Ahead of its release next week, publisher XSeed Games has provided a look at the Mario crossover content in Story of Seasons: Trio of Towns.
As seen in the video below, players can obtain four different Mario-themed costumes to wear: Mario himself, Luigi, Peach, and Toad. Each provides its own unique buff when worn, as detailed below.
Mario - running speed boost
Luigi - fishing boost
Peach - become friends with other characters faster
Toad - stamina recharge boost
Trio of Towns is the latest game in Marvelous Entertainment's Story of Seasons series, which is known as Bokujo Monogatari in Japan. The series was previously localized in western markets as Harvest Moon, which is celebrating its 20-year anniversary this year. The Natsume-published games under that name are now developed by a separate team, with Marvelous's games coming to the West as Story of Seasons.
[UPDATE] The Fig crowdfunding campaign for Deadfire has now ended. It made $4,407,598 from 33,614 backers. $2.25 million came from investments and $2.15 million from traditional pledges.
In passing $4.25 million, Obsidian will now add a soulbound weapon to Deadfire. The $4.5 million stretch goal is for a ship crew feature, while a $4.75 million will unlock sea monsters and fishing.
Obsidian Entertainment's upcoming PC RPG Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire has passed another funding milestone. The game's crowdfunding campaign on Fig now has now cleared $4 million, making it the most successful fan-funded game on any site since 2015, the developer says.
It's also the most-funded game in Fig's history, though the site only launched in 2015. Unlike Kickstarter and Indiegogo, Fig allows people to acquire equity, allowing them to share in a game's success. At press time, Deadfire has raised $4.15 million from more than 31,600 backers.
It's no surprise that Deadfire is also Fig's most successful game in terms of equity funding; at press time, $2.14 million has come from "Fig Game Shares" and the remaining $2 million from traditional pledges.
If funding hits $4.25 million, Obsidian will add a "soulbound weapon," which is one that is "infused with a personality that can speak to you throughout your adventure."
Obsidian announced this week that Deadfire will have ships that players can use to travel throughout the sea, adding "open-world exploration and discovery" to the game.
"Your ship is a Dyrwoodan sloop called the Defiant, purchased for you by the Steward of Caed Nua, who has made the journey to help you (part of her, anyway) on your quest to hunt down Eothas, and is one of the first allies to join you on your adventure," Obsidian said. "The ship acts as your mobile base of operations, carrying you and your comrades wherever you command. Companions will stay on-board while not in your party, and you can even go below decks to your captain's quarters for rest and relaxation."
"You can customize, upgrade, and add personal touches to the Defiant. This includes changing your sails, painting your hull, and flying flags to show your personal colors/faction allegiance," the developer added. "You can also improve the performance of your cannons, sails, and hull, beyond just their cosmetic appearance."
Deadfire builds on the mechanics of the previous game and promises to offer "truly living cities [and] more freedom to explore the open world." You can read more about it here. A release is currently slated for the first quarter of 2018.
It's always interesting to hear about movie casting ideas that didn't come to be. We now know that New Line was initially looking at Lethal Weapon's Danny Glover to play Raiden in the 1995 Mortal Kombat movie, according to NetherRealm boss Ed Boon.
" They had some pretty wild suggestions for characters," Boon told IGN about his discussions with New Line. "I remember them saying they wanted Danny Glover to be Raiden."
The part ultimately went to Highlander actor Christopher Lambert.
The 1995 original Mortal Kombat from Paul W.S. Anderson made $70 million, while 1997 sequel Mortal Kombat: Annihilation did not do as well, with plans apparently scrapped for more installments. The series was eventually revived, with the Mortal Kombat: Legacy web series being the latest installment.
The Elder Scrolls Online has 8.5 million players, according to a report from MMORPG.com. The figure, which was revealed by game director Matt Firor, is based on copies sold, not just registered accounts.
According to MMORPG, The Elder Scrolls Online has 7 million players as of June 2016, so it's added 1.5 million new players in less than a year.
The site reported that Firor said the Elder Scrolls Online player population is split "fairly evenly" among all platforms: PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One.
Ubisoft has announced that it's hired a number of Telltale Games veterans who will bring a "wealth of storytelling expertise to Ubisoft San Francisco future projects."
"We are excited to welcome these strong industry veterans to our skilled team at Ubisoft San Francisco," Ubisoft San Francisco executive producer Francois Pelland said in a statement. "As we continue to expand our portfolio of games, we look to hire the best talent in the industry and infuse team members with a shared passion for development."
Telltale Games is located in San Rafael, California, which is not far from San Francisco.
Earlier this month, actor Patrick Stewart teased that he might not join Hugh Jackman in retiring from the X-Men series after Logan, saying he might play Professor X again. Now, he confirmed that won't be the case. He is retiring from the X-Men series, the actor has officially confirmed.
According to Entertainment Weekly, Stewart confirmed the news during an appearance on SiriusXM alongside Logan director James Mangold and co-star Jackman. Jackman also said again that he will end his run as Wolverine Logan.
"A week ago, Friday night in Berlin, the three of us sat, watching the movie," Stewart said. "And I was so moved by it, much more moved than I had been the first time of seeing it. Maybe it was the company of these two guys, but the movie ended and--this is an admission--but at one point [Hugh] reached out, and he took my hand in those last few minutes, and I saw him go [mimes wiping a tear from his eye] like this, and then I realized I had just done the same thing.
"Then, the movie ended… and we were going to be taken up on stage, but not until the credits were over. So, we had some time to sit there and, as I sat there I realized there will never be a better, a more perfect, a more sensitive, emotional, and beautiful way of saying au revoir to Charles Xavier than this movie. So, I told [Hugh] that same evening, 'I'm done too. It's all over.'"
Logan opens on March 3.
GameSpot's Logan review praised it for being brutal and grim, featuring outstanding performances by Jackman and Stewart.
"Logan continually subverts your expectations, but in its impactful ending, it still somehow feels like the only way the movie--and Wolverine's long journey--could end," GameSpot critic Randolph Ramsay said. "This is a film that elevates its genre, succeeding precisely because it's different, and because it strives to be the Wolverine movie fans have always wanted to see. Logan is a must-watch, and is not only a wonderful superhero movie, but a wonderful movie in its own right."
It's the weekend again. Here is a recap of some of the week's biggest stories and others you may have missed.
The Big Stuff:
Halo 6, or whatever Microsoft decides to call the next Halo FPS game, will have split-screen support. 343 boss Bonnie Ross made the announcement during a speech at DICE 2017 this week. Rejoice! [Full story]
The 2017 D.I.C.E. Awards were held on Thursday. Blizzard's hero shooter Overwatch took home overall Game of the Year. You can see a list of all the categories, nominees, and winners here. [Full story]
After years of development and multiple delays, BioWare's Mass Effect: Andromeda has gone gold, meaning the studio has completed initial development on the game. It comes out on March 21 for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC. [Full story]
The Other Stuff:
The Elder Scrolls Online's first free add-on of 2017, Homestead, has arrived on Xbox One and PS4. Check out the video below to see what it's all about.
The crowdfunding campaign for Pillars of Eternity 2 wrapped up on Friday night, ending its run with more than $4 million. The game is due out in 2018 for PC.
No more 30-second ads on YouTube, according to a new report. The change will go live in 2018, reportedly. Get all the details here at CNET.
Darknet, a cyberpunk virtual reality game, will launch for PlayStation VR on March 7, developer Archiact announced this week. It is priced at $15.
A Kickstarter campaign for the puzzle-platformer Prisma is now live. It focuses on speed and color-switching; sort of like Bit Trip, its developers say. Here's the campaign.
Darknet is an incredibly deep strategy/puzzle game that lets gamers play as an elite hacker contracted to retrieve data from the world's most secure networks. Players dive into the Net, install viruses, inject code, and hack their way through cybersecurity in an experience inspired by a classic cyberpunk vision of the future.
A handful of Telltale Games veterans have joined Ubisoft, the Assassin's Creed and Far Cry publisher announced this week. Read this blog post to get a full rundown of the news.
The fifth free story Operation for Battleborn, "Phoebe and the Heart of Ekkunar," launched this week on Xbox One, PS4, and PC. Read this blog post to get a full rundown of what to expect.
Polygon has a big, in-depth interview up with Final Fantasy XV director Hajime Tabata. He talks about the future of the game and more; read the interview here.
Hey, this is pretty cool. NetherRealm's Ed Boon has revealed that Danny Glover was almost cast in the Mortal Kombat movie as Raiden. Get the full story here at IGN.
Square Enix has announced a brand-new RPG IP called Project Prelude. Get all the details here from DualShockers.
Nioh is getting extra content in March. Read this story at IGN to see a full rundown of what's on the way.
Here is the first gameplay footage for the dino game Ark Park, which is a spinoff from Studio Wildcard's Ark: Survival Evolved. Looks pretty cool!
Nintendo Switch digital games cannot be shared on multiple systems, it seems. Read the story at Ars Technica to find out more. The report comes just a week for the console arrives on March 3.
The Double Jeopardy section of a recent episode of Jeopardy was all about video games. That's pretty cool. If you missed it, here's a recap on Reddit.
Nintendo is hosting a video broadcast next week where it will celebrate indie games. The "Nindies Showcase," as it's being called, takes place February 28 at 9 AM PT. You can stream it here.
Mass Effect Andromeda has no level cap and lets you respec--that's pretty cool. You can learn more about that here at PC Gamer.
Producer Simon Kinberg has shared some new insight on Deadpool 2 and New Mutants.
Speaking to Collider, Kinberg said both should enter production sometime in 2017 and release in 2018. For New Mutants, the team is currently waiting on a new draft of the script. Josh Boone (The Fault In Our Stars) is directing.
For Deadpool 2, Ryan Reynolds and the writing team have been "working hard on the script," Kinberg said. The movie is being directed by David Leitch (John Wick), who takes over for the first movie's director, Tim Miller.
"We have a really good script for that movie, and we're into the casting process right now for some of the new characters," he explained. "There aren't a lot of new characters, but there are some big ones, as I'm sure you can imagine. And the plan would be to shoot that movie this year as well and have it come out next year.
"So potentially next year you will have a surfeit of X-Men and X-Men-related movies in theaters."
Blizzard continues to tease Overwatch's new character, this time by updating the public test realm version of the game.
There appear to be at least two significant changes to the Numbani map. The first comes in the spawn room for the attacking team. There, you can see the aftermath of the attack that was covered in a faux news report Blizzard shared earlier today.
Elsewhere on the map, the payload cart has been updated to reflect changes that were first discovered by dataminers earlier this month. The glass containing Doomfist's gauntlet has been smashed, with nothing left inside. We've verified this on the PTR for ourselves, and you can see some images of the two scenes in the gallery above.
The speculation for some time now has been that Doomfist would be the game's next playable character. Director Jeff Kaplan appeared to pour cold water on that theory recently when he said the character is "not who you think it is."
An eBay flash sale is underway for the next few hours that essentially lets you create your own deal.
Using the promo code CFEBFLASH10OFF, you can take $10 off any purchase of $50 or more when you pay with PayPal. There are some restrictions outlined here, but you're free to use this on games, systems, and more.
Alternatively, you can put that $10 off toward something like an Xbox Live Gold or PlayStation Plus membership. With their prices already discounted from some sellers, 12 months for either of those will run you about $41 with the promo code.
As a flash sale, this offer runs for only a very limited time--the promo code expires today, February 24, at 6 PM PT/9 PM ET.
Mass Effect: Andromeda has reached "gold" status, meaning BioWare has completed its initial development on the highly anticipated action-RPG. The developer confirmed this on Twitter today with a picture of a golden Pathfinder character.
In other news, BioWare has released a new video that goes over the basics of weapons and combat. The video below talks about the four main types of weapons (pistols, shotguns, assault rifles, and sniper rifles), as well as melee items, special abilities, and more.
[UPDATE] Here is a picture of the Pikachu party hat:
The original story is below.
To celebrate Pokemon Day next week, Niantic will hold an event inside of Pokemon Go. Starting on February 26, every Pikachu that players encounter in the game will be wearing a "festive party hat."
If you catch Pikachu during the event, you will get to keep its party hat forever, The Pokemon Company announced on its website. The event ends on March 6. Unfortunately, The Pokemon Company did not share a picture of Pikachu's hat; we'll add it to this story if it's made available.
Pokemon Day is February 27. That is the 21st anniversary of the series, which debuted in Japan in 1996.
This is not the first time that Niantic has given Pikachu a special hat as part of a limited-time event. Last year's Pokemon Go holiday event let players catch a version of Pikachu that wears a festive hat. The Christmas Pikachu could be evolved into a hat-wearing version of Raichu, though it remains to be seen if that can happen with the new party hat.
Filming has begun on the untitled Jurassic World sequel due out in 2018.
Star Bryce Dallas Howard, who played Claire in the first movie and reprises the role in the sequel, tweeted a picture from the set today. Today was her first day of filming.
"We have an asset out of containment. Put ACU on alert. This not a drill."
Jurassic World 2 is directed by JA Bayona (Orphan), who takes over for the first movie's director, Colin Trevorrow; he is directing 2019's Star Wars: Episode IX.
The Jurassic World sequel also brings back Chris Pratt. Last week, it was reported that veteran actor James Cromwell (24, Babe) was cast. Before that, we learned that Toby Jones (Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets) and Rafe Spall (Prometheus) joined the sequel.
Little is known about the plot. Trevorrow, who is producing the sequel, said last year that the movie aims to be "more suspenseful and scary." In an earlier interview, he said it may go in something of a new direction.
"The audience has given us permission to a certain extent to take this to the next level, and I don't necessarily mean in scale," he said. "I feel very strongly that it's not about more dinosaurs or bigger and better dinosaurs, it's about using this as a starting point for a much larger story about our relationship with these animals.
"Jurassic World was very much made with the fans in mind, and I'm not going to forget it, but now we've seen a lot of 'dinosaurs chasing people around on an island' movies. I think you guys and also the general audience is going to be down to explore where else we can go."
Jurassic World 2 opens on June 22, 2018.
Jurassic World currently stands as the fourth biggest movie of all time, bringing in $1.6 billion at the global box office. It was the first new entry in the series since 2001's Jurassic Park III. The franchise is based on Michael Crichton's 1990 novel.
February 24 is also know as Twin Peaks Day, based on the date that Agent Dale Cooper first entered the iconic town in the cult TV show. To celebrate, Showtime have released two new posters in advance of its return in May. One features Laura Palmer (Sheryl Lee) as she looked during its original run, while the other shows an older Cooper (Kyle McLachlan). Check them out below:
The two-hour premiere of the new season debuts on Showtime on May 21 at 9 PM ET. In the build-up to that, the channel are broadcasting the first two seasons with back-to-back episodes every Sunday at 7 PM ET.
In a recent interview with IGN, actress Madchen Amick, who plays Shelly Johnson, spoke about her emotional return to the show. "The first few days back on set I was crying the whole time," she said. "I was constantly fighting tears the whole time. It was touching, it was moving, it was surreal that we get the opportunity to revisit it and revisit it in a way that is appropriate for the show and celebrates the show that isn't just a comeback or a reunion.
"It's not a reboot. It's just now seeing the characters 25 years later and seeing what they've been up to. People that love Twin Peaks will enjoy it and they'll get to see a lot of stuff obviously that they are familiar with. But for a new audience that comes to it, they're just going to love it for what it is at this point."
The M-rated arcade hockey game Old Time Hockey will launch on PlayStation 4 and PC on March 28, developer V7 Entertainment announced this week. The game comes to Xbox One in Q2 2017 (April-June), with a Nintendo Switch edition arriving "at a later date."
A new trailer was also released, showcasing the '70s vibe that it's going for. You'll notice some skaters don't have helmets and there are a lot of fights. It looks fun.
Old Time Hockey offers a variety of control options. You can use a "more modern style" or select a two-button scheme. There is also a "beer mode," which lets you play with one hand for obvious reasons.
Old Time Hockey supports local co-op, though there is no word on an online mode. Additionally, a "hijinks-filled" story mode has you competing as the worst team in the Bush Hockey League.
The names for the game's 10 Bush League teams have been announced, along with descriptions. You can see all of them below, written by the developer.
Old Time Hockey Bush League Teams:
Cascadia Timber Cats – INDEPENDENT STATE OF MIND
The Cascadia Timer Cats are based in Seattle, Washington. The Timber Cats were originally called the Seattle Chuckanuts and were the farm team of the historic Vancouver Urbanites.
Charlestown Stonemasons – NEW ENGLAND, STAND UP!
The Charlestown Stonemasons are based in Charlestown, Massachusetts and are the most recent expansion team of the BHL. The Stonemasons' management is unanimously hated by all general managers of the BHL due to the secrecy with which they conduct their business.
Cobalt Silvers – EASTERN ONTARIO REPRESENT
The Cobalt Silvers are based in Ontario's Most Historic Town, Cobalt. The team was founded by miners with newfound gains from silver rushing and was once the richest team in the BHL.
Fort Edward Bluenosers – WHERE HOCKEY WAS BORN
The Fort Edward Bluenosers are based in the National Historic Site of Canada--Windsor, Nova Scotia. The Bluenosers' founders played a pivotal role in developing the game from Ice Hurley to Ice Hockey as we know it today.
Long Island Rumrunners - LONG ISLAND ALWAYS STRONG!
The Long Island Rumrunners are based in Long Island, New York and was established during the Prohibition era by the owners of various speakeasies on the Island.
Moose Jaw Farmhands – WELCOME TO THE JAW
The Moose Jaw Farmhands are based in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan and represent Hockey's roots on the farm.
Portage Lake Widowmakers – WHERE COPPER MEETS FIRE
The Portage Lake Widowmakers are based in Houghton, Michigan, the heart of Copper Country. Portage Lake, along with Cobalt, is credited as the birthplace of professional hockey.
Quebec Voyous – ALLEZ LEZ BEAUCERONS
Les Voyous de Québec sont situés dans la région historique de la Beauce au Québec. Les Voyous de Quebec are based in the historical Beauce region of Quebec and are notoriously known for not providing a safe stadium environment for English speaking fans!
Schuylkill Hinto Brews – WELCOME TO THE SKOOK
The Schuylkill Hinto Brews are based in Pottsville, Pennsylvania and are sponsored by the local brewery "The Hinto Brewing Company."
Warroad Ice Anglers – WHERE WE BLEED HOCKEY
The Warroad Ice Anglers are based in Warroad, Minnesota and are one of the original two teams of the BHL. Warroad has a legendary status as the first town where real Hockey was played.
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