The Spotlight Hour in Pokémon Go is a weekly event that will highlight one, special, surprise Pokémon. For one hour, the chosen Pokémon will appear more frequently in the wild, allowing you to catch as many as you can. This could help you fill in a missing entry in the Pokédex or find a strong Pokémon for raiding. Due to the chosen Pokémon being a mystery and the power of time zones, we won't know which Pokémon has been chosen until the morning UK time on the day of the Spotlight Hour. Like the established Community Day event, Spotlight Hour is designed to get players out playing Pokémon Go as part of a community. On this page:
If you're after more weekly events, there is also Raid Hour on Wednesdays and the Mystery Bonus on Thursdays.
Pokémon Go's next Spotlight Hour: Time and featured Pokémon explained
Here's everything you need to know about the next Spotlight Day: Featured Pokémon: Increased spawns for everything Date: Tuesday, February 11th Time: 6pm to 7pm local time How useful is increased spawns? The third Spotlight Hour appears to work a little differently, increasing the spawns of every Pokémon, not just one type as with previous weeks. This means you should see Pokémon everywhere, as an early look on reddit suggests, without having to make much effort to explore - so even if you don't want to leave the house, it might be worth opening the app to see what's nearby. There doesn't appear to be anything particular rare appearing more often, so just use it as an opportunity to catch more of... anything and everything. If you are planning to take advantage of the hour, then putting on a Star Piece is not a bad shout. Pokémon Go in 2020 continues to add new features, such the arrival of the Go Battle League - which is currently highlighting the Ultra League - and soon, Clone Pokémon. We've also recently had the Buddy Adventure feature, which introduces a variety of perks - including finding Souvenirs - as well as a new trade evolution feature. 2019 saw the release of the first Gen 5 Pokémon, along with new regional exclusive Pokémon, Egg charts, and the introduction of the Unova Stone. Pokemon Go also sees regular events - including weekly Spotlight Hour and Mystery Bonus evenings, monthly Field Research rewards and Pokémon Go Community Day, plus a new Giovanni counters quest - the latest being A Professor's Work Is Never Done.
How to prepare for a Spotlight Hour in Pokémon Go
If you're planning on taking part in a Spotlight Hour, then there's a couple of ways you can prepare for the event. The first is to ensure that you have enough Poké Balls and berries. You only have an hour to catch as many of the chosen Pokémon as possible - you don't want to waste it spinning PokéStops. The second is to ensure that you have space left in your Pokémon Storage Box. Just like with items, you don't want to waste some of the Spotlight Hour transferring unwanted Pokémon, especially if you're planning on catching a lot of Pokémon. Third and finally, it's worth checking to see if you have any spare lures. Using a lure will increase the amount of Pokémon you encounter in the wild for half an hour, so, if you use one during the Spotlight Hour, it should also help you encounter more of the mystery Pokémon.
Previous Pokémon Go Spotlight Hour Pokémon
So you have an idea of what to expect in future, here's a list of all previous Pokémon Go Spotlight Hour Pokémon since the feature's debut in February 2020:
February 4th - Onix
February 11th - Spoink
If you're after more weekly events, there is also Raid Hour on Wednesdays and the Mystery Bonus on Thursdays.
Kunai throws a grappling hook and a fair amount of style into the Metroidvania genre for a solid if not stellar example of the form.
Don't judge this on its premise alone. Kunai, which has just come out on PC and console, is a cutesy Metroidvania with a knowingly primitive palette and pixel art style. You'd be forgiven for falling asleep halfway through that sentence - I had to have a little nap myself as soon I typed that dreaded M word - but Kunai deserves more than that. Judge it by its toys and then you've got something worth paying attention to.
These things are exquisite. Kunai's been a staple of showfloors for a while, perhaps because it's one of those rarer Metroidvanias that acquits itself well to short, sharp bursts of play, thanks mainly to how good it feels second-to-second in the hand. And for that you can thank those kunai, wisely put in your hands in the opening minutes of this short adventure, that give the exploration here a flavour of its own.
Because here these kunai are effectively grappling hooks, and what game hasn't been improved by a good grappling hook? Kunai's even better because it effectively gives you two, with one in each hand allowing you to grab on to scenery and catapult yourself to higher ground, or simply to swing one hook at a time to get behind a pesky enemy. Combine that with a katana that can deflect bullets and you've got quite the moveset in those opening moments, and one that only opens up as you move on.
T he only problem is, the more you move on the more typical a Metroidvania Kunai becomes. It's never a bad example of the form; indeed, Kunai is bursting with character. You can see it in lead character's face, Tabby's blank tablet giving way to flashes of emotion as you bounce through expansive levels. Just look at it! There they are grinning away as you arc through ruins, straining as you cling on to a ledge or breaking out in wide-eyed joy when you discover one of the many hidden hats squirreled away in far-flung corners of the map.
There's more than a dash of Game Boy Color vibe to Kunai's palette, and it works wonders. There's an endearing aesthetic that ties it all together too, a limited palette of muted blues and greens offset by vivid reds that can often make Kunai striking to behold. Tying all that together is a post-apocalyptic tale with a cutesy edge that quickly runs out of steam - just as Kunai's more striking ideas seem to be front-loaded as it soon becomes a more standard Metroidvania blend of backtracking with the occasional boss thrown in for good measure.
Still, there's enough here to warrant a look, and it's all been compiled with the right amount of craft and care. On the Switch where I played through Kunai there's no shortage of similar games, and I wouldn't really say this troubles the best of them. What it did do, though, over the course of a quiet morning spent gently exploring as the frost thawed outside, was remind me why Metroidvanias have remained so appealing, and what pleasures there are to be found poking around a good example of the form.
Dragon Ball FighterZ is getting a third season of DLC characters, and publisher Bandai Namco has announced two of the characters coming to the game. First up is Kefla, who launches on 28th February - or two days earlier if you have FighterZ Pass 3. She's a Saiyan fusion between Caulifla and Kal, and is lifted from the Dragon Ball Super anime. Ultra Instinct Goku (we knew this Goku was coming) is supposedly Goku's ultimate form. His eyes turn silver and he's got a crystalline aura. It's all very god-like. Check out both Kefla and Ultra Instinct Goku in the trailer below:
Big changes are coming to the gameplay in Arc System Works' wonderful 3v3 fighting game, too. Chief among them is the addition of Z Assist Select, which lets you select a character's assist attack (each character has three different assist attacks you choose from at character select). This should enable new combos and strategies, Bandai Namco said, and discourage players from picking characters just for their assists. Bandai Namco said it's also "making adjustments" that prevent one-sided games caused by specific powerful attacks and combinations, and is adding "a specific feature" that gives players a chance even with one charactaer left.
At this rate very little will remain a surprise for the launch of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare's second season, as another leak has provided details of new maps - along with a hint that night maps could possibly be reintroduced.
Following an accidental data dump on the Call of Duty website over the weekend, the new leak again comes from an official source via an Activision account on Xbox Live. As spotted by Call of Duty Tracker, the season 2 trailer confirms Rust will be making an appearance in season two, along with three other multiplayer maps: Atlas Superstore, Bazaar, and Zhokov Boneyard. While the trailer's fairly light on details, Atlas Superstore looks like an adaptation of the location from Spec Ops' Operation Paladin, and is set among warehouse crates in a Russian shopping centre. Bazaar, meanwhile, is located in the fictional middle eastern country of Urzikstan and will be playable in Gunfight mode. Zhokov Boneyard looks like it'll be a little grander in scale, as a reimagined version of the boneyard from the 16th mission of the Modern Warfare 2 campaign. And then, of course, there's Rust - the remake of the famous map from Modern Warfare 2. Brace yourselves, as I expect we'll also see the return of plenty of 1v1 memes. Although brief, a snippet of the trailer suggests night maps will be reintroduced to multiplayer in season two, having been removed from rotation on the game's release day back in October. While no formal reason was given for their removal at the time, it was likely down to the sheer difference in playstyle between regular and night vision maps - and a brief reintroduction via Hardcore mode didn't go down well with players. Infinity Ward did promise night maps would eventually be reintroduced via a separate playlist, and it looks like that time could be now. Given night vision technology was one of the main features of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare's marketing campaign (and was highly praised by those who tried the multiplayer beta), it would be great to see the feature make a return - hopefully when the second season starts tomorrow.
The Double-A Team is a feature series honouring the unpretentious, mid-budget, gimmicky commercial action games that no-one seems to make any more. You can catch up with all of our Double-A Team pieces in our handy, spangly archive. I can't be sure I'm remembering this right, but I think the penultimate level in The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, where you're holed up in a hilltop ruin outside the Black Gate of Mordor trying to buy Frodo some time, is one of those levels where the waves of enemies will go on forever unless you do something to trigger the next stage. Right or wrong, that's how I remember it, and it's great. Return of the King was one of those games you could more or less break if you played enough of it. I remember unlocking Mithril Arrows - a ridiculous concept if you ask any Tolkein nerd but then, why would you do that? - and they had the added bonus of passing through enemies and making them explode. Arrows that pass through enemies! And make them explode! Cue hours upon hours of Legolas standing at the back of that little ruin, pelting Uruk-hai with magic pink arrows and chuckling to himself - I'd imagine - about how endlessly, stupidly fun it is just to do that over and over again.
Much of Return of the King's magic lives in that moment, and the various ways in which it's repeated over the course of the game. There's a very base, intuitive part of the mind that those types of pseudo-horde-mode battles seem to tap into. The same thing that makes me love bridges in RTS games, because they make for the perfect choke points to put turrets or spearmen or archers and walls in front of. Or the same thing that makes all the ridiculous multi-stage traps you can make in Minecraft so popular. Or the likes of Plants vs Zombies far more compelling than they've any right to be. Return of the King was pure hack and slash - very pure hack and slash; there's almost nothing else to it really - and mix that in with the perfect setting in Peter Jackson's action-y, siege-heavey vision for Middle Earth and its just pure, slightly infantile heaven. There are other nice little things it did, in fairness. The sheer closeness to the films, given their own sort of video gameyness, is an obvious one. There are some shots the game recreated almost exactly, albeit with all the jagged unsubtlety of the PS2's visuals added on top. And more than that there was a proper fleshing out of all the bits you wished they fleshed out when you were that dorky pre-teen playing Aragorn in the playground: more time on the fringes of the world - always the best bits, to me - with the army of the dead (don't ask how you can hit them in the games; it doesn't matter), or at the Southern Gate. That in itself seems like a genuine achievement, seeing as EA's rights were limited to just the stuff explicitly referenced in the films themselves. Then there was a decent little sprinkling of RPG elements in there too, which seems oddly prescient now, given the ubiquity of the three-path skill tree today.
Still, from Helm's Deep (all-time banger) to Minas Tirith's courtyard (underappreciated gem), Return of the King was always about the siege. At the risk of sounding all "back in my day", there are few if any games now that do what Return of the King did then - because it is a bit repetitive. It is a bit basic. A bit rubbish. In a literal sense, by all modern standards, it is arguably just straight-up bad - but let that be cause for a lesson, I say: that the literal sense is often the worst one. (I appreciate I sound like Gandalf right now.) Anything with a system you can game into breaking point - like grinding for those Mithril Arrows, for instance, or just sitting at a chokepoint forever - is now a game that has too much cheese, that's too imbalanced. Too simple and unrefined. In 2003 it seemed to just work. Perhaps that's just 2003. But as much as it was a case of perfect timing with Return of the King, right after the massive success of Jackson's films, and as much as it bottled the feel of their extraordinary world and nailed the exact tastes of the time, I do think part of it is down to us. Sometimes the quest for complexity can get in the way of the quest for fun.
CD Projekt has become the second-largest video game company in Europe, second only to Ubisoft, in terms of its market valuation. Though it was valued at $6.8 billion (£5.2bn) just a month ago, it's now hit $8 billion (£6.1bn) following the release of the acclaimed The Witcher 3 on Nintendo Switch - sending its sales rocketing by 500 per cent - and the success of its Netflix show (thanks, reddit). The highly-anticipated Cyberpunk 2077, despite its recent delay, has also likely had an impact. Ubisoft, on the other hand, is currently valued at around $9.6 billion (£7.4bn). In other CD Projekt news, the developer recently introduced The Witcher 3 save file integration between Switch and PC, via Steam and GOG. Sadly, there's no such good news for console players. The reason for this is because the option was "designed for the Switch version specifically, together with Saber Interactive - the team which was closely cooperating with us on the Switch port," CD Projekt said. "There are no plans regarding similar functionality in the other versions of The Witcher 3."
It's the most wonderful time of year: February! It's also still Christmas, according to Anthem, because the game still has its decorations up - even now, a full two weeks after the initial tweet, which pointed out that open invitation for bad luck, went viral. Apparently that's intentional because BioWare extended its "Ictide" event a little longer, but it's not a great look, is it? Especially not as Anthem celebrates its first full year since launch. At least the effect is interesting, by regular service game event standards. If you hop into a Stronghold, which is a sort of replayable mini-raid or "strike", by Destiny's terminology, you'll notice that in the occasional moments of downtime between fights, deep below ground, in the dank, dripping dungeon of giant spiders, the haunting echo of sleigh bells will just, ever so softly, start to fade in. A sort of wafting, aural threat, like they're about to summon a choir of the dead. Ominous! Schedule the relaunch for that liminal, Nightmare Before Christmas, early November time when nobody knows whether to feel spooky or festive and you know what, it might just work.
Combat, if you kit yourself out well, remains brilliant. There's real beauty in the chaos of it, and honestly the sleight bells just add to the drama.But that's exactly it: if you haven't already heard, there's a relaunch coming! There's no time or date, absolutely no detail on what exactly is going to change, and also the game is going to "move away from full seasons" - like this winter holiday one, you'd hope. There may also be the odd eyebrow raised at the timing of that announcement, shortly before the inevitable flurry of anniversary impressions. But there is a relaunch coming, and so it's no longer fair to really twist the knife into the game's current state. The added result of that announcement is that what may have started out as scorn for Anthem has turned to something else. It's turned to pity, which honestly might be worse. Anthem is a pitiful game, empty of players and full of bland quests that prop up a repetitive grind towards nothingness. It's a crude parody of all of this generation's worst habits - introduced immaculately from the off by Destiny, I should add - mashed up into one. Four hundred release dates; a strange hub bit; some tacked-on lore cheaply disseminated via collectibles; vanilla sci-fi; more currencies than a forex trading floor, that all nudge you towards the in-game shop; and, with the addition of the game's fourth stronghold, the worst bullet-sponge boss fight I have ever played. (The old Tyrant Mine stronghold typically takes me around 10 or 15 minutes to finish, while this one took an hour plus another 35 minutes for the final boss). It's crunch personified, failed management in action, a monument to focus-tested corporate sanitisation. BioWare the victim: a studio of immensely talented people crunched to within an inch of its life, those that remain presumably now making weapon skins for something more capable of paying the dividends.
Maybe it was a bug, or maybe an issue with the scaling for the size of my squad, but this chap took over half an hour of endless bullets and abilities to kill - with zero deaths or interruptions on my part. It has two attacks, one weak spot and one, single audio cue that plays on repeat.Nothing particularly new there, then. But the flipside has stayed the same too: Anthem's flying is great, and its combat is more than great - it's quite severely underrated. Strapping back in to my old Colossus - which I'd set up for self-comboing, given the understandable lack of willing companions to play with - feels fantastic. The tactile, quite comforting little climbing-in cinematic, the big superhero drop-in you do on loading into the game world, the gorgeously animated take off and flight. All of these are brilliant but also second to the wonderful, Space Marine Terminator carnage you can reap when you're set up with the right gear. There's true attention to detail in there. It's buried under all kinds of imbalance and illogic, sure - and the fact that the default one of the four classes, the Ranger, is more or less entirely unviable - but it is there. You can engineer missions to be better designed than they really are, too. The Tyrant Mine has a moment when you have to stand on top of a pedestal and wait for a slow loading bar to fill, while waves and waves of scorpions and spiders and other weird jumbo creepy-crawlies come swarming up a ramp towards you. If you could shoot down that choke point of a ramp, while staying in the designated zone, it would make for some sublime horde-mode holding-off. Instead, the line of sight is broken by the angle of the ramp and so you have to actually step out of the place you're supposed to be waiting in if you want to actually have fun. So I do! I ignore the way the game wants me to play, and I stand at the top of the ramp and I use a flamethrower and a minigun and an electric thingy that automatically makes the flamethrowered enemies go "pop!" with combos and chains lightning symphonically from one to the next, and I hunker down behind my big shield to pick up health, and I just tank it out for a bit. And then when I'm done, I go stand where I'm supposed to stand and pick my nose for a bit until the mission moves itself on.
The tragedy of Anthem, as we all know by now, is that in spite of itself, it is almost brilliant. There's room for real, interesting, actual synergy between you and your party members, far beyond what a lot of true MMOs can even do. The difference in playstyles, now the guns have been sorted out, is noticeable between classes. The combo system is simple but quite ingenious. The gameplay is all right there, brilliant fun at its core, just passively proving wrong anyone who thinks that's all you need for a game to be good. Because it is good! But Anthem is not a good game, and it does not have the fan-fuelled momentum of a Final Fantasy 14 - or the cachet of BioWare's own Star Wars: The Old Republic - for me to have any faith that it can be rescued in another year or two's time. Instead it's merely an example. This is what happens when studios known for single-player RPGs - ostensibly static works - are asked to search for perpetual motion. It's what happens when productivity is squeezed and squeezed without the necessary patience, or necessary investment. It's a lesson in the fragility of this medium's magic, and a reminder that what may seem like the surest of financial bets can still go wrong.
New campaign, overhauled endgame, more. Ubisoft has unveiled Warlords of New York, a brand-new paid expansion for online shooter The Division 2 that's heading to Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and PC on 3rd March. Warlords of New York, as its name implies, sees The Division 2 leaving its current base of operations in Washington DC and returning to the city in which the series started in order to tie up a few narrative loose ends left dangling in The Division 1. Players - either working solo or with friends via online co-op - are tasked with bringing down rogue former Division Agent Aaron Keener, as well as his four lieutenants, in a campaign that unfolds in the hurricane-ravaged summertime streets of Lower Manhattan. It's open-world, as you'd expect, and Ubisoft is attempting another 1:1 recreation of the area, incorporating real-life locations including Battery Park, Wall Street, Chinatown, and Two Bridges. Warlords of New York introduces a new level cap of 40 (players will need to have reached Level 30 and World Tier 5 to embark on the new campaign), as well as new gear, new weapons, four new skills, and an "infinite" progression system known as the SHD level. Once each rogue agent has been defeated, players can fast travel freely between Washington DC and New York City to work through all remaining base game and expansion content as they see fit. This includes an overhauled endgame, which introduces new three-month-long seasons, each themed around a different target and their own network of cohorts. Ubisoft promises unique stories for each target, as well as a variety of other seasonal activities and related rewards, including challenge-based Leagues and time-limited Global Events, the latter applying global modifiers to the entire game. Players can expect the first season to begin a week after Warlords of New York's 3rd March launch. Warlords of New York's arrival will be accompanied by the new Title Update 8, featuring a range of core enhancements and updates. There's an RPG overhaul, enabling players to read and manage their gear more easily, a streamlined gear recalibration system, the return of god rolls - said to improve readability and help players more easily assess the usefulness of gear - and more. Dark Zones in The Division 2 will also be reworked, with Ubisoft promising a return to a "simpler rogue mechanic" intended to better reward player-to-player interaction. Division 2 players interested in embarking on a trip to New York will have three purchase options come 3rd March. The expansion is available on its own - it's currently priced at £25.99 on the Ubisoft Store - or can be purchased as part of a new Standard Edition, which also includes the base game. Additionally, there's a new Ultimate Edition, featuring the base game and expansion, plus all Year 1 content, classified assignments, and unlocked specialisations.
And it looks like a battle royale mode is imminent. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare's second season of post-launch content has, following several days of majorleakage, finally been officially revealed, and its array of new maps, modes, and battle pass rewards are available now on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC. Furthermore, there are strong hints that a battle royale mode is imminent. Modern Warfare's second season themes its additions around the fight against Al-Qatala, as it attempts to isolate the city of Verdansk using a stolen Soviet nuclear warhead. "On the brink of a global catastrophe," explains Activision, "Captain Price sends in Ghost to track down the location of the warhead and lead key Operators before it's too late." That bit of scene-setting leads us on to the good stuff, with Season 2 promising five new maps as the weeks go by, with three of those available now. As of today, players can get stuck into classic oil yard map Rust (the scene of Modern Warfare 2's Endgame mission), Atlas Superstore - a shopping warehouse under control of Al-Qatala forces - and the Zhokov Boneyard map, an airplane junk yard in the middle of Verdansk. Rust is available in Standard Multiplayer and Gunfight modes, Atlas Superstore in Standard Multiplayer, and Zhokov Boneyard in Ground War. Later in the season, Activision will introduce two additional maps; there's the battle-ravaged Bazarr, a "tightly contained cross-section of the streets of Urzikstan", which will be playable in Gunfight, and the still-mysterious Standard Multiplayer map Khandor Hideout. Mid-season also ushers in a selection of new and returning game modes; there's the limited-time Gunfight Tournament - a 32 team challenge consisting of single elimination 2v2 firefights - plus Demolition mode, in which two teams attack and destroy bomb sites. Infected Ground War sees Survivors attempting to hold off hordes of Infected, and there's NVG Reinforce, described as a nighttime blend of Domination and Search & Destroy. Activision says additional modes will arrive as the season progresses - and there's entirely reasonable speculation that the extremely large fog-shrouded map toward the end Season 2's in-game opening cinematic (not to mention the new, suspiciously prominent main menu option labelled "CLASSIFIED") is a not-too-subtle-hint at the imminent arrival of a battle royale mode. All of this, of course, is accompanied by a brand-new battle pass. As always, there are free and premium tracks across 100 levels, with the former unlocking the likes of the Grau 5.56 mobile assault rifle, the Striker 45, calling cards, weapon charms, and up to 300 Call of Duty points. The premium track includes Modern Warfare 2's Simon "Ghost" Riley, weapon blueprints, XP tokens, Operator skins and challenges, watches, and up to 1,300 Call of Duty Points. You'll find a more detailed breakdown of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare's second season of post-launch content in Activision's latest blog post, as well as our list of patch notes.
"Please don't get too hyped at this stage." Stardew Valley's creator and sole developer Eric "ConcernedApe" Barone has detailed two new projects he currently has in the pipeline. Writing on Twitter, Barone described one as a non-farming game set in the world of Stardew Valley, while the other will "tie into Stardew Valley in some way". Both will be single-player, top-down 2D games with pixel art styles, Barone continued in a follow-up email to IGN. The former game, he said, will have "twice the 'detail' of Stardew Valley". "In general, I've been approaching this game with the goal to surpass the quality of every aspect compared to Stardew Valley," he wrote, "art, music, sound, narratives, etc... and I think I have been achieving that so far. "I just have to put in the 1000's more hours of work necessary to finish it." The second project, meanwhile, is "hopefully smaller in scope so it won't take that long (but we'll see...)". Back on Twitter, Barone cautioned that he was "not setting out to make the next indie smash hit" with either new idea - rather, he was focused on projects he enjoyed creating. "All I ask is please don't get too hyped at this stage," he concluded.
Tyred out. The Need for Speed franchise is doing a U-turn: and by that I mean EA is moving development back from Sweden to UK studio Criterion. That's because the current franchise developer, Ghost Games, is set to become EA Gothenburg once more as it becomes an engineering hub to assist with EA's wider portfolio. This is partly due to issues finding the right talent to continue developing Need for Speed in Gothenburg. EA is hoping to transfer many of its staff from Ghost Games to Guildford-based Criterion, although the publisher told GamesIndustry.biz that 30 roles remain at risk. "Outside of the engineers and those that we plan to transfer to other positions, there would be 30 additional staff in Gothenburg, and we would hope to place as many of them as possible into other roles in the company", EA explained.
Ghost Games developed the last four titles in the Need for Speed franchise, including Need for Speed: Rivals (2013), the 2015 reboot, Need for Speed: Payback (2017) and 2019's Need for Speed: Heat. Criterion, meanwhile, is known for creating the Burnout series, and previously developed both Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit (2010) and Need for Speed: Most Wanted (2012). The studio has spent the last few years supporting EA Dice, working on games such as Star Wars: Battlefront and Battlefield 5. "With a strong history and passion for racing games and vision for what we can create, the Criterion team is going to take Need for Speed into the next-generation," EA said. We'll have to see if Criterion can give the franchise the burst of energy fans desire.
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare has not been having a great week for leaks, and things have only been getting worse, as further details of the game's battle royale mode have been splashed across the internet. Most importantly, we now have a likely name the battle royale: Warzone. The Warzone title stems from leaked promo art that reportedly first appeared on Reddit, and has since been backed up by Call of Duty leaker TheGamingRevolution on Twitter. According to his sources, the battle royale will be free-to-play and available as a direct download even for those who haven't bought Modern Warfare. Since the artwork was spotted, a player has even glitched into a lobby menu for Warzone, further cementing its likelihood as the battle royale's official title. The images shared on Reddit display options for drop kits that can be customised before a match, along with a locked training mode, weapons, operators and barracks (via Charlie Intel). This suggests Warzone will be accessible directly through Modern Warfare - although it's possible an optional standalone client could also be released. Eurogamer has contacted Activision for comment on the leaks.
Credit to Reddit user ARedWerewolf for the images.
Along with the new information, TheGamingRevolution also posted a number of images showing various locations from the battle royale map, such as a training facility, Quarry, and quad bikes on a road. This seems to tally nicely with the training mode seen in the glitched menu. Meanwhile, images of the original leaked artwork for Warzone are currently being removed from social media via copyright strike, suggesting Activision's legal team is working hard to take them down. Hopefully the one below will stay up long enough for you to take a peep. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare's battle royale mode has been far from secret: a datamine in November found the entire map and a bunch of details, while more recently a player used a spectator glitch to fly around the place. A release date for the battle royale mode is not yet known, although TheGamingRevolution's sources hinted this will be "much sooner than you think". Given the season 2 trailer released last night showed soldiers dropping from a plane and green smoke that resembles a ring, and a "classified mode" has now been added to Modern Warfare's menu, it's likely we'll see it in the next few weeks. Infinity Ward might want to get it in before Fortnite's highly-anticipated chapter 2 season 2 finally kicks off on 20th February, at least.
Coming to consoles in March, PC in April. Just when you thought you might be making a dint in Monster Hunter World: Iceborne's increasingly teetering mound of creature-bothering delights, Capcom is back with word of two new - and extremely angry - subspecies heading to Xbox One and PlayStation 4 soon as part of the expansion's free March update. First on the list is a beefed up and stressed out version of everybody's favourite slime-spreading ground-rattler Brachydios. Based on Capcom's reveal trailer below, this smouldering new variant's biggest distinction would appear to be slime attacks that super-heat and explode much faster than usual, leaving considerably less time to get the hell out of the way. And it sounds like the Brachydios' already adrenaline-exploding fight theme is getting an appropriately dramatic remix for the arrival of Iceborne's Raging Brachydios subspecies.
As for monster number two, March gives expansion players a chance to come face-to-enormous-primate-fists with an equally irate variant of mega-ape Rajang. Judging by its brief trailer appearance, the Furious Rajang, as the subspecies is known, is in a perpetual state of violent agitation, with no sign of respite from its enraged attacks. There's likely a little more to both new additions than the trailer hints at, but we'll need to wait until Capcom finds itself in another sharing mood for further details. As per the publisher's previously revealed 2020 Iceborne roadmap, the Raging Brachydios and Furious Rajang will come to Xbox One and PlayStation 4 in March, and then arrive on PC a month later - at which point development of all three version will synchronise. PC players still have plenty to look forward to in March, however, thanks to the arrival of the Safi'jiiva - the adult form of the Xeno'jiiva encountered toward the end of Monster Hunter World's base campaign - and the Stygian Zinogre. There's also a new Guiding Lands update for PC players, introducing a new tundra region.
Back in January, Magic: The Gathering publisher Wizards of the Coast unveiled Archetype Entertainment, a new video game development studio particularly notable for the fact that it's being helmed by two ex-BioWare veterans - and now Mass Effect 1 and 2 lead writer Drew Karpyshyn has confirmed that he's joined the team too. Archetype's studio head is former BioWare creative director and lead designer James Ohlen - who previously worked on the likes of Baldur's Gate, Dragon Age: Origins, Neverwinter Nights, and Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic - while another BioWare alumni, Chad Robertson, will be vice president and general manager. Karpyshyn, who left BioWare for the second time in March 2018, joins the Austin, Texas studio as lead writer. Fans of BioWare's classic output were already intrigued when Archetype Entertainment revealed it's first title would be a new story-driven sci-fi RPG; couple that with the news its lead writer will be the man behind Mass Effect 1 and 2 - and who also has an enviable resume featuring the likes of Baldur's Gate, Knights of the Old Republic, and Dragon Age - and that excitement is likely to raise a few notches higher.
Tantalising art from Archetype's new website. Announcing his new position at Archetype in a post on his blog, Karpyshyn wrote, "When I started at BioWare, everything was fresh and exciting. It was a dream job - talented people working together to create epic games like Baldur's Gate, KOTOR, Mass Effect and Dragon Age. But as we grew and became more successful, things changed. We became more corporate. We were less able to make what we loved, and the teams were pushed to create games based on market research rather than our creative instincts and passions. My dream job became just a job, and I lost the enthusiasm and excitement I once had. "But with Archetype, my passion has been rekindled. The feel in the studio reminds me of my early days at BioWare; I can feel the magic in the air. And even though I can't get too deep into the specifics of what we're working on yet, we're already generating plenty of excitement in the industry. I know we have big shoes to fill. With BioWare, I was part of a legacy that will endure forever. We created some of the most beloved CRPGs of the past two decades. But I truly believe at Archetype we have the talent and the opportunity to do something just as amazing!". Although Archetype's first project is still largely shrouded in mystery, it's confirmed to be a "multi-platform roleplaying game set in a new science fiction universe". And we can perhaps glean a few additional hints from the company's mission statement, which reads, "We believe there will always be a place for story-driven roleplaying games that put the player at the center of an epic personal narrative with impactful choices. We are building games that represent the diversity of our audience." Hopefully it won't be long before the team is ready to reveal more.
Following the success of Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order. Last year, Disney's share of the US film market managed to reach a record 35 per cent (thanks to its merger with Fox) - so I guess it's just as well the company's open to having game developers reimagine its franchises. That is a lot of IP. Speaking at this year's 2020 DICE summit, Disney exec Sean Shoptaw said the company wants to empower game developers to do "really unique things" with its catalogue (via The Hollywood Reporter). "We want to tap into the power of creatives across the industry." According to Shoptaw, two recent examples of this are Respawn's Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order, along with Marvel's Spider-Man by Insomniac Games. Both saw significant sales (with Fallen Order beating EA's own expectations and Spider-Man becoming the fastest-selling PS4 game of 2018), but Shoptaw emphasised the importance of original storytelling and "reimagining" Disney settings.
Disney currently has a number of long-standing partnerships with major developers: including Square Enix for Kingdom Hearts, and EA for the Star Wars franchise. It's worth noting the latter's deal isn't completely exclusive - Star Wars titles by other developers such as Oculus and Warner Bros. have been given the go-ahead over the last few years, along with mobile titles and franchise tie-ins with games like Fortnite. With regards to Star Wars, I'd imagine the call to get creative is as much about smaller spin-offs as the mainline games by EA. Given Disney specifically cited it as an example, I also can't help but compare this emphasis on creativity and uniqueness to accounts of what it was like to work on Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order. During last year's E3, I spoke to lead combat designer Jason de Heras about the creative process, and it sounded rather different. "We have to work with Lucasfilm on everything, we have to approve everything and have to collaborate with them, so there's give and take," he told me. "Sometimes we want to do something that's more gameplay-driven or out the box but then we have to sit with them and find a middle ground. Same with everything - combat, exploration, story, all the departments have to collaborate. We're trying to make an authentic game, so we're trying to stay on that level. Authentic's the word." Perhaps the uniqueness is only allowed so far.
And play the full game 72 hours early in some cases. If you're so enthusiastically eager to play Crystal Dynamics' upcoming Marvel Avengers game that you're struggling to resist the urge to to dash to the shops and slap down some cash, you might be interested to know that Square Enix has a dizzying array of pre-order bonuses planned, including access to its pre-launch beta. Players that pre-order any version of the game (provided they're purchased through participating retailers, notes Square), can get involved in the planned, although still undated, Avengers beta. They'll also receive an exclusive nameplate and the Marvel Legacy Outfit Pack - featuring classic comic book looks for Captain America, Thor, Black Widow, Hulk, Iron Man, and Ms. Marvel, inspired by "moments from the comics that defined who each Super Hero was as they first embraced their powers to become the icons they are today." That's not quite the end of Square's big pre-order push, however; the standard physical edition of Marvel's Avengers will also include either a limited-edition pin set, patch set, steelbook, or digital comic book, depending where pre-orders are made, and there are additional bonuses exclusive to the PlayStation Store. re-order the standard PS4 digital edition through Sony and you'll get the Ms. Marvel Talk to the Hand emote, and the Hex Pattern Logo dynamic theme. Meanwhile, Deluxe Edition pre-orders on the PlayStation Store include an exclusive Ms. Marvel nameplate, 1,000 credits to spend on superhero customisations in-game, and 72-hour early access ahead of launch. Additionally, just to add that extra flourish of unnecessary convolution to proceedings, Square notes that PlayStation 4 owners, regardless of the edition they pre-order, will be able to access the beta before players on other platforms. Back in the physical realm, Square has also announced two bumper-sized Marvel's Avengers special editions. The £79.99 Deluxe Edition includes an exclusive Obsidian Outfit pack (featuring six hero outfits), six exclusive Obsidian nameplates, and 72-hour early access. Deluxe Edition costumes, for those that like their superheroes grey.The £209.99 (!) Earth's Mightiest Edition, meanwhile, is positively crammed with thematic tat, including a 12" statue of Captain America, a Hulk bobblehead, Mjolnir keychain, Black Widow's belt buckle, Iron Man's prototype armour blueprints, Kamala Khan's honorary Avenger pin, a commemorative Avengers group photo, and 72-hour early access. All this can be yours for a mere £209.99.You'll also get the Deluxe Edition game, squeezed into a steelbook case. Or if you'd prefer to wait and see if the game's any good before handing over your money, that's also fine too. Marvel's Avengers launches on Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and PC on 4th September.
And there's a bunch of new footage too. Earlier this week Bulletstorm developer People Can Fly unveiled a brand-new trailer for its co-operative sci-fi looter-shooter Outriders, and now, as promised, it's shared a choice selection of gameplay details and videos as part of a half-hour long livestream reveal. On a fundamental level, it perhaps wasn't the most revelatory of unveilings for Outriders, with little shown to truly distinguish it from its peers; it's a "dark" third-person cover-based shooter set in a "brutal nightmarish world" that ticks all the usual lite-RPG boxes are far as classes, skill trees, customisation, and rarity based loot acquisition goes. That doesn't mean it's a bust though; it looks to have an interesting premise, a striking, surprisingly diverse planet to explore, and, of course, People Can Fly's undeniable expertise when it comes to gunplay.
Breaking all that down, Outriders tells the story of a group of mercenaries tasked with exploring Enoch, a lush, untouched planet chosen to be the site of a new human colonisation effort. Shortly after landing, however, the group encounters a mysterious signal, and, in attempting to trace its source, runs into a devastating storm known as the Anomaly. To escape its effects, the Outriders retreat into cryo-sleep, awakening 30 years later to an almost unrecognisable world. War has broken out, flora and fauna has hyper-evolved to deadly degrees, and the Outriders' whole DNA has been rebuilt, turning them into super-powered humans known as the Altered. What follows is a continued quest to locate the source of the still-detectable signal, one that sees players - either solo or in co-op teams of up to three - journeying across Enoch "to the edge of civilisation and beyond". From the technology bereft War Zone that opens the game, players explore the world as part of a convoy, shifting from hub area to hub area (the developer stresses it's not an open-world game), stepping out across diverse biomes, from shanty towns and desolate cities, to autumnal swamps and lush jungles, even deserts and mountains. Hubs, such as Rift Town seen in the livestream, usually serve as small pockets of civilisation, giving players the chance to slow down, explore, and start unravelling Enoch's mysteries. They provide an opportunity to embark on side quests and help NPCs with their stories, to buy unique new gear, loot, and mods - or sell them for scrap - to repair equipment, even sit around the campfire and share tales about Earth. And when you want to move on, a whole new area adjacent to that hub will open, which becomes permanently unlocked for future fast travel. layers, incidentally, can either use an existing character or make their own from scratch using Outriders' character creator - and as the story progresses, more and more customisation opportunities will appear. One nice touch sees players able to personalise (although not directly drive) their convoy trucks, adjusting paint jobs, front bumper, chassis, wheel covers, and so on, with each squad member able to show off their own designs during co-op play. It's even possible to stick the heads of slain beasts to the bonnet if that's your idea of fun. Weapons, meanwhile, will evolve from standard ballistics artillery gleaned from the War Zone at the start of the game - where advanced tech is rendered useless by the Anomaly - to increasingly bizarre armaments as players venture further from civilisation. More conventionally, progress awards points that can be spent on levelling up through skill trees. Player might choose to prioritise guns over skills or vice versa; they can improve their speed, health, damage, and more as they gradually tailor their preferred endgame build, with each class having its own separate skill tree. Speaking of which, Outriders features four distinct, super-powered classes, with three having been revealed so far. The Pyromancer can manipulate explosive volcanic energy and conjure devastating walls of flame, while the sneaky Trickster can manipulate the fabric of time and space - using the likes of slo-mo and teleportation - to swiftly fell enemies from behind. Finally, there's the Devastator, able to call on the powers of the earth - summoning earthquakes or near-impenetrable armour to deliver brute force, up-close-and-personal attacks. Accompanying these early details are a selection of new videos - combining gameplay, cinematics, and in-game footage - all of which are scattered around this page. Needless to say, there'll likely be plenty more where they came from as Outriders' "holiday 2020" release on Xbox One, Xbox Series X, PS4, PS5, and PC draws nearer.
Marvel's Avengers is still over six months away, but you can take a peek at its leaked achievement list right now. Trophy snooping site Exophase has scooped up the details - which include a few story spoilers. There's also lots of achievements for collecting lots of things. Marvel's Avengers was, of course, originally due to launch much sooner - until it was slapped with a sizeable delay last month. It's now set to arrive on 4th September for PC, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One (and then, presumably, on PS5 and Xbox Series X down the line). The appearance of its Trophy list now is an interesting wrinkle. Presumably, this data was pushed to Sony's servers in readiness for its original launch date. We won't detail the leaks here in full here in case you wish to remain unspoiled, but its fair to say the full Trophy list gives away a major unannounced villain and various spoilery locations, while name-checking a group of unannounced characters you'll rescue along the way.
Five and a half years after it was announced. Developer Keen Software House's construction-focussed sandbox game Space Engineers is finally making its way to Xbox One on 15th April. Space Engineers, which Keen describes as a "sandbox game about engineering, construction, exploration and survival in space and on planets", launched in its version 1.0 guise last February on PC, having been in Steam early access for almost five and a half years. It's an absurdly ambitious game, enabling players (either working solo, co-operatively, or competitively in survival or creative modes) to build everything from planet-bound outposts to space stations and ships, piloting the latter among the stars to explore ever-further.
There's volumetric physics, plus simulated electricity, oxygen, and gravity systems, and even deformable environments - all of which you'll need to consider as you continue to build. The Xbox One version of Space Engineers was originally announced all the way back in 2014, and now, more than half a decade later, it's ready for release. It'll cost £16.74/$19.99 USD on the Xbox Store when 15th April arrives, and those that pre-order will receive the Veteran Mark II, NextGen, and Aviator skins. Pre-orders also include four day pre-launch access and priority access to the closed beta, currently expected in March. More on the Xbox One version of Space Engineers can be found on the official blog.
But just for the weekend. Apex Legends is getting a touch nostalgic this weekend, as the free-to-play battle royale game returns to its roots by ushering in its original Kings Canyon map. Granted, they're not particularly long roots, given that Apex Legends is barely a year old at this point, but fans have been clamouring to return to the original, unsullied Kings Canyon since Respawn jettisoned it in favour of Season 3's World's Edge map last October. Kings Canyon has returned to the game previously, but only in a special nighttime form, as used in Apex Legends' Grand Soiree and Fight or Fright limited-time events. From today, 21st February until Monday, 24th February, however, players will be able to traipse their way across the original, pre-season version until their nostalgia is adequately sated.
Those more modern sorts that would rather continue playing on Season 4's recently reinvigorated World's Edge map needn't despair, however; it remains available alongside Kings Canyon, the latter being accessible as part of a separate playlist. Despite the brisk weekend return for Kings Canyon, it's not the last we'll see of the map. Respawn has already confirmed it will be the setting for the second half of Season 4's Ranked play split, which runs from Tuesday, 24th March until season's end on 5th May.
