News:: Bethesda deals: Skyrim Special Edition, Elder Scrolls Online, and more

As mentioned previously, GamersGate is celebrating its 12th anniversary as a PC digital delivery company by hacking and slashing prices on deals across publishers.

One of its noteworthy batches of Bethesda titles just got extended through the weekend. Many 2016-released titles such as The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Special Edition have dropped to their historic low price, making it well worth checking out for PC gamers lacking the titles listed below in their library.

Bethesda Weekend Sale

• Dishonored 2 (Steam) — $28.80  (list price $60)
• The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Special Edition (Steam) — $23.99  (list price $40)
• The Elder Scrolls Online: Gold Edition — $28.80  (list price $50)
• The Elder Scrolls Online: Tamriel Unlimited — $12.60  (list price $40)
• The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind GOTY Edition (Steam) — $7.20  (list price $15)
• Doom (Steam) — $24  (list price $60)
• Fallout 4: Season Pass (Steam) — $27.49  (list price $50)
• Fallout 4 (Steam) — $24  (list price $60)
• Fallout 4: Far Harbor (Steam) — $13.49  (list price $25)

Another title hitting a historic low is Dishonored 2. The November 2016 release has, for the first time to date, dropped below the 50% off mark besting its winter sale price of $33. 

For gamers interested in the upcoming Elder Scrolls Online: Morrowind expansion, picking up the base game now for $12.60 is a good idea as you can simply pay for the Morrowind upgrade to unlock all the goodies.

Fallout 4's Season Pass is also on sale, with this drop to $27.49 being a rare discount. Early last year Bethesda upped the price from $30 to $50, and it's been hard to find her below the $30 mark since. Also on sale is the most important Far Harbor DLC expansion and the Fallout 4 base game itself - though Fallout 4 itself has been as cheap as $15 - so if you're not in a hurry, you may as well wait for the eventual Fallout 4 Game of the Year Edition.

The deals listed above will run now through Monday, February 13. That's a whole weekend to decide if your wallet can handle Bethesda's latest and greatest.

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News:: Check out these great Pokemon/Moana crossovers

I have a friend who's a professional movie critic, and one of his favorite movies last year was Disney's Moana, a Hawaii-influenced take on a traditional Disney movie. One of my favorite games last year was Pokémon Sun, a Hawaii-influenced take on a traditional Pokémon title. Like mooshing chocolate into peanut butter, here's something we can both enjoy. 

Korean artist Hallpen is responsible for the sketches, which combine some of the movie's most iconic characters with appropriate, island-themed Pokémon. Moana herself hula dances with a Bellossom, while her Gramma Tala stands before a self-satisfied Mantine. Half-god Maui needs a link cable to trade his Graveler, and comic relief character Heihei is stuck with a Magikarp.

I love this kind of mashup, and the artwork on display here is pretty impressive. I'd like to see Tamatoa mixing it up with a Crabrawler or Pua standing with a Tepig, but maybe those would have been a little too on-the-nose.

H4llp3n [Twitter]

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News:: Bloodstained shows off a pair of new enemies

For this month's backer update for Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night, designer IGA spoke with composer Michiru Yamane, whose music you'll know and surely dig from games like Castlevania: Symphony of the Night (yep, there it goes -- it's stuck in my head again aaaand now I'm looking up concert footage). As short as this back-and-forth is, it's still a nice treat given the participants.

What's more, the development team has shared two new enemies. First, there's Aello, a harpy:

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News:: New batch of Musou Stars character trailers feature my dude-a Opoona

The Dynasty Warriors series is my favorite videogame series overall. Musou games bring me a joy I cant describe, really. It's just so satisfying to mow down waves of enemies as a super powered jerk who couldn't care less about their medical bills. Which means I'm stupidly excited for Musou Stars. 

Musou Stars is a like a suped up version of Warriors Orochi, combing Koei Tecmo titles like Dynasty Warriors, the Deception series, Dead or Alive, obscure properties like Opoona and Super Black Jack, and even some original furries for good measure. This newest batch of character trailers for it show some additions I'm especially excited about like Lu Bu (do not pursue) from Dynasty Warriors, Opoona from Opoona, Hajime Arita of Harukanaru Toki no Naka de and Laegrinna from the Deception series. 

Luckily, each character shown off so far has a different style; which is super important in a series like this. If it can be as fun as looks, and run smooth to boot, it's going to be a good time. 

Musou Stars releases in Japan for PlayStation 4 and Vita March 30th. Fingers and toes crossed for a Western release soon. 

Musou Stars ‘Hajime Arima, Laegrinna, Lu Bu, and Opoona’ character introduction trailers [Gematsu]

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News:: Trump's Chief Strategist used to run a World of Warcraft gold farm

Donald Trump's Assistant to the President and Chief Strategist Steve Bannon has Mr. Magoo'd his way to a fortune over the years (he even stumbled into Seinfeld royalties before it was a hit).

In the mid-2000s, insanely successful World of Warcraft gold farm Internet Gaming Entertainment (IGE) brought on Bannon, a former investment banker with Goldman Sachs, to wrangle venture capital, according to an old Wired piece.

In 2006, "Goldman Sachs, together with a consortium of private funds, made a reported $60 million investment in the company," while Bannon took a seat on the board. But IGE faced a class action lawsuit from WoW players over the insecure legality of trading virtual items for real money and eventually IGE sold off its market place and rebranded as Affinity, a group of online MMO forums.

Affinity pushed out IGE founder and CEO, child actor Brock Pierce (First Kid, The Mighty Ducks), and installed Bannon as CEO in 2007, where he would stay until taking over "alt-right" (that's the politically correct term for neo-nazi) blog Breitbart News in 2012. Now he appears menacingly (on account of looking like he's had pneumonia since before JFK was killed) on magazine covers that deem him the puppet master to an obese, old-ass president who likes to be seen signing things he doesn't read.

The Decline and Fall of an Ultra Rich Online Gaming Empire [Wired]

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News:: Star Trek: Bridge Crew delayed once again

Ubisoft is setting aside even more time for Star Trek: Bridge Crew, its upcoming VR-only solo-play and co-op game in which you and your pals can harmoniously work together or disobey orders as members of Starfleet. The Vive, Oculus Rift, and PlayStation VR title is now on for May 30, 2017.

Softening the blow a bit, the company has also confirmed that the iconic U.S.S. Enterprise NCC-1701 will appear in the game's Ongoing Voyages mode, a sort of randomized mission generator.

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News:: Earth Defense Force 5 looks like another silly good time

I can only imagine what it's like to watch a trailer for Earth Defense Force 5 without knowing what the series is about and why, for the right type of person, it's a damn good time despite looking like an outdated mess. "Why do they chant 'EDF! EDF! EDF!' in the comments? Who are these people?"

This video serves as a decent intro to the game by summarizing the different classes, previewing the new giant frog men and humanoid alien boys, and retaining the series' outlandish humor.

Notably, while Earth Defense Force 5 is set for a PlayStation 4 release this year in Japan, today's video from D3 Publisher has English subs. It's only a matter of time before we get a release window, too.

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News:: Nobody is using their words to work out their differences in For Honor's launch trailer

Ubisoft's For Honor releases on Valentine's Day, which is a day for lovers and not for fighters. Good luck explaining that to these samurais, vikings, and knights. All these testosteroned-up macho men won't stop trying to stab each other, and they ain't using Cupid's arrow.

A lot could probably be accomplished through simple peer mediation. Sit these three down at a table and everyone hashes things out with their words. Maybe a Spartan or a Navy SEAL could lead things. We're looking to get to "win, win, win."

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News:: Valve is making it easier to publish games with Steam Direct

Valve is ditching its oft-maligned Steam Greenlight system for something more straightforward. For the uninitiated, Greenlight is a community-focused program that uses a voting system to determine which games are published on Steam. Developers post information, video and screenshots for their games. If they get enough community support, the games are "greenlit."

Via: GamesBeat

Source: Steam

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News:: Review: Dynasty Warriors Godseekers

Porting a game to a less powerful platform takes dedication to get right. With so many Japanese PS4 games also showing up on the Vita, developers have to make the effort to ensure both versions are worth the asking price. It’s been done before to great success. This is not one of those times.

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News:: 'FTL' successor shows off adorable mech battles

If you've played FTL: Faster Than Light, you know that it's a sublime gaming experience, well deserving of its high ratings and devoted fan base. Developer Subset Games has just launched a teaser trailer for its follow-up title, Into The Breach. FTL provided players with perfectly-balanced chaos-management activities that made building, defending and upgrading a spaceship and its crew incredibly fun. Into The Breach looks to be as enjoyable, and the gameplay on display has even more of the same retro-pixel sci-fi mayhem.

Source: Subset Games

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News:: OK Nintendo, you got me: Your new Breath of the Wild screenshots are exciting

Fine. I'm finally starting to get excited about Zelda: Breath of the Wild thanks to Game Informer's latest screenshots and interview with Eiji Aonuma and Shigeru Miyamoto. Not that I was planning on skipping it or anything, but nothing about the game had quite made me jump in excitement. 

To sum up the interview: it's a secret whether or not the Master Sword can break, Link's name is Link Link (Miyamoto also confirms "Mario Mario"), Link Link can wear green, Link Link will not say a full sentence in the game, Link Link has no family, Link Link is not human, there will be a wolf, you can upgrade the stamina meter, BotW takes place after Ocarina of Time, and you can't eat your horse.

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News:: Steep's free Alaska add-on is not shredding the gnar this week

Last Friday, we told you that "Steep's free Alaska add-on shreds the gnar next week." That was exciting for a few reasons. First and probably most pertinent: free DLC is almost always good, especially when it's as substantial as the Alaska region seems to be. But, more selfishly, we were stoked to use the phrase "shreds the gnar" in a headline. Not a lot of legitimate reasons to do that when writing about, I don't know, Dark Souls or Mass Effect.

But, alas, our enthusiasm was ill-fated. In a short message on UbiBlog, Ubisoft informs us that Steep's Alaska DLC is being pushed back to February 24. Not only will it not shred the gnar this week, but it won't shred the gnar next week either. It will be two whole weeks until the gnar is shred.

We'll update with an appropriately-titled headline if there are any further developments.

Steep -- New Date for Alaska Update [UbiBlog]

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News:: Valve making three 'full' games for VR, wants to advance the platform

Valve CEO Gabe Newell has never been a fan of consoles and reaffirmed those feelings recently when he explained to Eurogamer that "We get really frustrated working in walled gardens." This time is he talking not about power, but having to rely on other companies to deliver and publish their products.

Instead, using their own walled gardens of Steam and Vive, Valve is "building" three new games. Newell clarifies these will be real games unlike The Lab, noting, "When I say we're building three games, we're building three full games, not experiments."  No information was given on these beyond the fact that they will not just be ports of existing Valve titles.

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News:: We've got limited edition Angels of Death swag, and we want to give it away to you

[Update: We're bumping this before Mike closes the contest this weekend. Get your comments in stat! Stat means now!]

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.

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News:: Review: Dungeon Souls

I have conquered the first level of Dungeon Souls. Its boulders and explosion-traps were ineffectual; its skeletons and bats (who are also skeletons!) have been reduced to glaringly bright coins and shards of bone. I have activated the last mark, and the portal has activated.

"THE REDEEMER HAS ARRIVED," the screen declares.

As the gigantic spectre rushed across the screen, filling it with projectiles, my first thought was, "Oh, it's basically the Spelunky Ghost."

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News:: Valve's replacing Greenlight with a new system it calls Steam Direct

Valve is constantly looking for new ways to streamline the process of developers getting their games on Steam. In 2012, it introduced Greenlight, a community-focused initiative that let users vote for the titles they thought should be added to the service. At the time, it was a monumental step up from the heavily curated nature of Steam. Now, in 2017, it's holding developers back.

Steam and the independent video game creators who put their games on Steam have outgrown Greenlight. So, Valve has outlined plans for a successor, something it calls Steam Direct. If the old system was akin to a popularity contest, the new one is much less exciting -- something that Valve describes as like "applying for a bank account."

Steam Direct will ask developers to complete a set of digital paperwork, personal or company verification, and tax documents. Once that's complete, they'll have to fork over a recoupable application fee for each game they want to add to Steam. The idea here is that requiring money upfront will discourage people from submitting games that have no realistic chance of selling more than a couple of units -- the kind of blatant, uncreative, and usually-broken asset flips that are a pox on Steam.

However, Valve hasn't yet determined how much this application fee will be. The trick would seemingly be in finding that sweet spot that isn't prohibitively expensive for sincere developers, yet still pricey enough for those who are just looking to exploit the system. Valve says that it has talked to several creators about this and their suggested ranges go as low as $100 and as high as $5,000. Also gone unexplained is exactly how and when developers will recoup this cost.

It's a lot to figure out still, and Valve will have to solidify the details fairly quickly. Steam Direct is set to debut sometime this spring (although, it'll surely be tweaked substantially in the time following its launch). Out with Greenlight, in with Direct.

Evolving Steam [Steam]

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News:: FTL team reveals new strategy kaiju game Into the Breach

It feels like it's been forever since we last heard from Subset Games (or as you may know the studio, "those people who made FTL: Faster Than Light.") FTL Advanced Edition came out in 2014, and since then I just assumed Subset's employees took all of their riches and retired to live out the rest of their days on a tropical beach somewhere. Apparently not!

The developer revealed the first trailer for its next title, Into the Breach. It's a short video, but there's a lot of nitty-gritty stuff to unpack from it. The player's mechs can be seen knocking giant monsters into the ocean, pulling a bug into a line of enemies before firing an enormous laser through them all, slamming one into a mountain, busting down a dam to flood the area, and wading through the sea Jaeger-style. It looks like there are a lot of ways to skin a gigantic subterranean insect.

Fans of FTL's music will also be pleased to know composer Ben Prunty will be contributing to this game as well. The FTL soundtrack is his most popular work, but he also produced soundtracks for Gravity Ghost and StarCrawlers. The first Into the Breach song released can be heard here.

Into the Breach is set to release on Windows, Mac, and Linux when the team "feel[s] it's ready."

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News:: Forthcoming service offers online video game tutoring

Losing to a 12-year-old in Super Smash Bros. can be a real downer, but there are a few ways to prevent that. You can challenge kids who aren't as good, practice and improve on your own, or, if you have a few bucks to spend, get a video game tutor from Japanese company GameLesson.

Source: Kotaku, RocketNews24, My Game News Flash

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News:: Roadhog and Winston just got tweaks in Overwatch along with Bastion

Blizzard shared some patch notes three days ago in what I'm referring to as the "Bastion patch." Currently in PTR, the update adds CTF to the mix, as well as a server browser. In terms of hero changes the big alterations involve Bastion, who got a rework for both of his configurations, as well as Mercy, who got a big buff for her ultimate (she's invincible temporarily after casting it, as are the teammates who were resurrected).

But Blizzard has a few more changes planned for Roadhog and Winston. The former will see a 20% spread decrease for his Scrap Gun, buffing it, while his hook now pulls people to a location slightly farther away from him (3.5 meters instead of two), and the cooldown has been increased by two seconds. Winston's critical hit volume has been reduced by 15%, a small nerf that should "bring him more in line" with other characters.

PTR Hero Updates [Battle.net]

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News:: Friday Night Fights: Just My Luck Edition

We have all had those times. The one in particular that I’m thinking about has to do with a long losing streak. My work schedule consists of me going into when everyone is getting home from a long day’s work. After eight hours, I go home when everyone is waking up to go to work or sleeping off an all-nighter. Due to this, I mainly play multiplayer games by myself. Of course this usually means I get matched up with randoms.

I have had some awesome synergy with randoms sometimes. We all choose roles we know that would greatly benefit the team. This is the reason why I picked up maining a healer in Overwatch. Well, it seems that well has dried up for the time being.

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News:: Review: Zen Pinball 2: Star Wars Pinball: Rogue One

You wouldn't believe it now, but there was a time when it was hard to get your hands on any new Star Wars merchandise. A decade-long gap between the release of Return of the Jedi and the re-launching of the brand in the early '90s, back when the Star Wars brand sat largely unused aside from a few novels here, a terrible tie-in cartoon there.

I grew up in this period. A huge Star Wars fan, absolutely starved for anything that involved lightsabers or Stormtroopers. I used to haunt yard sales and the rinky-dink model train swaps in my town, scavenging for any old action figures, prizing my collection of paint-chipped aliens and skinny Darth Vaders, missing their capes.

I remember the first time I laid eyes on the Star Wars pinball machine. This glorious mess of tubes, ramps, LCD X-Wings, and a chromed-out R2-D2 presiding over the head of the table. It was gorgeous. I must have dropped my body weight worth in quarters into that machine over the years.

Of course, those lean days are long over. Ever since Lucas decided to go back and butcher the original films with the 1997 Special Editions and then buried the franchise in insipid sequels, there hasn't been a toy shelf in North America without a droid or wookie taking up space. Now that Disney is breathing new life into the franchise and returning it to form, the marketing machine is working overtime. You can get everything from lunch pails to faux-wampa skin rugs for your home.

What does this have to do with Zen Pinball 2: Star Wars Pinball: Rogue One? Well, I'm trying to decide if I've just been spoiled and jaded by the wealth of Star Wars tie-ins available today, or if this table is really as dull and uninspired as it seems. 

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News:: Go grab your Lucina Mask in Miitomo starting today

Folks succeeded in tweeting out the Fire Emblem Heroes event 10,000 times, and thus, Nintendo has unlocked a reward for Miitomo -- Lucina's mask. The content is available today, until March 2 at 10:00 PM ET, and all you need to do is log in to grab it.

If only amiibo worked with mobile games, and you could unlock characters from Fire Emblem Heroes or costumes for Miitomo and Super Mario Run that way. The tech wouldn't be easy to implement, especially for both iOS and Android, but the opportunity to sell more $13 hunks of plastic is there, and would give amiibo more of a point. Since they're keeping the functionality with the Switch going forward it's not dead, so hopefully cross-platform amiibo support comes to fruition one day.

In the meantime, you can muse over Nintendo's current mobile strategy here.

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News:: Resident Evil is hot! RE7 tops three million worldwide sales, movies eclipse a billion

The only thing clicking more than my left mouse button right now is Resident Evil. While I need to fix this little rodent, Capcom needs not change any formula as Resident Evil 7 has now sold more than three million copies worldwide whereas the recent film Resident Evil The Final Chapter has pushed the "total global box-office" past a billion dollars.

I have yet to personally play the game, I'm holding out until I can get a PlayStation VR, but I hear nothing but great things about it and it's new direction. I love it when risks in changing the formula is rewarded with success, not that every series needs to change direction with every release. On the other hand I did have the displeasure of seeing The Final Chapter in 4D. Why do so many people still watch those?

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News:: Snake Pass brings David Wise on board, days after its Switch announcement

Snake Pass, revealed late last year, always looked like a neat little modern take on Snake Rattle 'n' Roll for the NES, but it never really grabbed me -- until this week, that is. The team over at Sumo Digital just announced that David Wise, Rare veteran composer will be producing the soundtrack, which you can listen to below in teaser form.

Wise shared his thoughts on the project, stating, "Once I played the game and saw the captivating world Sumo created, it set my mind on fire. I immediately began composing melodies, then worked with the team to develop these and nail down the feel of the soundtrack. We've ended up with something that not only pays tribute to the game's classic inspirations, but also brings something new to the table, just as the game's mechanics do!"

Snake Pass is coming to the PC, PS4, Xbox One, and as previously mentioned, the Switch. There's something special about playing a David Wise-helmed game on a Nintendo platform, so that's probably where I'll be picking it up.

David Wise [Snake Pass]

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