!.06-GameSpot - All Content

!.06-GameSpot - All Content

Leaked Nintendo Memo Confirms Why Rare Cut Stop 'N' Swop From Banjo-Kazooie

Posted: 26 Jan 2021 10:38 AM PST

Banjo-Kazooie's Stop 'N' Swop feature is one of the most infamous pieces of cut content in video game history, and it's been the subject of fan speculation for decades. Now, thanks to the Rare fansite Rare Gamer, a leaked communication between Nintendo and developer Rare reveals why the feature was cut from Banjo-Tooie and other games at the twilight of the Nintendo 64, and the results are quite interesting.

As Eurogamer explains, the idea of Stop 'N' Swop itself was rather simple: players who achieved 100% completion in Banjo-Kazooie were treated to a special scene that showed Banjo walking into three previously-sealed areas. However, those areas remained inaccessible for the player, which prompted confusion from fans. Rare eventually explained on its website that players would be able to access these areas by swapping out their Banjo-Tooie cartridge for their Banjo-Kazooie cart, allowing them to take the goodies within back into Banjo-Tooie, where they could be used to great effect.

As the above leaked missive reveals, however, Nintendo had serious concerns about the technical feasibility of Stop 'n' Swop. "There is no way we can guarantee that the RDRAM will retain data long enough...for the feature to work," it reads in part. "There is also a risk of damage to both the console and the game pak should the swap be made while power is still on." The writer goes on to suggest using a passcode system to achieve the desired interconnectivity between the games.

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Elgato Wave 3 Microphone Gets A Sweet Discount To Cap Off January

Posted: 26 Jan 2021 10:05 AM PST

When it comes to streaming microphones, there aren't many options better than the Elgato Wave 3 microphone, thanks to its easy-to-use onboard controls, Clipguard tech, and impressive audio. If you've been interested in snagging yourself a quality new microphone, then you can get the Elgato Wave 3 microphone for $140, down from its regular price of $160. The Wave 3 doesn't often see discounts of any kind and has been known to sell out quickly. With the current pandemic, it's hard to know when items will restock.

Elgato Wave 3 microphone

$140 (was $160)

The Elgato Wave 3 features a capacitive mute button on top in addition to a single knob that performs the majority of its other functions, including mic volume, headset volume, and sound mix. It also boasts Elgato's Clipguard technology, which helps prevent clipping during intense moments. For example, if you become excited by a clutch win or scream at a jump scare, the microphone will prevent your audio from becoming distorted.

Another great aspect of the Wave 3 is its compatibility with Elgato's Wave Link software. This gives you the ability to adjust levels, filters, and sources from your PC and output them to your stream. If you want to exclude certain things from your viewers' ears, such as your friends' voice chat or any music, then you can do that with Wave Link.

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Sea of Thieves Is Getting Seasons, Here's What That Means

Posted: 26 Jan 2021 10:02 AM PST

Sea of Thieves' first-ever season is starting on January 28, and fans are curious what exactly that means for the pirate adventure game. A new blog post from developer Rare explains how this new seasonal model will work, and it's going to bring big changes to the game.

Essentially, the blog post explains that each season will last around three months, and it will bring new features, rewards, and events to Sea of Thieves. Each season will have its own progression track, and players will advance through that track by earning Renown, a new metric that's separate from the game's existing loot system. However, if players want to earn even more loot from completing the 100 levels of Renown, they can purchase the game's Plunder Pass to obtain more cosmetic items. Said Plunder Pass will cost 999 Ancient Coins, or $9.99.

This basically means that the game is switching to the battle pass model that has been embraced by many popular multiplayer games, most notably Fortnite. According to the post, this move to a seasonal progression system is designed to make players feel as though they've accomplished something in every play session, even when all their loot gets swiped by another vessel.

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Nvidia's Latest Patch Prepares Your PC For The Medium

Posted: 26 Jan 2021 09:59 AM PST

Nvidia has released its latest Game Ready Driver for both desktop and laptop GPUs, with support for Bloober Team's The Medium.

The latest driver ensures the best performance for The Medium when it launches later this week on PC, including support for its ray tracing and DLSS features. The Medium is also launching on Xbox Series X and Series S, and will be available on Xbox Games Pass across PC and console.

In tandem with support for The Medium, the latest driver also launches alongside the first RTX 30-series powered laptops. Nvidia announced Max-Q designs for the RTX 3080, 3070, and 3060 earlier this year, with some of the first laptops with the chips launching today and through early February.

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Cyberpunk 2077's Official Modding Tools Are Out Now

Posted: 26 Jan 2021 09:33 AM PST

Cyberpunk 2077 developer CD Projekt Red has released official modding tools for the dystopian RPG, letting players create their own custom content.

Since launch there have been many third-party mods for Cyberpunk 2077, including one that allowed you to play the game (badly) in third-person. With the official tools out now, the flood gates are open to custom quest content, asset swaps, and more. CD Projekt Red says the toolset will be updated with the game, meaning mod compatibility should not be an issue.

This comes on the heels of the first big patch for Cyberpunk 2077, which aimed to start addressing some of the game's most pressing stability, performance, and scripting issues. Although Patch 1.1 did help some players, it has inadvertently introduced a new game-breaking bug that can halt your main story progress. CD Projekt Red is aware of it and has released a workaround for the issue until a proper fix is released.

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Celeste Dev Releases Sequel to Celeste Classic To Celebrate Third Anniversary

Posted: 26 Jan 2021 09:32 AM PST

The team behind the hit hard-as-nails platformer Celeste are celebrating the third anniversary of the game's release, and they've made a quick sequel to the game's 8-bit progenitor as part of the festivities. If you've played Celeste, you might have encountered the 8-bit version on the fictional PICO-8 video game console as a little extra.

What many people don't know is that the PICO-8 game, which was built in three days as part of a game jam, was actually the prototype for the entire Celeste project. This sequel, titled Celeste 2: Lani's Trek, features a completely new core mechanic and playable character. Lani obtains a grappling hook early on in Celeste 2, and it quickly becomes your main method of traversal. However, Lani can also use the grappling hook to grab items, including snowballs and spring platforms, which quickly ramps up the complexity of the game.

Celeste 2: Lani's Quest is available for free on developer Maddy Thorson's Itch page. Though the game defaults to keyboard controls, we recommend using your preferred controller, because it requires pinpoint precision just to get past the first few screens. According to Thorson and co-developer Noel Berry, Celeste 2 was built in just a few days, and it was inspired by a community event for the anniversary of Celeste that was organized by fans of the 2018 game. Late last year, Thorson published a blog post that explored the gender identity of the game's trans protagonist Madeline, and how that overlapped with their own experience.

Black Widow's Runtime Clocks In At Just Over Two Hours

Posted: 26 Jan 2021 09:17 AM PST

Black Widow, the next MCU movie set to release in theaters, will have a runtime of two hours and 13 minutes, according to Disney's UK site. This is hopefully the start of a trend of MCU movies coming more and more into focus, as opposed to the 2020 trend of delays and deferrals. Provided Black Widow indeed comes out as currently expected on May 7, 2021, that release date alone represents the film coming out a full year after it was originally expected and then pushed back due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Black Widow is a prequel, and as anyone who's seen Avengers: Endgame knows, star Scarlett Johansson is unlikely to return for many more Marvel films. Fortunately, Black Widow is just a codename for a group of highly trained Russian agents, and this film is expected to tell their story, which is set at some point after the events of 2016's Captain America: Civil War. Aside from the fuzziest of plot points, the movie seems to be about Johansson's character, Natasha Romanoff, confronting her history as a spy and the broken relationships she left behind to become an Avenger.

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Open-World Kung Fu RPG Biomutant Launches On May 25

Posted: 26 Jan 2021 09:08 AM PST

Publisher THQ Nordic has stamped a release date on the long-in-development open-world critter brawler Biomutant. The game is slated to drop on May 25 for PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One. THQ Nordic didn't clarify if the game is coming to PlayStation 5 or Xbox Series X|S.

Alongside announcing Biomutant's release date, THQ Nordic shared two editions players can preorder right now from the game's website: the Atomic Edition and Collector's Edition. The $120 Collector's Edition comes with the base game, figurine, soundtrack, the official artwork on a piece of fabric, and a premium box to store everything in. At $400, the Atomic Edition comes with the same artwork fabric, soundtrack, and game, but it also packages a 12-inch tall dioramic action scene statue, steelbook case, large or extra-large t-shirt, oversized mousepad, and a premium box. Check the images below to get a good look at what's in both editions.

Gallery
Gallery image 1 Gallery image 2

Initially revealed in August 2017, Biomutant is the first game by Swedish developer Experiment 101. Despite making an appearance at a few industry tradeshows since its reveal, including a lengthy gameplay video during Gamescom 2018, Experiment 101 never tagged a release date to Biomutant. However, in June 2020, Experiment 101 creative director Stefan Ljungqvist told said that the game was almost done.

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Last Of Us 2 Leads DICE Award Nominees; See The Full List Of GOTY Finalists

Posted: 26 Jan 2021 08:31 AM PST

2020 has ended, but we're not finished celebrating the year's games. The Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences has announced the nominees for this year's 24th annual D.I.C.E. Awards, and Naughty Dog's The Last of Us Part II leads the way with 11 total nods, including Game of the Year.

In total, 57 different games received nominations in 2020, but it was The Last of Us Part II that led all others with 11 nominations. In addition to Game of the Year, The Last of Us Part II was nominated for Outstanding Achievement in Animation, Outstanding Achievement in Art Direction, Outstanding Achievement in Character (for Abby and Ellie), Outstanding Achievement in Audio Design, Outstanding Achievement in Story, Outstanding Technical Achievement, Adventure Game of the Year, Outstanding Achievement in Game Design, and Outstanding Achievement in Game Direction.

Another Sony exclusive, Ghost of Tsushima, follows behind with 10 nominations. Games that received five nominations include Half Life: Alyx, Spider-Man: Miles Morales, and Ori and the Will of the Wisps.

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Home Improvement Stars Reunite For History Channel Competition Series

Posted: 26 Jan 2021 08:30 AM PST

Because '90s nostalgia never loses its potency, Home Improvement stars Tim Allen (Tim "The Tool Man" Taylor) and Richard Karn (Al Borland) will be reuniting as hosts of Assembly Required, a new History Channel competition series debuting February 23. Check out the latest trailer for the show, which was released Monday.

According to the show's official synopsis, Allen and Karn will "spotlight the best and brightest makers from across the country, as they compete head-to-head, to create mind-blowing builds which not only pushes each builder beyond their limits but challenges their inner fixer and inventor to build it bigger, better and more powerful." The pair will be joined by DIY YouTube star April Wilerson, and the show has been ordered to run for 10 episodes.

Devoted Home Improvement fans likely don't need this pointed out, but History Channel has also been advertising that Assembly Required is kicking off on the 30th anniversary year of Home Improvement, which first debuted back on September 17, 1991. That's more than a full four years before Allen became an even bigger household name as Toy Story's Buzz Lightyear--a character who it was recently announced will be getting a surprising spin-off on June 17, 2022.

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Fortnite Crew Getting New Fox Clan Member Vi Next Week

Posted: 26 Jan 2021 08:27 AM PST

Epic has announced the next exclusive skin for Fortnite Crew subscribers, Vi of the Fox Clan. The colorful (and very thematic) warrior comes equipped with some specialty items that you can mix and match with your other skins, along with other subscriber benefits.

Vi will be available starting January 31 at 7 PM ET, and will rotate out again at the end of February. In addition to the V skin itself, you'll also get the Foxbow Quiver Back Bling, Crooked Claw Pickaxe, and Drift Shift Wrap. Those cosmetics are in addition to the regular benefits of access like the current battle pass and 1,000 V-Bucks.

Fortnite Crew is a recurring $12 per month subscription fee that began in November. The 1,000 V-Buck bonus is delivered every month upon your resubscription date.

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Dark Fantasy RPG King Arthur: Knight's Tale Out Now On Steam Early Access

Posted: 26 Jan 2021 08:20 AM PST

After a slight delay, King Arthur: Knight's Tale has entered Steam Early Access on PC. Described as a hybrid between turn-based tactical games and more traditional character-centric RPGs by its developer NeoCore Games, King Arthur: Knight's Tale also has a darker spin on classic Arthurian mythology as players lead Sir Mordred in a quest to gather the Knights of the Round Table and rebuild the kingdom of Camelot.

The Early Access version of the game currently includes features from the very beginning of the campaign, including two story missions and several side missions, seven playable heroes from four different classes, a level cap of 5, and some of the Camelot management mechanics. Inspired by games such as XCOM, King Arthur: Knight's Tale also focuses heavily on managing your heroes, their skills, and growth.

A permadeath system places a strong focus on not only fine-tuning each hero so that they can survive each battle, but their loyalty can shift during the course of the game, possibly even deserting your group and eventually turning against you.

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Intergalactic Factory Sim Dyson Sphere Program Is Off To A Strong Start On Steam

Posted: 26 Jan 2021 08:13 AM PST

The space-based Factorio-like Dyson Sphere Program has garnered serious traction on Steam, with over 200,000 copies sold in two days. Released back on January 21 in Early Access, Dyson Space Program is a factory simulator similar to Satisfactory and Factorio, where players are challenged to build an industrial installation that rapidly escalates in automation and complexity.

Dyson Sphere Program sets itself apart from its competitors by taking place at a galactic scale. The ultimate goal of the game is to build titular Dyson Spheres, which are hypothetical constructs from the pages of sci-fi author Olaf Stapledon. Theoretically, if humanity could build a gigantic sphere around a given star, we could harness much of the star's power output to meet the energy requirements inherent to intergalactic travel.

Several of the game's Steam reviews describe Dyson Space Program as a step forward for the factory-building genre. However, they note that the game lacks certain quality-of-life features that players might expect, such as the ability to easily dismantle groups of buildings.

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Fallout 76 Patch Notes: Stash Limit Increased, Bugs Fixed, And More

Posted: 26 Jan 2021 08:08 AM PST

The latest patch for Bethesda's Fallout 76 has arrived, and it's a big one. The new update is out now on all platforms, and one of the main changes is that the Stash limit has been increased to 1,200 pounds, which will enable you to carry more loot on your journey.

Another highlight is a UI change that makes it easier to view your inventory. There are now three tabs in your inventory, one each for "New," "Armor," and "Food/Drink." The game will also now show you the total weight of the items in your inventory when you stack them. Additionally, vending machines on the map now show you how many 1-, 2-, and 3-star items they have available, so you can set out knowing what's in stock.

The Fallout 76 build mode also gets an update that adds blue outlines, replacing the green ones, to help players who are colorblind to more easily identify the pieces.

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Spike Lee Is Being Turned Into A Funko Pop

Posted: 26 Jan 2021 08:00 AM PST

Blackkklansman director Spike Lee is getting a Funko Pop. Lee is the latest filmmaker to be turned into one of the hugely popular vinyl figures.

The Spike Lee Funko will be available in May and will retail at $11. If you're willing to wait until June, Walmart is selling preorders for $9. It's wearing the distinctive purple suit and hat that Lee wore to the 2019 Academy Awards, where Blackkklansman won the Best Adapted Screenplay Oscar. The Spike Funko also has knuckle rings displaying the words "Love" and "Hate,'' which is a reference to Lee's classic 1989 movie Do the Right Thing. It was announced as part of the company's Funko Fair 2021 event.

Spike Lee Funko Pop

$9

See at Walmart

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