Fortnite's Avengers: Endgame Black Widow Skin Gets An Extension
Fortnite's 8.50 update is now live across PS4, Xbox One, PC, Switch, and mobile devices, kicking off the game's highly anticipated Avengers: Endgame limited-time event. That isn't the extent of the crossover, however. Epic has also introduced an assortment of new Avengers-inspired cosmetics to the battle royale game, including a cool skin based on Black Widow.
The Black Widow outfit, which you can see below, is available for purchase now from Fortnite's in-game store. It costs 1,500 V-Bucks and comes in two variants: one with red hair, and one with blonde. It also includes a matching Back Bling. On top of that, Epic is selling a Widow's Bite harvesting tool skin for 800 V-Bucks, as well as a Widow's Pirouette emote for 200.
The Black Widow skin had been listed as a limited-time offer, to expire on the same day of its release at 5 PM PT / 8 PM ET. A day later, though, the skin is still available and the countdown has reset. That gives you at least a few more hours to grab it. There's no telling when or if it will cycle back again, but Epic has said another Avengers outfit will be going on sale "early next week."
Meanwhile, the Fortnite Endgame LTM will run through to the end of Season 8. This special mode has players either siding with Thanos and his Chitauri Invaders or the Heroes trying to stop them. Those on Team Thanos must find the six Infinity Stones scattered around the island in order to power up the mad titan, while players on the Heroes' side will need to find the Avengers' iconic weapons and wield them against the villains. There's also a set of Fortnite Endgame challenges to complete, which will unlock more Avengers-inspired cosmetics.
Epic has already issued a hotfix to the LTM, which buffs many of Thor's moves, nerfs Iron Man's gauntlet blast, and awards a little less health for gathering the infinity stones.
On top of all that, Week 9's challenges are also live in Fortnite, which means we're quickly nearing the end of Season 8. That also means you only have a little more time to complete any outstanding challenges from this season and unlock the remaining Battle Pass rewards. If you need any help, we've rounded up tips for the trickier tasks in our complete Season 8 challenges guide.
First Images Of Cartridge-Based Retro Console The Evercade Revealed
The first pictures of the Evercade, a retro-oriented handheld console, have been released showing off the cartridges the system will use and announcing the first publisher to jump on board: Atari.
As you can see, the system features a traditional control template with the face buttons adopting the Xbox layout (or Dreamcast, if you prefer). It has a 4.3-inch screen and the ability to output to a TV via HDMI. We quite like the detailing and colouring of these renders and it’ll be intriguing to see how the finished product compares.
The first multi-game cartridge to be released will feature 20 classic Atari games including Centipede, Tempest and Missile Command, with further announcements of upcoming cartridges expected soon.
Prices for the console are split between the Standard edition which bundles one cart for £59.99 / €69.99 / $79.99, or the Premium version with three carts for £79.99 / €89.99 / $99.99. That’s a significant chunk of money to play some old Atari games, but may be attractive if the console performs well from an emulation perspective and feels comfortable to use.
Beyond the renders and the Atari announcement, the system’s vital stats remain as previously reported earlier this month. While its ability to connect to a TV might position it as a Switch rival, this is really a much smaller project with more humble – specifically retro – ambitions. While Atari’s endorsement is hardly a seal of quality, it’s admirable that the makers of the Evercade are eager to attract big names and we’re interested to see what other publishers they’ve got lined up.
Fans of old games will want to keep an eye on its progress, and purists will want to disable that ‘stretched’ 16:9 mode immediately. Our biggest criticism (well, our only criticism really) of the brilliant GBA SP is how easy it is to hit ‘L’ by accident and stretch GB or GBC games horribly to fill the entire screen. Frightful.
How does the Evercade look to you? Do you think these renders will reflect the final product? Share your thoughts below.
Atelier Lulua: The Scion of Arland Will Have Key New Battle Features
Koei Tecmo has released some brand new details for Atelier Lulua: The Scion of Arland, the latest entry in the Atelier series which is landing on Switch next month.
You can see some of the game’s combat in action for yourself thanks to a newly released trailer (we’ve shared that for you above) but we also have some written info directly from the publisher. If you want to learn all about the game’s turn-based battle system, read on:
Alchemists exploring Arland for raw materials should always be prepared for battle — these beautiful lands are not only home to important resources but dangerous creatures waiting to attack. Atelier Lulua: The Scion of Arland features a turn-based battle system where players can form a party consisting of five members: three attackers and two taking a supportive role. Support members automatically perform Assist Attacks to compliment the attacker’s actions, and aiming to trigger these regularly will ensure that maximum damage is dealt to enemies.
Attackers have an arsenal of unique skills they can use to strike enemy weaknesses. For example, the talented Eva can use the Range Shift skill; expanding her area of attack for a few rounds. These abilities can also aid in the decryption of the Alchemy Riddle, helping players unlock new synthesis recipes and further skills. Depending on the formation of attackers at the start of an encounter, a special dormant ability known as a Primal Art can also be awakened. These arts automatically activate to offer the party support through their battle in the form of increasing Item Damage, or even increasing Attack Damage, for the entirety of the fight.
In Atelier Lulua: The Scion of Arland, alchemists are able to utilize the new Interrupt ability, offering the chance for them to perform a special Interrupt Skill and use a pre-equipped item, outside of their turn. Once the gauge is full from performing attacks, the skill can be triggered and the pre-equipped item will not be consumed when used – giving the attacking team the upper hand against powerful foes.
That’s not all, though, as Koei Tecmo America has also shared details regarding early purchase DLC bonuses and a Limited Edition version of the game. If you pick up the game either digitally or physically within the first month of launch, you’ll receive the ‘Innocent Fairy’ and ‘Fish Girl’ costumes for Lulua via exclusive DLC.
A Limited Edition version of the game will also be exclusively available through the NISA Online Store, including a physical version of the game, a hardcover art book, the Sound Archives official soundtrack, keychains of Lulua & Rorona, and a deluxe cloth poster.
Are you an Atelier fan? Looking forward to this one? Remember, Atelier Lulua: The Scion of Arland launches on 21st May.
Red Faction Guerrilla Switch Release Date Confirmed
A year after THQ Nordic handled development of the remaster, Red Faction: Guerrilla Re-Mars-tered Edition is making its way to the Nintendo Switch. The game initially launched in 2009, before seeing a current-gen remaster last year, and the open-world shooter will land on Nintendo's portable handheld on July 2.
It will feature everything that came with the remaster and will retail for $29.99 / €29.99 / £26.99. THQ has also confirmed that there will be a physical release with an appropriately-colored red spine.
Germany-based studio Kaiko Games, the developers who ported games like Darksiders Warmastered Edition and Legend of Kay Anniversary Edition, is in charge of the remastered Nintendo Switch port. Red Faction: Guerrilla Re-Mars-tered Edition will feature the choice between Performance and Quality modes, full reworked graphics and textures, improved lighting and shadow rendering, and reworked shaders and prostprocessing effects. The game will be on the Nintendo Switch, so it'll also come with the option of motion control activiation.
Red Faction: Guerrilla Re-Mars-tered Edition is available now for PC, PS4, and Xbox One.
Video: BOXBOY! + BOXGIRL! Is Out Now, Here’s A Launch Trailer To Celebrate
BOXBOY! + BOXGIRL! is the latest Nintendo-published title to fly on to the Switch’s digital shelves, puzzling its way to a hybrid console near you today.
The 2D puzzle-platformer features a trio of quadratic characters – Qbby, Qucy and Qudy. The latter of these – the tall one – stars in this new launch trailer, tackling puzzles which force players to think outside the rectangle. You’ll also get a quick look at the new outfits available to customise your characters.
The game features 270 stages, which just so happens to be the most in the series to date, and for the first time, two players can work together to solve puzzles. We’ll have a full review of the game for you in the near future, but if you can’t wait until then, you can always try out the demo that’s available right now on the eShop. If you’re intrigued, it’s probably worth giving it a go.
The full game can be purchased from the Switch eShop from today for $9.99 / £8.99.
Mario Tennis Aces Gets Free Week-Long Demo, 7-Day Online Subscription Included
If you still haven’t got round to picking up a copy of Mario Tennis Aces yet, you may want to head to the eShop and download this brand new demo which has appeared today.
The Mario Tennis Aces: Special Demo – to give it its full name – is available to download as we speak and runs for a full week until 10am CEST on Friday 3rd May. Grabbing the demo gives you the chance to take to the court and experience a variety of game modes, and will also let you reap some special rewards that can then be carried over into the full game, should you decide to pick it up at a later date.
Playing just one match in this week-long tournament unlocks an outfit for Mario that decks him out in classic overalls, and you can also collect points in the demo’s Co-op Challenge mode, giving you the chance to unlock blue, red and yellow Yoshi that can also be used right away in the demo or in the full version of the game.
That’s not all, though, as anyone who downloads the demo will also receive an email with a Nintendo eShop code to activate a seven-day free trial for Nintendo Switch Online, perfect for trying all the features of this membership service. Players can use this code even if they’ve taken part in a previous free trial.
Will you be checking out this demo today? Do you already own the full game? Let us know if you’ll be taking to the court in the comments.
Posted by: xSicKxBot - 04-27-2019, 12:26 PM - Forum: Windows
- No Replies
Introducing the 2019 Imagine Cup Americas Regional Final judges
Our 12 recently announced Imagine Cup Americas Regional Finalists are advancing to the in-person Regional Final in just less than a week to compete for over USD20,000 in prizes and the last spot in the 2019 World Championship.
Student teams will travel to Seattle, Washington and present a live demo of their projects in front of a panel of four expert judges. Coming from varied backgrounds in technology, industry, and management, judges’ professional experience will allow them to evaluate if a team’s solution uses innovative technology and presents an original idea built on Azure.
Judges for each Regional Final have the opportunity to ask questions and review each project hands-on before ultimately deciding who will move forward. Each team is judged on the same criteria: project technology, innovation, feasibility to take to market, and concept. The Americas Regional winner will advance to compete against teams Caeli from Asia and Finderr from the UK at the 2019 World Championship at Microsoft Build on May 6. Follow the action live on Twitter and Instagram as our Americas regional finalists and judges head to Seattle!
Meet our Americas Regional Final Judges
Donovan Brown Principal Cloud Advocate, Microsoft
Donovan Brown is the Principal DevOps Manager of the League. The League is a team of Cloud Developer Advocates, focusing on Azure and DevOps. Before joining Microsoft, Donovan spent seven years as a Process Consultant and a Certified Scrum Master. Donovan has traveled the globe helping companies develop solutions using agile practices in many industries. Donovan is an avid programmer, often finding ways to integrate software into his other hobbies and activities.
Rebecca Lovell Director at Create33
Mission-driven leader with over 20 years of operating and management experience in public and private sectors, within for-profit and non-profit organizations. Experienced in strategy and program development and implementation, mentorship, and team-building. Accomplished public speaker committed to race and social justice, gender equity, education, and entrepreneurship.
Paul Maher GM Industry Experiences, Microsoft
Paul has over 20 years in the IT industry across a variety of technology focused roles. He was asked to return to Microsoft by Scott Guthrie to build a new team in Azure engineering called Industry Experiences. The team is focused on helping industry customers and partners with their move to the cloud. Paul lives with his wife and two children in Seattle and holds a B.S. in Mathematics from Sheffield University.
Shana Matthews Program Manager, Microsoft
Shana Matthews is a Program Manager at Microsoft focused on learning content, strategies, and tools for student developers. She strives to make cloud computing intuitive for young programmers through improving products, documentation, and learning resources. Previously, Shana was a software engineer on the Windows Mixed Reality team where she created geospatial APIs for 3rd party developers. Shana holds a B.S. in Computer Science from Iowa State University.
Don’t miss out on the chance to see which student developer team will take home USD100,000 and a mentoring session with Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella. Save the date for May 6 at 8:00am PT to watch the 2019 Imagine Cup World Championship live at Microsoft Build.
We’re starting to get a bit inundated with interesting review projects again – we managed to cover off a few like Solar Settlers & Egypt: Old Kingdom this week, but there are more on the horizon and already out that we’ll try to keep on top off.
Generally it feels like it’s been a good month for releases, so hopefully it’s a trend that continues through to May.
Do you like board games? Do you like Zombies? Then it’s highly likely you’ve at least heard of, if not played, Zombicide. It’s been enjoying the fruits of several successive Kickstarters to release many seasons and spin-off physical games, and now it’s ready to take on digital platforms thanks to Asmodee Digital.
Tactics & Shotguns seems to have gone down the solitaire route for this game, with a 40 mission-long campaign that allows you to unlock up to four characters. It’s a shame, but then Zombicide’s co-op qualities could be considered fairly superficial, as there’s not as much about its design that demands more than one person run the team. Those looking for another way to play this game with friends via mobile devices will be disappointed, but if you need something to bide your time on a long-journey, this may fit the bill. The animation looks slick as least, and it seems to follow the rules quite closely.
There are also IAPs for additional scenarios/heroes.
Nomads of the Fallen Star (iOS & Android) – Full review coming soon!
Now this is something we can really sink our teeth into. This sci-fi fuelled cross between Mount & Blade & Battle Brothers seems like the perfect thing to whittle away those hours, from the same studio that brought us Star Nomad 2 a couple of years ago.
You are the leader of band of mercenaries/scavengers trying to eek out an existence in the harsh reality of a floundering colony, cut off from the rest of the galaxy. You’ve got to hire soldiers and do what needs to be done to survive, and reportedly there’s a very robust economic system that reacts to the player’s actions and decisions.
It seems like an excellent sandbox game for mobile, and we’ll bring you our full thoughts on the game as soon as we can.
Mini Gal4Xy (iOS & Android) – Full review coming soon!
Jerome Bodin gave us the rather excellent Frost back in 2016, and now he’s finally returned to the mobile stage with an altogether different proposition. Mini Galaxy is a ‘light’ 4X strategy game that offers some good, clean 4X fun. The systems are simple, yet robust, and the world is colourful and engaging enough to see you through to victory.
Every galaxy you spawn is procedurally generated, and this is meant to be a more accessible distillation of the genre, although it should offer enough for veterans to scratch that itch while they’re on the move.
The final game to catch our eye this week was The Monster Game, which is a card-based RPG that’s only on iOS but seemed interesting. There’s a danger it could be just like every other card/rpg game that’s released recently, but we’ll check it out when we can.
Updates
There’s not been many headline updates that we’ve seen, but Star Traders: Frontiers, Evolution: The Video Game and Stardew Valley have all had minor patches pushed out over the last week or so.
Last week will told you about the impending update for Star Traders involving carriers. At the time of writing, it hadn’t hit mobile yet, but in case you weren’t aware both iOS and Google Play versions of the game now have carriers, so enjoy!
Sales
As with updates, there’s nothing really that’s taken our fancy that stands-out – a couple of usual suspects are on sale again, but not at prices that are any better than what’s been done previously. If you see anything you feel should be added, let us know!
Several weeks ago, Godot 3.1 finally shipped after a year of development. Since then, several details and hints about what are coming in the 3.1 release have become available. This post is gathering all of those details together in a single place.
There have been a few posts on the Godot website detailing 3.1 features:
In addition to these announced features, several more have been discussed on Twitter.
Now what’s not happening in Godot 3.2:
Godot 4.0 is a release much further down the road and will include the Vulkan renderer and other improvements. For details on the 4.0 release check out this previous post.
In the near future, where Earth has been ravaged by robot invaders, the fate of the planet rests of the shoulders of a young girl who becomes more than human. Saved from death and cursed with cybernetic powers beyond comprehension, it's up to Reika Rekkeiji to save humanity from the evil Ajeet in this exciting new game from legendary developer Game Freak. GIGA WRECKER ALT. combines frantic platforming, intense combat and physics-based puzzle challenges into one exciting adventure. By destroying robotic enemies and the world around her, Reika can form the resulting debris into all manner of weapons and tools. Use these to overcome obstacles and solve puzzles, navigate through platform-laiden levels, then take the fight to the robot invaders and save mankind from extinction before it's too late.
