Destiny 2's inventory-deleting bug was caused by a remarkable run of bad luck

A couple of weeks ago, Bungie was forced to take Destiny 2 offline for the bulk of a day to fix a bug in an update that caused widespread loss of glimmer and rare enhancement materials. Yesterday, it happened again—it didn't take quite as long to fix (because developers knew what was going on this time) but it was still several hours of downtime for a major online game.
You might wonder how this kind of thing happens in a well-established game being run by a large, experienced game studio. If so, that large, experienced game studio is here to explain: With the game back online, Bungie posted an unusually deep and detailed explanation of what went wrong, and what it's doing to avoid that kind of gong show in the future.

It's a long and complicated (but also legitimately interesting) tale, but the short version, as it so often is, is that a bunch of small problems snowballed into a big problem, and then, well, mistakes were made. And then another problem, entirely unrelated, caused the re-emergence of the first problem, which is how yesterday's mess came about.

It's all fixed up now, although not without another character rollback. (The second in Destiny 2's history, apparently—Bungie said that the rollback two weeks ago was the first.) To help prevent this particular issue (but not others, because that's the way she goes) from happening again, Bungie also specified seven "preventive measures" it's taking going forward:

• We have added further safeguards to our process for “hot-patching” our servers to ensure that they cannot start with an unexpected version. This change is in place as we spin up the game today.
• We have fixed the issue that caused a small fraction of WorldServers to crash on startup. This fix will be deployed with Season 10. 
• The permanent fix for character corruption will be rolled into the next update as an executable change, removing the need for the configuration override. (Unfortunately the 2.7.1.1 Hotfix was too far along to benefit from this).
• Looking ahead, we are investigating ways to speed up our rollback and recovery mechanisms.
• In a future release, we will address the issue that can cause servers to skip loading configuration data.
• We will also add more protections to the login-account clean-up code, to help prevent future bugs from being introduced into such a critical area.
• We are updating our development methodologies to catch issues like this earlier in the release pipeline. 

Downtime and rollbacks are frustrating, but the explainer gives us a little more insight than we normally get into how and why things can go so completely wrong, so quickly: from a "conceptually reasonable" fix several months ago that spun off "subtle side effects," to "what we thought was an impossible situation" that caused yesterday's problems.
"We know today’s outage and character rollback has been frustrating for you, especially with launch of Crimson Days, just as it’s been frustrating for us to realize that this is a problem we should have been able to avoid," Bungie said. "We’re sorry for the frustration and inconvenience this caused and will continue to work to prevent these kinds of things from happening again."

Metro Exodus 'Sam's Story' launch trailer features snakes, giant bats and other terrors

Metro Exodus gets a new expansion today in the form of Sam's Story, and it's a big one: it features an all new sandbox area, snakes, giant bats, and an American. Specifically you'll be playing as Sam, a "former US marine turned Spartan Ranger" who must travel to Vladivostok in order to (hopefully) secure passage back to the United States.
The above trailer celebrates the expansion's release, which is now available on the Epic Games Store and Steam. For those who didn't preorder Metro Exodus on Steam when it was still available, the game officially launches on that platform on February 15.

This is the second and last of the promised expansions for Metro Exodus. The first was The Two Colonels, a more linear, horror-centric affair that returned to the series subterranean roots.

With BattleTech's expansions complete, Hairbrained Schemes is focusing on two brand new projects

The big, burly mechs of BattleTech are due a well-deserved rest. After a trio of expansions and two years of updates, developer Hairbrained Schemes has the itch for something new. In a message to players, studio co-founder Mitch Gitelman thanked the community for its support, as well as teasing what's coming next.
"Thanks again for your support over the last four years of development," said Gitelman. "Together HBS and our 55,000 backers delivered the first turn-based tactical MechWarrior experience in over 20 years. Our game has earned a lot of awards and accolades, and we are very proud of what we've been able to accomplish together. That success allowed us to continue supporting BattleTech with nine free updates and three big expansions."

BattleTech's not being abandoned, however. Another free update is coming this month, and while it will be the last, the studio will continue to maintain customer support. As for what's following it, more details will be coming later, but for now we know that Hairbrained Schemes is working on two brand new, non-BattleTech projects.

I'd love another Shadowrun game with a tactical layer that's as compelling as BattleTech's, but "brand new" makes that extremely unlikely. Whatever the new games are, however, I'd be extremely surprised if at least one of them isn't a turn-based tactical affair.
So pour one out for the metal behemoths and their considerably more squishy pilots. They've had a very good run. BattleTech's one of the best strategy games on PC, and hopefully it won't be the last time we see them duking it out in turn-based brawls.

Borderlands 3 will get its first level cap increase later this week

Valentine's Day will soon be upon us, and for Borderlands 3 players that means it will soon be time to celebrate Broken Hearts Day—and by "celebrate" I mean shoot at the hearts that will be floating around enemies, who you will be shooting at anyway.
There will be different kinds of hearts to shoot at, and they will go down in different ways: Some will just fall and blow up, while others will drop loot or even turn enemies into temporary allies. Along with the sense of satisfaction that comes from a job well done, shooting hearts will also net you some in-game rewards:

• 10 – "ECHOcardiogram" ECHO Skin
• 25 – "Cosmic Romance" Weapon Trinket
• 50 – "Terminal Polyaimorous" Legendary Maliwan SMG
• 75 – "Heartbreaker" Vault Hunter Skin
• 100 – "Wedding Invitation" Legendary Jakobs Sniper Rifle

The Broken Hearts Day event will begin when the February patch goes live on February 13 and will run until 8:59 am PT/11:59 am ET on February 20. And if the whole thing seems a bit silly to you, or you just don't like free skins and guns, you can choose to opt out of the event, unless you're playing in an online game, in which case the host's preference will make the call.


Whether or not you're interested in breaking hearts with heavy weaponry, the February update itself is worth paying attention to, as it will increase the level cap from 50 to 53, giving players three more skill points to play with. That doesn't sound like much, but Borderlands 3 lead level designer said during today's Borderlands Show that point-to-point increases in Borderlands 3's skill trees are "way more impactful" than in the previous games, and Gearbox wants to avoid throwing the game out of balance.
"Just handing out the same number of levels and skill points [as in previous games] would really actually just kind of destroy the game in terms of balance, and also homogenize everyone's build. Once everyone has everything, it's all the same, and you can't express yourself through your character and their gear," he said.
"In Borderlands 3, we're looking at it a lot differently based on that. In this first one we're going to do just the three levels. Long term, we're exploring some other ways to encourage further player growth that might not be completely tied to skill points."
Other changes coming in the February update include skippable cutscenes, Guardian Rank toggling that will enable players to disable some or all Guardian Rank Perks, and the ability to opt out of events like Broken Hearts Day, while "Fight For Your Life" improvements and Mayhem 2.0 are expected to arrive in March. More information about the future of Borderlands 3 will be revealed during the Gearbox panel at PAX East, which will be livestreamed on Twitch, beginning at 11:30 am PT/2:30 pm ET on February 27.

Activision Blizzard games have been pulled from GeForce Now

Nvidia's GeForce Now made a big splash last week: the game streaming service is giving Google Stadia a serious run for its money in the value stakes, and some of its features are fantastic. But if you happen to cherish the platform's collection of Activision and Blizzard titles, you're out of luck: they've been rather unceremoniously removed.
According to a spokesperson from Nvidia writing in the GeForce Now forums, the library of Activision Blizzard games, which included Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, Overwatch, Diablo 3 and more, has been removed at Activision's request.

"As we take GeForce NOW to the next step in its evolution, we’ve worked with publishers to onboard a robust catalog of your PC games," the spokesperson said. "This means continually adding new games, and on occasion, having to remove games – similar to other digital service providers.

"Per their request, please be advised Activision Blizzard games will be removed from the service. While unfortunate, we hope to work together with Activision Blizzard to re-enable these games and more in the future. In addition to the hundreds of games currently supported, we have over 1,500 games that developers have asked to be on-boarded to the service. Look for weekly updates as to new games we are adding."
It's certainly not uncommon for titles to be added and removed to subscription-based services. But for a publisher's entire catalogue to be removed barely a week after a platform's launch... that's certainly unusual. My only speculation is that Activision Blizzard must be unhappy with the terms of its deal with Nvidia. Either way, this continues the trend of games suddenly vanishing we've seen across different stores and services in the last year, one of the perpetual downsides of digital distribution.

Monster Hunter World: Iceborne is getting a pair of new angry monster variants

Monster Hunter World: Iceborne's next free title update will send its diligent monster slayers to get beaten up by a new pair of tough customers, both with epithets that suggest they're always in the mood for a fight.
The Raging Brachydios is a nasty slime dragon with explosive saliva. This extremely angry variant likes making things explode even more than the regular version, and judging by the trailer its attacks are going to fill its den with lava. That might make things tricky.

It's joined by Furious Rajang, a big ol' horned gorilla that crackles with electricity. The normal version can become enraged, turning its fur yellow and arms red, but it looks like this variant is always in that hyper-aggressive state. Hopefully smacking it around with some ice damage will calm it down for good.

Both of these new monsters will be appearing next month on consoles, but we'll need to wait until April before we can start hunting Raging Brachydios and Furious Rajang on PC. From that point on, however, everything will be synced up on PC and consoles, which will receive updates at the same time.
If you're not quite ready to take on these trickier monsters, you can find descriptions and guides for the other ones in our Iceborne monster list.

PUBG is getting an 8v8 team deathmatch mode

Update: The 6.2 update, with 8v8 Team Deathmatch, is now live on the PUBG test server. Changes have also been made to grenades, leaning and peeking right, visible blood effects, the parachute "follow" function, and the Karakin map. Full details are available in the patch notes at pubg.com.

PUBG is getting a team deathmatch mode with its imminent 6.2 title update, as part of a new Arcade branch of the game focused on new game types.  Unlike the game's shortlived stab at TDM in 2018, this one eschews the sprawl of battle royale for tight, 8v8 matches across seven small maps set in existing PUBG environments.

The mode will be first-person only, with respawns and no friendly fire. There are eight Spawn Kits (loadouts) to choose from, and health regeneration will depend on your Boost Gauge: kills and assists fill it, and it'll gradually restore your health after not taking damage for five seconds. Matches last ten minutes, with the first to 50 kills taking victory. Expect to earn BP for your trouble, but there won't be any Survivor Pass XP rewards.
Of course, this doesn't mark a complete pivot for PUBG into Call of Duty territory. "For fans who prefer Battle Royale, not to worry," the announcement post reads. "Our core focus will always be to bring you the most realistic and intense Battle Royale experience out there."
The new Arcade branch will continue to grow too: the TDM mode will get new maps and tweaks, and expect "new and familiar game modes" to appear in the future. Check out the trailer for TDM below:

Resident Evil 7 shifts seven million copies and DMC5 becomes the best-selling game in the series

Capcom has released its updated sales figures for its best-selling games, with Monster Hunter and Resident Evil dominating the top 10 charts.
The big news from Capcom's latest update, which includes sales up to December 31, 2019, is that Resident Evil 7 has broken seven million sales. It continues to be the third best-selling game in the series, behind RE6 (7.4 million) and RE5 (7.6 million). Its launch sales were considered disappointing, shifting just over half the copies RE5 and RE6 managed in a six-month period, so to see it pick up pace in the years since its 2017 launch must be a moment of relief for Capcom.

Resident Evil 2, meanwhile, has finally overtaken… Resident Evil 2. Last year's excellent remake has reached 5.8 million sales, almost a million ahead of the original game for the PlayStation, which sits in the rank below it at 4.96 million. The remake has gained over one million extra sales since Capcom's last update of the list, which counted copies sold up to September 30, 2019.

Monster Hunter is still doing absolute gangbusters. The original release of Monster Hunter World is at a whopping 14.9 million sales, making it by far Capcom's best-selling game ever. That's double the sales of the next best-selling game, Resident Evil 5, at 7.6 million. Monster Hunter Freedom 3 (4.9), Monster Hunter Generations (4.3) and Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate (4.2) make up spots eight, nine and 10 on the list.
Monster Hunter World's Iceborne expansion wasn't released on PC until January, meaning sales for the platform aren't included here. Despite that, it managed to make a respectable 3.2 million sales on consoles since its launch in September 2019.
Devil May Cry 5 is also now officially the best-selling game in the series at 3.1 million sales, surpassing Devil May Cry 3 and 4. It's by no means Capcom's best-selling series, but having the latest game do well both critically and commercially has to mean we'll be seeing more Dante soon, right?
The only major black mark on Capcom's renaissance right now is its fighting game division. Street Fighter 5's 4.1 million sales has only just outsold the original SNES release of Street Fighter 2 Turbo. If you combine the various editions of Street Fighter 4, it also continues to outsell its successor. Still, Street Fighter 5 is still in the top 15. The same can't be said for Marvel vs. Capcom Infinite—that's currently at #60 with 1.4 million.
To recap, the current top 10 best-selling Capcom games are:
1)      Monster Hunter World: 14.9 million
2)      Resident Evil 5 (PS3/360 version): 7.6 million
3)      Resident Evil 6 (PS3/360 version): 7.4 million
4)      Resident Evil 7: 7 million
5)      Street Fighter 2 (SNES): 6.3 million
6)      Resident Evil 2 Remake: 5.8 million
7)      Resident Evil 2 (PS1): 4.96 million
8)      Monster Hunter Freedom 3 (PSP): 4.9 million
9)      Monster Hunter Generations (3DS): 4.3 million
10)   Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate (3DS): 4.2 million
Fighting games aside, the publisher seems well and truly back. Between Monster Hunter World, Resident Evil 2 and 7 and Devil May Cry 5, and with Resident Evil 3 looking to deliver too, we're in the middle of a Capcom golden age that nobody could've seen coming five years ago.
Here's hoping it can maintain this level of quality… at least until we get a new Bionic Commando. Please, Capcom.

Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous will have both real-time and turn-based combat modes

Owlcat Games has announced that Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous will be getting a much-requested turn-based combat mode.
In its latest Kickstarter update, Owlcat confirmed that, while the game, like its predecessor, is still being developed and balanced with real-time-with-pause combat in mind, it will also introduce an option that lets players play in a more traditional turn-based fashion as well.

Owlcat cites a specific mod for Kingmaker, 'Turn-based Combat' by Hsinyu, as the motivation behind adding the feature. Much like the mod, Wrath of the Righteous will let you swap between turn-based and real-time combat on the fly, to "fight any encounter in either mode at any moment".

Wrath of the Righteous has completely smashed its Kickstarter goal of £231,628, and at the time of writing is hovering just over £800,000 with 26 days still to go. All but one of its stretch goals achieved, meaning things like horse-mounted combat, extra companions, new races and animal companions are all going to be included in the game.
An indirect sequel to Kingmaker, Wrath of the Righteous is set in the demon-infested Worldwound, where you must juggle your usual RPG adventures—including potential romance options—with maintaining a stronghold and armies to help fend off the demonic invasion.
Considering it's still in the Kickstarter phase, we don't know a whole lot about Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous. Owlcat Games is aiming for a June 2021 release, though, which means we should be hearing a lot more about it in the months to come.

Faeria is the next free Epic Game Store game, Kingdom Come: Deliverance and Aztez are available now

The latest batch of freebies on Epic Game Store is now available, letting you grab Kingdom Come: Deliverance and Atzetz for the princely sum of $0/£0.
Kingdom Come: Deliverance is a historical first-person RPG set in medieval Bohemia. I haven't played it since it launched in 2018, but at the time it was a fine, if buggy, take on medieval life. Andy Kelly really liked it, though, and it's since expanded with comprehensive mod support and multiple expansions—although the latter aren't included as part of the giveaway.

The second game is Aztez, an indie mashup of beat 'em ups and turn-based strategy. Another historical game, this one is set in the Aztec empire in the 15th century. With a really cool Mad World-y art style and chaotic, strategic combat, it's by far the more interesting of the two titles.


Epic has also announced the next game to be given away in its relentless march of giving you every game ever created: Faeria. While Faeria superficially looks like Hearthstone in a lot of respects, its big hook is that you control and manipulate the board itself by placing various lands and carefully positioning your units.
Kingdom Come: Deliverance and Aztez will be available until February 20, at which point Faeria will be free instead.

Big changes are coming to the way Destiny 2 armor mods work next season

Destiny 2's Armor 2.0 system, introduced to the game last year in the Shadowkeep expansion, made some big and mostly positive changes to the game's handling of armor, particularly with regard to customization—the most important part of the game, as any serious Destiny player will tell you. One aspect of it that fell short, however, was elemental affinities—arc, void, or rolar—which affects what mods can be placed on armor. Under the current rules, if you don't like the affinity of a particular piece of armor, your only option is to re-grind and hope for the best, which is not ideal. In the next season, however, that will change.
"You’ll soon be able to change the Elemental Affinity on any piece of armor to either of the other two Affinity types directly from the item’s inspection screen by hovering your cursor over the armor's energy icon. This is intended to mitigate the experience of getting an armor drop with a stat roll you want, but the wrong Elemental Affinity," Bungie explained in today's This Week at Bungie update.

"Changing an armor Affinity type will cost 1 Upgrade Module. If your armor is already upgraded to a higher energy level, the cost will be the total upgrade materials necessary to reach that energy value plus 1 Upgrade Module."

The next season will also see a major change to seasonal mods: The seasonal armor mod socket will be now house mods released during the seasons before and after the armor piece was released: Armor with a mod socket from Season of Dawn will be able to equip mods from Season of Dawn, the preceding Season of the Undying, and whatever mods are released in the following season.
Only those seasons, however: Bungie community manager Cozmo23 clarified on Reddit that armor will be able to use three seasons of mods—current, preceding, and subsequent—in its seasonal socket. Our resident Destiny 2 survivor Tim Clark explains: "The community has been getting increasingly annoyed at creating a perfect gear set only to need to replace it every three months. This will help substantially with that, particularly as the current mods from Season of Dawn are actually really good." So good that we'll actually have a guide up on how to get the most from them tomorrow.
The next season of Destiny 2 hasn't been officially announced yet, but current rumors indicate that it will be called Season of the Worthy, it will begin on March 9, and it will bring back the Trials of Osiris PvP mode. Assuming that's at all close to the mark, we should be getting official word on what's coming very soon.

Stardew Valley creator would like everyone to please calm down

Earlier this week, Stardew Valley creator Eric "ConcernedApe" Barone said on Twitter that he's working on two new projects, a non-farming game set in the Stardew Valley game world, and another that's even less well-defined at this point. The comments got a lot of attention, despite their very casual, offhand nature: An awful lot of people really like Stardew Valley, and the promise of more—even if only tangentially connected—is exciting.
There was so much uproar, in fact, that the next day Barone politely asked everyone to dial it back a bit.

It's understandable that he'd want to manage expectations, especially at this very early stage of the process. Stardew Valley is a legitimate indie phenomenon, and the expectations for the followup will inevitably be very high. Why let the hype machine, and the attendant pressure, spin up now, when the release of these games is years—possibly a lot of years—away?

So for now, go tend to your farms—a bunch of new content was added in December, so there should still be lots to do—or if you're looking for a change of pace, maybe try your hand at Temtem or Hokko Life. Let the man work in peace.

Remedy has three games in development, including its own live service game

Remedy has announced in its latest financial report that it has three games currently in development, including its own take on Destiny/Division-style live service game.
Last year's rather excellent Control has been doing well for Remedy, as CEO Tero Virtala points to it and Alan Wake as being the two main contributors to its revenue last year (weirdly, no mention of Quantum Break, which came between the two). Because of that, three more games are currently in development.

The first has already been announced: it is the single-player component to Smilegate's FPS CrossFireX, which is heading to Xbox One later this year. Despite never making waves in the West, thanks to its immense popularity in China and other East Asian territories the original Crossfire is the single most-played game in the world, with over 660 million registered accounts. CrossFireX is intended to be a big push for the series into the West, so having a studio like Remedy working on it makes complete sense.

We know much less about the other two games. The first is an unnamed, undetailed game using Remedy's "own brands", which means it could be anything from a new Alan Wake to a whole new series. It's likely that this is going to be another of the kind of single-player action-adventure we've come to expect from Remedy.
The second is Vanguard, which is Remedy's own attempt at the games-as-a-service genre. According to Virtala, Vanguard is aiming to combine "long-term service-based multiplayer experiences with some of Remedy's unique game features". It's difficult to imagine what Remedy could mean by its own "unique game features", seeing as each of its recent games has been radically different to the last in both tone and mechanic. Working things like that out for Vanguard is about where the studio is at the moment, as Virtala says both it and the other game are still "preparing for pre-production".
These three projects don't mean work on Control has wrapped up, though. Virtala states that sales for the game have "settled on a good level", and that the two paid expansions previously announced in September are still in development. At least one of these expansions is due for release by the middle of this year, and it may well include a crossover with Alan Wake.
Which is good, because I will not die happy until we get a follow-up to Alan Wake.

Massive Entertainment producer confirms that Avatar game is still in development

It's been a long time since we last heard anything about Massive Entertainment's game based on James Cameron's Avatar, meaning it would've been easy to assume it had been quietly canned. Except, according to a Massive producer, The Division developer is still hard at work on it… it's just not ready to say anything else at the moment. In an interview with Screenrant, Jesper Karabanov confirmed that the game was still in development, but that he can't say anything else about it yet.
Under the working title The Avatar Project, it was initially announced back in 2017. Massive is internally split, with different teams working on The Division and on The Avatar Project independently. Since 2018, the Avatar team has been in its own office building which will serve as its home until the entire Massive studio moves into the new Eden building in April of this year. The studio has also been hiring for positions on the Avatar team, including an AI programmer, an animator, and an associate producer.

Guessing when The Avatar Project will come out is difficult. Avatar 2, the movie, isn't due out until December 2021, and then we're meant to be deluged with Avatar 3, 4 and 5 in the years after.

However, Ubisoft also has a very busy schedule before Avatar 2's launch, with Watch Dogs Legion, Gods & Monsters, Rainbow Six Quarantine, The Settlers and Roller Champions all due some time before then. And that's ignoring games with vaguer release dates, like Skull & Bones, Beyond Good and Evil 2 and the rumoured Norse-themed Assassin's Creed.
Is there a chance that this game will instead aim to release closer to Avatar 3's release in 2023? Right now, the last Avatar film was 12 years ago and doesn't have much of a grip on pop culture any more. It isn't a very lucrative series to adapt, so maybe waiting for the sequel to bring it back into public consciousness before releasing it would be the sensible thing to do?
Regardless, Karabanov's comments suggest we're a very long way away from hearing any more about The Avatar Project.

Untitled Goose Game wins Game of the Year at this year's DICE awards

House House's Untitled Goose Game has picked up the top honour at the 23rd Annual DICE awards, taking home the Game of the Year award.
At the awards ceremony held in Las Vegas, House House beat out Death Stranding, Control, Disco Elysium and Outer Wilds to be named the best game of 2019.

Its titular (or untitular?) Goose also won the award for Outstanding Achievement in Character, beating Cliff Unger and Sam Porter Bridges from Death Stranding, Jesse Faden from Control, and Greeze from Jedi: Fallen Order. It also won PC Gamer's award for the same thing.


To top things off, it also won the Outstanding achievement for an Independent Game award, where it beat out A Short Hike, Disco Elysium, Sayonara Wild Hearts and What the Golf?.
That horrible Goose didn't win everything, though. Remedy must also be happy with Control's performance, as it won Action Game of the Year and the Outstanding Achievement in Art Direction, Game Direction and Music Composition awards. That means it was the biggest winner of the evening, taking four categories compared to Untitled Goose Game's three and Death Stranding's two.
It wasn't just Untitled Goose Game representing the little developers, as other indies also saw success in the awards. Disco Elysium won for Outstanding Achievement in Story, Baba is You won the award for game design, and VR rhythm shooter Pistol Whip won Immersive Reality Game of the Year.
The full list of winners are:
Game of the Year: Untilted Goose Game
Action Game of the Year: Control
Family Game of the Year: Super Mario Maker 2
Fighting Game of the Year: Mortal Kombat 11
Adventure Game of the Year: Jedi: Fallen Order
Racing Game of the Year: Mario Kart Tour
RPG of the Year: The Outer Worlds
Sports Game of the Year: FIFA 20
Strategy/Simulation Game of the Year: Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Outstanding Achievement for an Independent Game: Untitled Goose Game
Portable Game of the Year: Sayonara Wild Hearts
Online Game of the Year: Apex Legends
Immersive Reality Technical Achievement: Blood & Truth
Immersive Reality Game of the Year: Pistol Whip
Outstanding Achievement in Game Design: Baba is You
Outstanding Achievement in Game Direction: Control
Outstanding Achievement in Animation: Luigi's Mansion 3
Outstanding Achievement in Art Direction: Control
Outstanding Achievement in Original Music Composition: Control
Outstanding Achievement in Audio Design: Death Standing
Outstanding Achievement in Character: Untitled Goose Game's Goose
Outstanding Achievement in Story: Disco Elysium
Outstanding Technical Achievement: Death Stranding
If you want to see the full list of nominees for each category, visit the

Katana Zero’s free DLC will be three times larger than expected

When last we checked in with Katana Zero, last year, they’d just added a crucial update where you can pet the cat. That is good. What followed was a pretty quiet period from askiisoft, developers of Katana Zero, as they worked on another game. They’ve just taken to their Twitter to say that the game’s expansion DLC is still on track and will still be free, it’s just taken longer than expected because it’s three times the size it was originally planned to be. This is, frankly, good because Katana Zero was good and I want as many more hours of it as they are willing to make for me.

Our Lauren Morton quite liked the action and flexibility of the samurai time-slower, giving Katana Zero a 79 in her review. “Katana Zero doesn't ask me to memorize and regurgitate combo chains that result in flashy custom moves,” she said, “Instead, it requires that I actually learn the few abilities at my disposal and come up with my own combinations that, when played back at the end of each level in real-time, make me feel like more of a badass than any predefined finishing move could.”

Askiisoft followed up the tweet with info about Katana Zero’s soundtrack on Vinyl, which is something that’s still in the works. You can read more about Katana Zero on its official website, or find it on Steam, Humble, or GOG for $15.

State of Decay 2 is receiving a big overhaul in time for its Steam release

State of Decay 2 has been a Microsoft Store exclusive since it launched in 2018, but will be arriving on Steam on March 13. When it does it'll be the Juggernaut Edition, a significantly expanded version of the original (and the Microsoft Store version will also be upgraded).
New in the Juggernaut Edition are an extra open-world map called Providence Ridge, an improved post-tutorial experience to introduce the mechanics, a new category of heavy melee weapons, various graphical improvements, more music, and some bug fixes. It'll also come with the Independence Pack, Daybreak Pack, and Heartland DLC for free.

Those who already bought the DLC separately will receive "some exclusive in-game gifts that won’t be available anywhere else" on launch day as detailed on the State of Decay blog.

Doosk is a Doom 2 mod that's full of weapons from Dusk

The newly released Doosk mod ports all the weapons from the fast-paced action game Dusk into the classic FPS Doom 2. Available to download on ModDB, The mod not only ports Dusk's weapons but also an array of features like game achievements, mutators, and an optional ZMovement.
The coming together of two of game's goriest retro shooters was uploaded by AlphaEnt and includes a bunch of features beyond just weapons. A few highlights are the custom HD that recreates the look of the original Dusk, an intruder mode where you start a level with only sickles for those who want a challenge, and the inclusion of ZMovement called "Dusk movement" that allows players to move around as you would in the original Dusk game. The mod description also says there will be a bigger Big John than Big Jon, keeping the meme from Dusk's developers New Blood Interactive alive.

There are plans to expand the mod further after its initial release. AlphaEnt explains that brightmaps, higher resolutions, and a custom map pack specifically for the mod will be added sometime in 2020. There's a possibility that custom maps and monsters will be added, but AlphaEnt hasn't started working on them yet.

If you want to see the mod in action, check out AlphaEnt2's YouTube video above which showcases a range of the mod's features. Before downloading, check the mod's specs list to make sure your PC can run it. With Doom Eternal just around the corner, this mod should give you all the bombastic gore you need to tide you over until Eternal's release. 

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare's battle royale mode apparently launches in March

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare will supposedly get a battle royale mode in March 2020, according to sources who spoke to VGC. The sources, who are apparently part of the US development team, said that the new mode is "at least a few weeks away" and, unless there are unexpected delays, will probably launch in early March.
The battle royale mode will be called Warzone and will be available to all existing Modern Warfare players. It will appear in the main menu where an option is currently listed as "CLASSIFIED." It's also said that the battle royale mode will be available for free as a standalone game but players of that version will be able to upgrade to the full version.

Apparently, the battle royale mode will have unified progression with the existing battle pass too. That would mean that any cosmetics you've unlocked already will carry over to the battle royale mode.

Finally, VGC's sources say that we'll hear more about Warzone this week. That's due to North American content creators reportedly having been invited to play and capture footage of the battle royale mode ahead of the announcement.
These rumours come after a week of leaks that seem to all point towards Modern Warfare getting a battle royale mode called Warzone. It all started when Activision announced the game's second season with a cinematic that included soldiers dropping from a plane onto what seems to be a larger map, surrounded by gas. All vital elements that go into a battle royale map and mode.
Dataminers then got to work and discovered files pertaining to something called Warzone. Meanwhile, some players accidentally found their way into the map seen in the cinematic via a bug. Hopefully we'll find out if any of the leaks were at all accurate soon.

EVE Online shooter cancelled to make way for a new EVE Online shooter

Project Nova, the in-development FPS spin-off to EVE Online, is officially dead according to CCP Games. The news was originally announced during a Pearl Abyss (CCP Games' parent company) earnings call over the weekend, but since then developers have taken to a few different forums to confirm the news and elaborate on what's happening.
To anyone who has followed Project Nova, the news probably isn't surprising. Originally announced over four years ago, Project Nova was CCP Games' second crack at making an FPS set in the EVE Online universe—though it wouldn't be connected to the MMO like its first FPS, Dust 514. CCP was obviously struggling to come up with exciting ideas, however, and after a disappointing hands-on session in October of 2018, Project Nova was put on hold indefinitely.

Given Project Nova's permanent delay, this weekend's announcement feels more like a formality than anything. But, amazingly, CCP Games still isn't giving up on making an EVE Online-based FPS. The London-based development team is going to try again under a different codename, and it sounds like the scope is going to be much more ambitious that Project Nova ever was.

"We're continuing to develop our sci-fi multiplayer shooter game concept actively evolving it beyond the original scope for what was formerly codenamed Project Nova," said George Kelion, CCP Games' head of public relations, on Reddit. "Development efforts on this concept are now the full focus of CCP’s London studio. Project Nova team members based in Iceland have been moved onto other projects at our Reykjavík studio."
Kelion explained this decision was motivated both by the poor reception of Project Nova's 2018 hands-on reveal and because the scope of the new idea for an EVE Online FPS is now much bigger. "It is very common for games in active development to evolve over time, often substantially," Kelion said. "We remain committed to offering a rock-solid, action-oriented gameplay experience with stellar visuals, but due to significant changes in the scope and direction of our sci-fi multiplayer shooter game concept, it also made sense to update how we refer to this project internally. So, we are no longer using the codename Project Nova for this game concept."
But don't expect news on this new project any time soon. Kelion also said CCP Games would refrain from revealing projects too early in the future. "We want to show you rather than tell you how we have evolved this concept and we’re looking forward to doing so when the time comes to present this concept as a fully-fledged game."