News:: Swery's new game The Good Life promises cats, murder and mystery in 2019

Allow me a moment to tell you about a quaint little town known as Rainy Woods.

Nestled in nature and surrounded by forests in England, Rainy Woods is a happy village with happy people living amidst charming architecture from the Middle Ages. The residents say they’re the happiest people in the world. They also turn into cats at night, waking the next morning with no memory of the transformation. It’s the type of place a Yank would picture when asked to describe a small town in England, complete with cobblestone streets, five pubs, and a babbling brook where the bloody body of Elizabeth, the pastor’s wheelchair-bound daughter, has just been found; stabbed through her heart with a medieval sword.

Yes, Rainy Woods is quite the curiosity, and you know what they say about curiosity, don’t you?

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News:: Six Borderlands skins coming to Battleborn

Ever since the launch of Gearbox's meta-growth first-person MOBA Battleborn, fans of the studio have wanted Borderlands-flavored skins for it. The upcoming update will finally be bringing some of those to the table.

Six premium skins were shown at Gearbox's PAX panel, including Alani as Maya, Caldarius with Maliwan branding, El Dragón as a Psycho, ISIC as Claptrap, Orendi as Tiny Tina, and Rath as Zer0. In addition to the updated visuals, ISIC and Rath will come with new audio to match the characters.

Orendi's voice will also be done by the same actor who did Tiny Tina. (This is a bad joke that requires a lot of insider knowledge and even when you have it the payoff is low. I'm sorry.)

Along with the skins, the update this fall will also bring a new PvP map and a bunch of character balance tweaks.

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News:: Destructoid Draws: Our very own Mega Man Robot Masters

Did you know that in the classic Mega Man series, every entry except the first, 9, and 10 had boss design contests that ended up shaping the Robot Masters that were used in each game? It's true! And so, in honor of the recent releases of Mega Man Legacy Collection and Mega Man Legacy Collection 2, I figured it would be interesting to ask the Destructoid Community to try this exercise for this special edition of Destructoid Draws.

Feeling inspired? Feel free to drop your own creations in the comments down below. I'm sure Dr. Wily would appreciate any and all help.

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News:: Review: Fishing Planet

As someone who spent an embarrassing amount of time fishing in Final Fantasy XV, fishing games and fishing mini-games within other games have always been a guilty pleasure of mine. For context, I've been fishing my whole life and grew up on games such as Reel Fishing: Wild and Sega Bass Fishing for the Sega Dreamcast.

And like Sega Bass Fishing, most fishing games released within the past decade usually are on the extreme end of the arcade scale in terms of mechanics. So when Fishing Planet was announced with the promise of being “the ultimate fishing simulator,” I was genuinely interested. In many ways Fishing Planet delivers on this claim, but it also gets snagged on things that should be a non-issue.

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News:: Gearbox has 90% of its attention on Borderlands 3

Gearbox's PAX West 2017 panel just finished, and while most of it was about the efforts of the company's publishing arm, it had hints about the development side. We didn't get to actually see anything on Borderlands 3, but president and Internet's Favorite Person Randy Pitchford danced around the issue by saying 90% of Gearbox is working on "the thing you want us to be working on."

He didn't mention it by name, citing the legalese from the suits at Gearbox: "A thing does not exist until it's announced." So yeah, Borderlands 3 is totally not a real thing, but that not-real thing is Gearbox development's main focus. No word was given on when it will become a real thing.

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News:: This Super Mario World cartoon is a great tribute to Mama Luigi

Whenever someone brings up Super Mario World as a topic, I think back to the day when I received my Super Nintendo. In some cases, I reminisce about the cartoon based on the game since its cast brought us a great take on Mario, Luigi, Peach, and Yoshi.

While we're on the topic of having a blast, Animator and Artist Andrew Dickman gathered over 227 people to reanimate the episode of Super Mario World called "Mama Luigi." The project was made as a tribute to the show, along with being dedicated to Harvey Atkin (The Mario cartoon series' King Koopa) and Tony Rosato (Mario Bros. 3 and Super Mario World's Luigi).

Since everyone incorporated their own style into the piece, it was a nice seeing the episode in a new way. At the same time, you could tell that the team had fun with their assigned scene. On that note, it's time for me to rewatch my favorite Mama Luigi Project parts.

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News:: Contest: Be immortalized in Symmetry (and win a free copy, too!)

[Hey folks, just five days left on this contest! Drop a comment to get entered to win - it's that easy!]

If you're anything like me, you don't have many buildings named after you. If you're exactly like me, you don't have any buildings named after you. You now have the chance to rectify that particular wrong!

Our friends at Symmetry are sponsoring a contest for you, the plucky Dtoid readers, to get your very own weather station named after you in their game. One lucky winner will be bestowed with their own building, their name in the ending subtitles of the game, and a digital code of Symmetry for the platform of their choosing (PC, PS4, Xbox One, or mobile).

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News:: Reigns: Her Majesty expands on its Tinder-for-royalty adventure

"What kind of game is it?" a friends asked after my appointment to see Reigns: Her Majesty. I had to stop and think for a few seconds to come up with an answer to that.

It's not that it's difficult to grasp; the basic idea is simple and the controls will feel familiar to any single ladies (or fellas) out there. Portraits show up with questions or suggestions. Swipe right for yes, swipe left for no.

I finally came to the decision that it's most like a text adventure, one of gaming's oldest genres. It's not obvious because it has been distilled down to simple binary decisions, executed with a quick flick to one side. But despite that every decision is a simple yes/no, careful consideration must be paid to keep a reign going.

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News:: Metroid: Samus Returns is surprisingly old school and I love that about it

I'm not nearly as worried as I once was. I've been playing Samus: Metroid Returns, and although I'm fairly limited in what I can say about it, I can say that it's been an enjoyable trek so far.

Though I think it's a little more retro-minded than a lot of people are used to.

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News:: Square Enix unveils new 'Super Savage' tier for Final Fantasy XIV, will require completion of current tier

Square has experimented with implementing higher raid tiers in the past for Final Fantasy XIV. The Savage Coil of Bahamut was a rework of sorts of the second tier of the first raid in the game, providing a greater challenge for teams who had already cleared the highest level of raid content. It was a cool idea, but it was promptly dropped for the third and final wing of the Bahamut raid, and was never revisited, even once, in the Heavensward expansion.

It's a concept that Square Enix has been saying they want to get back to, and as of Stormblood, they're adding The Unending Coil of Bahamut (Ultimate), formerly known as 'Super Savage." Although we need more details it seems that it's a fight that features Coil bosses Twintania, Nael, and Bahamut, and will require completion of Stormblood's savage content (currently V1S-V4S) to enter. There's no weekly limit, and players will obtain a token to exchange for a weapon that will be the same loot level as the Neo raid (i345). My raid team cleared Neo the other week (and I'm one Glaze away from full i340 as of Tuesday), so I'm ready.

4.1 will also feature more main story scenario quests, new sidequests (including a Hildibrand extension and Kojin Beast Tribe errands), a new dungeon (The Drowned City of Skalla), Shinryu EX, another PVP map (Rival Wings, a 24-on-24 affair with mechs), Shirogane plots (and a housing relocation service), residential swimming, a 24-person raid, an enhanced Lost Canals of Uznair instance, cross-server friends list access, a system that allows Bards to play notes on a hotbar, and a duty roulette for raids. Some of this may come later on in iterations of 4.1, but regardless, Final Fantasy XIV knows how to do patches right!

Final Fantasy XIV [YouTube]

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News:: Recommended Reading: Japan's eSports struggle

The Crazy Laws
Keeping Japanese
Out of Video
Game Competitions
Yuji Nakamura and
Takako Taniguchi,
Bloomberg

Japan is a popular locale for video games, but laws are keeping eager players from participating in the eSports revolution. Bloomberg has the details on how regulations aimed at gambling and organized crime make paid gaming competitions impossible.

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News:: Dauntless isn't exactly Monster Hunter, but it's as close as PC gamers will get

Ever since its debut on the PlayStation 2 in 2004, I’ve been consistently playing every Monster Hunter release, minus the MMORPG titles. It’s easily one of my favorite co-op franchises, and it has proven to be a great time killer at cons when everyone brings their 3DS to the table.  Although PC gamers have similar games like Toukiden and God Eater that are available on Steam, it’s still not the same experience that Monster Hunter offers.

While I’m not really missing out on Monster Hunter, it’s something I would like to play on PC since it’s currently my main gaming platform. Then earlier this year, I learned about Dauntless via an article calling the game a Monster Hunter-like action game, so it caught my interest and I’ve been following it since then.

Similarly, to Monster Hunter, you hunt big monsters (called behemoth in the game) and gather their parts in which can be used to upgrade or make better equipment to kill bigger and harder monsters as you progress the game. One thing that I found annoying is the amount of grinding it takes to get the loot that you need to make the armor that you want, and that was one of the earlier armors in the alpha. I usually like investing myself into grinding, but it felt dragged with lots of fruitless attempts.

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News:: Final Fantasy XIV's next patch will seemingly tackle the world of Final Fantasy Tactics

We've known that the "Return to Ivalice" 24-person raid was coming to Final Fantasy XIV. Since the announcement of the folks have been speculating as to what games will be included in that celebration of the Ivalice universe, and to be honest, since we've known about the XII Remaster for ages, I kind of just assumed it would deal with that arm of it. But as it turns out based on a recent producer Liveletter presentation, it's going to be Tactics related.

During the stream producer Naoki Yoshida unveiled the key art for the first of three wings, "The Legend Returns," and it prominently showcases Ramza and Delita from Final Fantasy Tactics. For those who are unaware, 24-person raids are a semi-casual element of XIV that involve three parties, each members in each, that allow you to earn one piece of gear per week (until a later date when the gear lock is removed). Previous 24-person raids have paid homage to a number of games in the series, including a whole trio in the Crystal Palace, and various cameos like Ozma from Final Fantasy IX.

Now there's a chance that Square could easily use motifs from XII and Vagrant Story in the next two wings. But for now, we can revel in the return of Tactics -- a series that's popped up yet again recently with Ramza's appearance in Dissidia.

Final Fantasy XIV [YouTube]

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News:: The Morning After: Weekend Edition

Hey, good morning! You look fabulous.

Welcome to the weekend. In the US it's a holiday weekend, which we hope you'll take advantage of and have plenty of time to read back through all the big news from Gamescom and IFA. Plus, the Engadget Podcast is back from its summer break.

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News:: Nintendo and Western Digital bring branded SD cards to Switch

Nintendo has partnered with Western Digital on a line of officially official SanDisk microSDXC cards for its Switch console. What makes them so different? Well, Mario and Link are on the packaging and the 64-and-128 gigabyte cards have Nintendo branding printed on them. Nope, no 400GB cards featuring Wario just yet. And that's the extent of it. The cards will be available starting next month at "select retail outlets." If anything, this will make it easier for parents and family members to grab the right storage card when buying gifts come the holiday season.

Source: Nintendo

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