News:: Zoe Quinn's book about fighting online hate arrives Sept. 6th

Zoë Quinn, perhaps one of the most qualified people to talk about online harassment, has written a book on her fight against online hate. It's called Crash Override, just like the volunteer group she founded to support harassment victims, and it's now ready for pre-order. As GamerGate's original target, the game developer had to endure having her accounts hacked, her sensitive photos stolen and her family and friends doxxed and harassed. She was also on the receiving end of numerous murder and rape threats. Quinn's book talks about her GamerGate experience in its first few chapters, but it sounds like it has much more to offer.

Source: Zoe Quinn (Twitter), (Tumblr)

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News:: Valve only wants to sell you good games

As Steam continues to grow its expansive catalog, Valve is still figuring out how to separate the quality titles and undiscovered indie hits from the legions of mediocre games that are only designed to make a quick buck. The platform is already replacing its community-focused Greenlight program with the new Steam Direct service to help Valve clean up the sea of what it calls "fake games," but it still doesn't solve the problem of surfacing the really good stuff. To combat that problem, Valve is proposing a new system of "Steam Explorers" who will play their way through queues of undiscovered games and flag their favorites to give them a bump in the rankings.

Via: Ars Technica

Source: Kotaku

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News:: 'Lego Star Wars' and more Lucasfilm nostalgia come to PS Now

Rogue One: A Star Wars Story is out on DVD and Blu Ray today, and (perhaps not-so) coincidentally four classic Star Wars video games have joined Sony's subscription-based streaming service, PlayStation Now. Oh, and there's some Lego Indiana Jones titles in there too.

Source: PlayStation Blog

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News:: Destructoid Community Interviews: Occams Electric Toothbrush

_{[Whoops! Well, let's start catching up on the community interviews, shall we? ~Strider]}

Hello me, it's me again, Orochileona, bringing you the first Community Interview of 2017! Remember I said they'd get shorter last time? Yeeeah. Look, it's important to keep youse guys flowing freely. This is a conversation, after all, not a Q&A. After this weekend, however, I will be taking strides to shorten future interviews, as seventeen minutes of reading may have become the stuff of a madman's dream.

Regardless, I'm really grateful that you're all enjoying the interviews so far, and heartfelt thanks for your positive, constant and ongoing support, it makes the hours that go into these worthwhile. For now, grab a tall coffee, and let's talk to a true icon in Destructoid's storied history. It's the one, the only, Occams Electric Toothbrush.

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News:: Frank West is rocking the dead look in this Dead Rising 4: Frank Rising trailer

Call me a hypocrite, but I think the trailer for Dead Rising 4: Frank Rising looks decent. The main game did basically nothing positive to change the Dead Rising formula, but playing as a zombie is something that was never even tackled. I don't think Zombie Frank will be using much in the way of weapons, but this looks to be a lot more interesting than just the same crap all over again.

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News:: 'Serious Sam' returns to VR for a 'Second Encounter'

If you're a fan of bombastic early-2000s first-person shooters and you own a HTC Vive or an Oculus Rift, Croteam has you covered. Serious Sam, the studio's fast-paced, over-the-top and gratuitously violent ode to big guns, explosions and cheesy one-liners now has two more VR games on Steam.

Source: Croteam

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News:: Atlus has strict capture and streaming guidelines for Persona 5 players

As you may have heard or discovered first-hand, Persona 5 restricts access to the PlayStation 4's share feature, a move Atlus says has to do with the "single-playthrough story" and a fear of spoilers.

Today, the company elaborated on its gameplay capture restriction and posted its guidelines for folks who will find a way to spread the good Persona word with or without access to the PS4 Share button.

"Please, PLEASE do not post any specific plot points or story spoilers, and only talk about the game in broad strokes. (Good example: 'The game deals with dark themes right off the bat, with a lecherous teacher and other corrupted individuals.' Bad example: 'Players immediately run into trouble with the pervy teacher *spoiler*, whose actions go so far as to cause *spoiler*.')

You’re more than welcome to talk/show Confidants, the new combat, the Velvet Room, the dungeons, etc. Just please keep in mind that as a singular story playthrough, viewers are *highly* wary of spoilers!

In-game Content Limit: Please limit video content through 7/7.

Video Content

• You can post however many additional videos you’d like, but please limit each to be at most 90 minutes long.
• No major story spoilers, and I’ll leave that up to your good judgment. If you need some guidelines, avoid showing/spoiling the ending segments of the first three palaces. While you can show initial interactions with Yusuke, avoid his awakening scene, and that whole deal about THE painting. Also, don’t post anything about a certain student investigator.
• I know I mentioned not showing the end of each palace, but you can grab footage from the Kamoshida boss fight. However, don’t capture video from the other major boss fights.
• Must not focus solely on cutscenes/animated scenes, should prominently feature dungeon crawling/spending time in Tokyo.
• You can post straight gameplay or have commentary.

Streaming Content

This being a Japanese title with a single-playthrough story means our masters in Japan are very wary about it. Sharing is currently blocked through the native PS4 UI. However, if you do plan on streaming, video guidelines above apply except length. If you decide to stream past 7/7 (I HIGHLY RECOMMEND NOT DOING THIS, YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED), you do so at the risk of being issued a content ID claim or worse, a channel strike/account suspension."

I mean, people are going to do what they're going to do regardless of Atlus' wishes -- the game is out here in the West as of this week, and it's been available in Japan since September 2016. Asking nicely to follow guidelines is one thing, but warning about possible content ID claims and channel strikes is another entirely. Sharing and streaming are a permanent part of gaming now. There's no going back.

The company did also note that "Persona 5 is a super special case for us and we're in ongoing discussion about how our policies may evolve in the future." That gives me some hope.

A Note on Persona 5 and Streaming [Atlus]

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News:: We'll probably find out on Thursday exactly how powerful Project Scorpio really is

Microsoft's contribution thus far to the incrementally-improved console iteration trend is this three-minute video from last E3. Project Scorpio will be a more powerful take on the Xbox One, but apart from a few specifics (6 teraflops!), we don't have much of an idea of what it's capable of. Instead of discussing Scorpio at E3 last year, Microsoft politely deflected all conversation in the direction of the now-released Xbox One S.

That silence is being broken soon. On Thursday April 6, Digital Foundry (which is part of Eurogamer) has an exclusive reveal about the Scorpio. Digital Foundry has made a name or itself in recent years by providing detailed technical and performance-focused analysis of video games. Because of this, the predominant line of reasoning is that this reveal will be entirely about the hardware and components inside the Scorpio.

We can also probably infer that Microsoft is very confident in Scorpio's performance. Digital Foundry earned that reputation by being critical and detailed about everything it came across. If Scorpio were lacking, Microsoft likely wouldn't want a media outlet controlling the message. That's an extremely risky prospect.

There's a lot about Scorpio we won't know after Thursday. We won't know its price or its release date or its real name or probably even what it looks like. That will all be saved for another time, like the Xbox E3 press briefing. But, we should know what's under the hood by the end of the week.

@digitalfoundry [Twitter]

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News:: Ooh, Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet is playable on Xbox One

Even though I enjoyed it at the time, Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet is one of those games that utterly slips my mind. Somehow, despite its marvelous name, I flat-out forget it ever existed. That might change going forward, as the Xbox Live Arcade metroidvania title is now compatible on Xbox One.

Joining Shadow Planet on the backward compatibility list is Civilization Revolution, a game I never cared to try but one I feel like I've seen regularly pop up as a wished-for addition. If you have a soft spot for its brand of strategy, know that today's the day. It's ready and waiting for your return.

Major Nelson [Twitter]

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News:: Twitch starts selling the games it streams

We already new Twitch planned to start selling its viewers a selection of PC games directly through the streaming site. Starting today, the service allows users to purchase a variety of different titles from the site while watching related streams. Over the next week, around 50 games and various add-ons will be available to purchase mid-stream, including Ubisoft's recent big hitters -- For Honor and Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon: Wildlands.

As well as simply selling their games at full price, developers can also use the service to award fans with special offers for watching streams at certain times. It's not just developers who will benefit from selling games, however, with partnered Twitch streamers also set to earn 5% of sales generated through their channels.

Source: Twitch

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News:: Double Fine's Amnesia Fortnight game jam returns

So that's what was inside Tim Schafer's mystery box: Amnesia Fortnight!

Double Fine's two-week game jam is back for 2017 with a fresh batch of pitches to hear out and vote on. The winning ideas will move onto the next stage, becoming playable prototypes, and the whole wild process is documented by 2 Player Productions (Double Fine Adventure) for our viewing pleasure.

Voting is handled through Humble Bundle with a $1 bundle purchase, and that's also where you'll be able to hear more in-depth game pitches from the hopeful creators. In this year's Fortnight, there are going to be four winners -- two chosen by us, one by Double Fine's team, and one by Tim Schafer.

At a glance, my favorites are The Gods Must Be Hungry, "a 3D platformer where warrior chefs make giant meals to stop ravenous gods from eating the human race," and Outside, "a game about kayaking and exploring the great outdoors." What about you? What's sounding good here?

Amnesia Fortnight 2017 [Humble Bundle]

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News:: Microsoft will unveil the next Xbox's specs on Thursday

Last fall, Sony outraced the competition in releasing the PS4 Pro, their half-step improvement on current consoles that includes better tech to handle VR gaming. Microsoft's mid-generation successor to the Xbox One, known as Project Scorpio, was in no shape to try beating Sony's to market, but it's rumored to be a far more powerful system. Just how much beefier has been confined to rumor and isolated reports, but soon we'll have the official word on Scorpio's technical guts ahead of its planned full reveal at E3 2017. On Thursday at 9AM ET, Microsoft is releasing the specs for its upcoming system.

Via: The Verge

Source: Eurogamer (Twitter)

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News:: Blizzard wins case against programmer for Overwatch cheats

Last year, Blizzard decided to take a German programmer by the name of Bossland to court for "copyright infringement." Its claim was that Bossland's cheat program, Watchover Tyrant, demonstrated unfair competition and was in violation of the DMCA's anti-circumvention law. Whether or not you thought the idea was frivolous, it looks like the courts have sided with Blizzard on this matter.

As reported by the BBC, a California-based court has ruled that Bossland was guilty for 42,818 counts of copyright infringement. The punishment comes to a grand total of $8.6 million (or £6.8 million). The decision was relatively simple as Bossland did not appear in court to defend itself.

Bossland is now ordered to remove its product from sale in the United States. Along with that, any UK-based residents can no longer access the homepage for Bossland, being greeted with a message that states, "Bossland and its directors are no longer permitted to advertise or offer for sale such software to UK residents."

While I'm honestly surprised that the courts came to this decision, I can't say I'm in favor of cheats existing in competitive multiplayer titles. It is one thing when the only person you're affecting is yourself, but to destroy the careful balance of a multiplayer match to give yourself an unfair advantage is just lame.

Overwatch 'cheat-maker' told to pay $8.6m to Blizzard [BBC] 

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News:: Review: HackyZack

I can't say I've even thought about hacky sacks in any capacity over the last decade. They were a massive fad in the '90s that took the world by storm. There was an inherent joy in maneuvering a sack of beans through the air that clicked immediately for a lot of people.

Now, would I want a video game of that? Not particularly, but at least if one existed it should strive to be deeper than the crap seen in California Games back on the NES. Thankfully developer Spaceboy Games has done just that; they've created a fun little game about kicking a sack of beans through the air.

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News:: This week's Mass Effect: Andromeda update lets you skip autopilot sequences

My decision to put Mass Effect: Andromeda back on the shelf for now is already paying off. BioWare has a big update planned for the game on Thursday, April 6 with fixes for technical issues and, thank goodness, a way to skip through those pesky autopilot sequences in the galaxy map.

Patch 1.05 Notes

• Improved tutorial placement
• Single player balance changes: Ammo crates, armor, weapons, nomad, profiles, attacks, and progression
• Multiplayer balance changes: Weapons, cover, and enemies (check back for detailed notes on balance changes)
• Added option to skip autopilot sequences in the galaxy map
• Improved logic, timing, and continuity for relationships and story arcs
• Improved lip-sync and facial acting during conversations, including localized VO
• Fixed various collision issues
• Fixed bugs where music or VO wouldn’t play or wasn’t correct
• Fixed issue where global squad mate banter sometimes wasn’t firing on UNCs
• Fixed issue where player was unable to access the Remnant Console Interface after failing decryption multiple times
• Fixed issue where fast travel is sometimes disabled after recruiting Drack until the player reloads a save
• Fixed issue where Ryder can become stuck in the start of Biotic Charge Pose
• Fixes issues related to some saves
• Fixed issue where objective sometimes becomes un-interactable for players in multiplayer
• Streaming and stability improvements

"Since launch, our team has been poring over your comments and feedback, looking to discover what you like about the game, as well as areas we can evolve or improve," said BioWare general manager Aaryn Flynn. "Over the next two months we'll be rolling out additional patches which will go even deeper and look to improve several areas of the game." Those plans include:

• More options and variety in the character creator
• Improvements to hair and general appearance for characters
• Ongoing improvements to cinematic scenes and animations
• Improvements to male romance options for Scott Ryder
• Adjustments to conversations with Hainly Abrams

Again, I think I'll continue waiting this out. It's not like there's nothing else to play.

Mass Effect: Andromeda Patch 1.05 Notes [BioWare]
Mass Effect: Andromeda – The Journey Ahead [Mass Effect]

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News:: The Switch could use more party games: Abraca: Imagic Games is coming

After the mad rush of the Switch's launch, we're entering a small lull before the summer rush begins. A handful of indie developers are taking advantage of this period, including Ankama, who just announced that Abraca: Imagic Games is headed to the system in May.

Abraca has been on PC for almost a year, and was met with a semi-positive reception. Hopefully the Switch port goes swimmingly! It could use more four-player party games. The gist is that one player will take on the role of a hero (either a prince or princess) while the other three play the role of the baddies, swapping out after each level.

The video showcases its unique multiplayer angle, which has the one hero on the TV while the other three connect by way of their own tablets (read: for this setup you'll need four tablets).

Read more...

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News:: Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare Continuum brings '70s New York disco into the fray

Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare continues its quest for wacky DLC, which is just as well, as the main game could have used some of the same charm. Following a Kevin Smith-helmed riff on Jason and the camp counselor motif, the next add-on, Continuum, is going to '70s era New York to take on disco.

The zombie map is called "Shaolin Shuffle," and will continue the narrative of the original zombies cast as new characters. Yep, Paul Reubens, Seth Green, Ike Barinholtz, Jay Pharoah, and Sasheer Zamata return, this time joined by Pam Grier, who will fulfill the overlord role that The Hoff and Smith did previously. Naturally four maps will accompany the pack, including Excess, which is a remake of Rust from Modern Warfare 2 (the center setpiece could make for some fun skirmishes, but they're really reaching when it comes to picking Infinity Ward-led maps to remake here).

It's set for an April 18 release on PS4, with PC and Xbox One to follow a month after.

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News:: Review: A Rose in the Twilight

Did you know in the original version of The Little Mermaid, when the central character gets her legs, every step she takes feels as though she is walking on knives? And instead of marrying the prince at the end, she dies and turns into seafoam? Classic children’s fairy tales are full of a kind of morbidity that would have no place in today’s helicopter parent society. Whether it’s the golden slipper cutting off the toe of an ugly stepsister in Cinderella or the evil queen being forced to dance to death in Snow White, these stories weren’t afraid to terrify children with gruesome imagery.

A Rose in the Twilight would fit right in with those fables.

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News:: King of Fighters gets some free DLC with its 2.0 update this week

Due out April 5, SNK is pushing its "2.0" update for King of Fighters XIV. Along with Rock Howard, Vanessa, Ryuji, and Whip (paid DLC) comes two free levels -- City Circuit and Transcontinental Railroad. You can see them in the video below.

Compared to most fighters, SNK is doing right by its community with these hefty, free, and frequent updates. I mean, they kind of had to! They had to prove their worth to the community given the blowback against the art style -- something that's petered out in recent weeks as people focus in on the [good] game.

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News:: How BioWare will fix 'Mass Effect: Andromeda'

The internet's reaction to Mass Effect: Andromeda has been overwhelmingly negative. Whether the game's pitiful user ratings on review sites are actually representative of what most players think is a question for another day, but it's fair to say that the game had more than a few technical issues at launch.

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News:: Which Souls boss gave you the most hell?

With the final Dark Souls III expansion out and sleep sacrificed to play it, I've been dying a lot lately.

And when I'm not repeatedly falling in battle -- for instance: during the tense final seconds of the drawn-out duel with The Ringed City's big bad (painful spoilers) -- I'm reflecting on all the deaths I've endured at the hands of From Software. I'd be curious, afraid, and embarrassed to see an overall count stretching from Demon's Souls up through Dark Souls III, with Bloodborne thrown in for good measure.

A certain patience-testing optional boss in The Ringed City has my number like few before it, and as I bide my time before I return for more punishment, I've been thinking about who, across all of these games, has wrecked me the hardest. It's gotta be Bloodborne's Laurence, the First Vicar, a name that strikes fear in my heart to this day. Even that run up the stairs to face him gives me anxiety.

Which bosses have you struggled with the most, though? That's what I'm really after!

I'm expecting some polar-opposite responses given the open nature of these games and the many ways in which you can approach fights. Reminiscing with Dennis and Ray last night about some of our biggest boss struggles, I'd spout off names like the Orphan of Kos (which personally took me no less than a few dozen attempts to best) and Dennis would come back into chat saying he's never lost to him while adding that the Capra Demon of all things still gives him trouble. Meanwhile, during Ray's recent Dark Souls III playthrough, the Ancient Wyvern was the only boss to kill him more than once.

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News:: 'Zelda: Breath of the Wild' makes open world games exciting again

At this point, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild has become a video game phenomenon. Much has been said about how it's a new take on the dusty old Zelda formula, or on how it represents a fresh direction for Nintendo in general, by buoying its new Switch console. But Breath of the Wild deserves just as much credit for how it subverts and reaffirms the power of the open world.

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News:: LEGO City Undercover still has some lengthy load times on Switch

Sometimes, long load times are forgivable. For games where the entire sandbox/level is on-boarded and I can screw around with it as long as I want, it's a small price to pay. I'll even lump in the infamous Metal Gear Solid 4 into that equation -- when a chapter was loading I'd go make a sandwich or something.

But for LEGO City Undercover, it wasn't nearly that easy. Every time you'd enter an indoor zone and re-enter the main hub, the game would load. And originally on Wii U that load time would last over a minute -- sadly on Switch it isn't much better.

Comparison tests have been hitting the web, and while everything is improved it's not ideal, especially since this thing is loading on a cartridge. Tests have shown that although load times have been cut by roughly 13 seconds on Switch, the game still frequently takes nearly a minute to load. As a note folks are reporting big load times on PS4 and Xbox One, so it seems to be related to optimization. Still, many were hoping the cart would win out. It does have co-op though!

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News:: Review: Yooka-Laylee

There are a lot of bad mascot platformers out there, but you'll have to pry them from my cold, dead hands.

Many a night, both as a youth and an adult, were spent scouring cartoony countrysides looking for that one last musical note I needed to complete my collection. The jibber-jabber speak, the adorable villains with paper-thin motivations -- it's all part of the fun, even if the writing almost never exceeds that of your typical Saturday morning hamfest.

Yooka-Laylee has a lot of those good and bad qualities, some of which are baked in on purpose, and some that just happened to slip through the cracks.

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News:: NieR: Automata is officially a hit as shipments and digital top one million

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News:: Go grab some free Persona 5 DLC now

Although the DLC for Persona 5 will roll out in the coming weeks according to this schedule, you can grab some stuff for free now. That includes the healing item and skill card sets (read: boosts), a Japanese audio track, and a new difficulty called Merciless. Keep in mind that you can swap difficulties at any time in Persona 5.

Also live today is a series of costumes, themes, and avatars priced at $0.99 to $1.99, followed by extra costumes and BGM tunes, Personas, and avatar/theme sets on April 11. Having played the entire game without any DLC I can safely say you don't need any of it -- I'm just considering picking up a few of the Persona 3 and 4 homages for future playthroughs.

Persona 5 [PlayStation Store]

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News:: The Morning After: Tuesday, April 4th 2017

Apple's dreaming up its own graphics chips for future iPhones, SEALs are using brain-zapping tech to learn and train faster and our parent's parent company has decided to give Aol a new name, after buying Yahoo. Call it Oath.

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News:: Review: PaRappa the Rapper Remastered

Beloved PaRappa the Rapper -- the game credited with birthing the rhythm game genre -- has kicked and punched its way to the PS4 for its 20th anniversary. A vestige of its time, PaRappa represents a colorfully wacky, beanie-wearing, rap-happy teenage life that virtually every '90s kid identifies with.

Parappa’s comeback to the PS4 leaves this rhythm time capsule fairly untouched save for updated crisp graphics and digitally remastered sounds. This is somehow all at once perfect, or terrible, depending on how you look at it.

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