala bros. After a week, Mike will pick winners. But bribe me and not him. Mike doesn't deserve nice things. Nice things like these Angels of Death phone charms.
Old-school point-and-click adventure games often left the player without the faintest of clues as to where to go next. You had a relatively small area to move around in with a bunch of items to pick up. Sometimes you could combine certain items, other times you just mashed "use" on everything in the environment until something clicked.
While the genre definitely grew over the years to better guide the player along, a lot of people have fond memories of the days when obscurity was the norm. Poking your nose into literally everything was the game, even if it was kind of mundane and barely interactive.
Sadly, I found myself thinking of that while going through Divide, even if I was a little intrigued by the story.
The more Funko Pop! figures hit the market, the more I drown in them. Avoiding them at first because of their cheap looking design, I eventually gave in when when I found a Homer Simpson one. Then a Mr. Peabody. Then Power Rangers. Thirty figures and chunks of money later, I buy whatever I like to look at. Case in point this new line of Kingdom Hearts figures.
You've got the entire Kingdom Hearts goof troop here: Donald, Goofy, Chip and Dale, King Mickey, and even Pete. I love fighting heartless with Donald and Goofy and the kid who isn't good enough for a pop figure yet. I mean, it's not like the series is build around this nameless child anyway.
The Kingdom Hearts Funko line lands in April. Maybe it'll soothe the pain of not playing Kingdom Hearts 3 before the heat death of the Earth.
I may not always like Conan O' Brien's schtick during his Clueless Gamer segments, but his best ones have always been the Super Bowl specials. This year, he's teamed up with Tom Brady and Ubisoft's For Honor.
It's a bit bland for the first half since Brady's such a blank slate (another reason to root for the Atlanta Falcons on Sunday), but once more charismatic guests like Falcons defensive end Dwight Freeney and Patriots tight end Rob Gronkowski show up it's pretty damn funny.
Is For Honor a game folks are excited for? It seems neat enough here.
Tim Schafer's Psychonauts is the definition of a modern cult classic. Despite winning multiple awards and the adoration of critics, Double Fine's first game sold poorly. Good games, however, don't go unplayed. Over the course of a decade, Psychonauts sold over a million copies in digital redistribution, and left fans clamoring for a sequel to wrap up the game's loose ends. Now a satisfying conclusion to the original game's story is finally here, but it's not Psychonauts 2 -- it's Psychonauts in the Rhombus of Ruin, a virtual reality spin-off heading exclusively to PlayStation VR on February 21st.
The hottest games of the spring season are right around the corner. You know what that means, right? Closed betas! It seems like the past couple weeks have been filled with betas. TheFor Honorbeta lasted all last week before ending Sunday. TheInjustice 2beta is still going strong. The codes are being sent out in waves to participants. I sadly haven’t been among one of the lucky few. I am a huge fan of the first installment so I am crossing my fingers that I get in soon. Hopefully one of the future waves finds my email among the mass that probably signed up.
Mobile games have been making their way to consoles at a semi-regular clip lately. Most recently it was Square Enix Montreal's series of Go titles moving to PlayStation 4, and now Fallout Shelter is making its way to Xbox One and Windows 10. Now, it was already available on Steam, but this version offers Play Anywhere features like cloud-sync and shared achievements between the platforms. So, it's a little different.
If you thought Dead or Alive Xtreme 3: Fortune wasn't lewd enough as is, now there's a glitch in its new virtual reality mode which causes swimsuits (and most hair) on girls to disappear, revealing their naked bodies. Unlike with Watch Dogs 2 however, the girls' character models do not feature modeled nipples or vaginas. The glitch is performed simply by dipping one's head underwater.
Sometimes I'm astounded to what lengths developers will go to in order to model things most players will never be able to see, including underwear. Luckily they stopped short of designing the naked bodies in detail, else the glitch may have been seen as intentional.
If you log into Miitomo and Super Mario Run this morning, you'll find a new celebration underway to facilitate the launch of Fire Emblem Heroes.
As for the former game you'll find new Fire Emblem outfits to gather, including Alfonse and Lucina outfits and Marth, Roy, Tiki, and Leo t-shirts. If the community reaches a 10,000 retweet goal (with the hashtag #Miitomo_FE_RT), everyone will get a Lucina mask gift.
Super Mario Run's thing is a lot less exciting, as you'll obtain 2,222 coins after logging in. That's it. Oh, and Heroes itself has a launch promotion where stamina requirements for the Training Tower are halved, you don't need stamina to equip skills, and you get a 10 stamina potion bonus upon logging in.
Did you pre-order Yooka-Laylee on the Wii U, the system it was basically born to be on given that it's an homage to the Rare-led platformers during the Nintendo 64 era? Too bad! It was canceled a few weeks ago. But if you're so inclined you can either refund your pledge or go for the Switch version. The thing is, it's just not going to be physical right now.
Found on their updated FAQ, developer Playtonic explained the situation thusly: “For Kickstarter, unfortunately physical Switch editions are beyond our scope right now, as we anticipate the difference in costs compared to digital formats would result in further expense to backers which we’re unable to accurately determine at this point in time. If circumstances change, we’ll update you ASAP as we 100% would love to do a physical release on Switch.”
Might that be code for "we want to see how the Switch sells first?" Either way, you have the ability to get a digital version if you want it -- whenever it might actually come out. At the moment every other platform is slated for April 11.
If you're a fan of the weirdly fantastic indie game RunGunJumpGun, you'll be excited to hear that Amazon is offering a free download of the PC version for a limited time. The only catch is you need to have a Twitch Prime account, which you can access at no extra cost if you already have an Amazon Prime membership. Otherwise there's an option to sign up for a 30-day trial. Developed by ThirtyThree Games, RunGunJumpGun is like Super Mario on steroids, featuring dark colorful worlds and quirky characters. You only have until this Sunday, February 5th, to grab it for free from Twitch Prime so you better move fast.
Have you watched the Super Mario Odyssey trailer yet? It's weird, right? It starts off with Mario jumping around what looks to be a New York City inspired environment right out of Sonic, until it starts giving us some standard 3D platformer scenes. The thing is, they look at lot more detailed than pretty much every 3D platformer before it, especially that forest! I'm getting Banjo Kazooie vibes from that place in particular.
Either way, a lot of other people watched it, as it's now the most-viewed game ever on Nintendo's YouTube channel, surpassing Breath of the Wild's 11.1 million views with its own 11.2 million. It's well deserved as Nintendo showed off a lot of footage, maybe even too much. Too bad it's coming in "holiday 2017."
Maybe we'll get a four-player 3D World in the next few years as a follow-up?
Producer Yosuke Saito announced on Twitter that NieR: Automata has gone gold, meaning its ready to be packed and shipped. Though, as we have seen many times in the past, it does not necessarily imply that games are complete by developer or consumer standards, but rather the publisher's. I'm not implying anything about NieR: Automata specifically here, just the practice.
Saito says they finished it a while back but just felt compelled to announce its gold status since it appears to be the trend nowadays. I assume that any game will reach that "ready-to-ship" stage leading up to the publicly known release date, so why and when did this become a trend? Are we going to start hearing about when the games go "silver" and "bronze" too?
It's more than a little weird that it's taken until now for the folks behind last year's 
