Posted by: xSicKxBot - 04-15-2020, 04:56 AM - Forum: Minecraft
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NVIDIA announces Minecraft with RTX
Today, NVIDIA has announced Minecraft with RTX. This is an update to the Windows 10 Edition of the game (this is NOT the Java Edition of the game) which enables some RTX features. If you’re an avid resource pack creator, or if you love your game to look amazing, then this will be for you.
Here’s a link to their official beta announcement trailer. Enjoy the pretty previews of what RTX can do with Minecraft.
In case you don’t want to view the trailer, here are some screenshots of how Minecraft looks with RTX.
With this beta, NVIDIA is introducing several maps to help showcase RTX on the Minecraft Marketplace. These maps were made by members of the community, and are highly detailed and show off the power of what an RTX-enabled Minecraft looks like. These maps will be available free of charge to the community.
As stated before, this is the Windows 10 Edition of the game. This is not Java Edition. As such, you will need to own the Windows 10 Edition in order to enjoy this. However, if you bought Java Edition before October 19th, 2018, then you are eligible for a free copy of the Windows 10 Edition. You can view more information about it here, but hurry, this deal expires April 20th!
Nemesis Returns: Resident Evil 3 is Available Now on Xbox One
Summary
Overcome chilling encounters in a constant fight for survival that ratchets up the genre-defining horror game’s intensity.
Nail-biting exploration complements the gripping puzzle solving that fans have come to love.
Includes Resident Evil Resistance, an asymmetrical multiplayer game set in the Resident Evil universe.
The wait is over, and it’s time to begin your escape from the streets of Raccoon City. For Jill Valentine, it may very well be her last time wandering the streets of the place she once called home – her last escape. Resident Evil 3 is available now for Xbox One, with Resident Evil Resistance, an asymmetrical 4 vs. 1 multiplayer game set in the Resident Evil universe, included!
Taking place concurrently with the events of Resident Evil 2, Jill Valentine has little choice but to venture out into a city in chaos in order to seek a way out. She’ll have more than just shambling zombies to deal with, however, as it’s quickly revealed that a terrifying creature, known as Nemesis, is after her, with one goal in mind – ensuring Jill never sees daylight again.
Taking cues from the original Resident Evil 3: Nemesis while building upon the re-imagined Raccoon City introduced in last year’s Resident Evil 2, RE3 explores a vibrant city and various locales as Jill Valentine’s skills as a police officer and member of S.T.A.R.S. are put to the test. True to survival horror tradition, you’ll need to manage your items and ammunition carefully if you want to make it through all the horrors that Raccoon City has in store with the terrifying Nemesis chasing you throughout.
That’s not all that’s available starting today; Resident Evil Resistance, an asymmetrical multiplayer game set in the Resident Evil universe, is also included with Resident Evil 3! Pitting four Survivors against a maniacal Mastermind, it’s up to the team of four to make their way through a series of deadly experiments filled with traps, creatures, and familiar bioweapons – like the Tyrant – from the Resident Evil universe. There’s a bit of a twist to this game, though: a real live player is taking the role of a Mastermind, populating their own house of horrors to stop the Survivors at every opportunity. While the Survivors are an all-new cast, you’ll see some familiar faces among the Masterminds, such as Umbrella researcher Annette Birkin and the master of fear, Alex Wesker. Resident Evil Resistance is included with Resident Evil 3, available now for Xbox One on the Microsoft Store.
RESIDENT EVIL 3
CAPCOM CO., LTD.
☆☆☆☆☆
★★★★★
Jill Valentine is one of the last remaining people in Raccoon City to witness the atrocities Umbrella performed. To stop her, Umbrella unleashes their ultimate secret weapon; Nemesis! Also includes Resident Evil Resistance, a new 1 vs 4 online multiplayer game set in the Resident Evil universe where four survivors face-off against a sinister Mastermind.
Posted by: xSicKxBot - 04-15-2020, 04:56 AM - Forum: Lounge
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Video Game Deep Cuts: The Animal Crossing Minutes
The following blog post, unless otherwise noted, was written by a member of Gamasutras community. The thoughts and opinions expressed are those of the writer and not Gamasutra or its parent company.
We’re back again with Video Game Deep Cuts on Substack, folks. I got some good feedback on the revamped newsletter, so there’s going to be a couple of tweaks, hurrah.
Since I’m on sabbatical from the dayjob, I could actually make multiple of these ‘core’ free VGDC newsletters per week. But it’s a slippery slope timewise. So I’ll be keeping it to two newsletters per week (one for free, one for paid subscribers!) for now – enjoy!
Posted by: xSicKxBot - 04-15-2020, 04:56 AM - Forum: Lounge
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ESRB ratings will now note if in-game purchases involve random items
The Entertainment Software Rating Board is adding a new clarification to its on-package game rating system, and will now specify if a game’s real-money transactions involve any sort of random element like a loot box mechanic with a “in-game purchases (includes random items)” label.
It’s an evolution of the “in-game purchases” label that the ESRB rolled out back in 2018 in response to rising loot box concerns, and one that aims to help better inform parents and players alike about what kind of premium transactions a game features.
Loot boxes tend to be the surprise mechanic that garners the most public concern, the new “includes random items” specification also covers gacha mechanics, in-game card packs, prize wheels, and similar features that attach elements of chance to either real-world money or premium game currency.
While ESRB research shows that parents are mostly concerned with if a game simply offers real-money transactions, the board says that it received numerous requests from “consumers and enthusiasts” to tighten up its existing language and note if a game’s transactions include loot boxes.
The previous in-game purchases label will still be used to flag any game that features any sort of digital transaction like cosmetics, expansions, or other forms of DLC.
Ring Fit Adventure is a different type of adventure game for Switch which uses a couple of unique accessories that detect and measure your real-world movements and turn them into in-game actions. The Ring-Con and Leg Strap accessories bundled with the game enable players to explore and battle in the game world using the power of real-world exercise. Blast those quads, pump those glutes!
It’s a little like Wii Fit was back in the day, although with a little more workout and a lot more game.
If you’re after a fun way to burn some calories while gaming on your Switch, Ring Fit Adventure could be just the ticket. It’s out now (if you can find the hot-ticket item, that is), so feel free to look for a copy below. The game’s popularity has led to global stock shortages and some of the retailer’s links may go out of stock or be restocked again with little notice. Be sure to check back if at first you don’t succeed, and good luck on your fitness quest.
Please note that some links on this page are affiliate links, which means if you click them and make a purchase we may receive a small percentage of the sale. Please read our FTC Disclosure for more information.
Pixelbox is a brand new all-in-one 2D game engine perfect for game jams or other small projects. Combining an easy to use JavaScript API with a complete set of editing tools including a map editor, sprite tools, palette tools, sound FX and music tools in a single >60MB download. Pixelbox is open source under the MIT license.
Documentation for Pixelbox coding is available on the GitHub page. There is also a beginners tutorial available over on Itch.io. Pixelbox also includes a stand alone music tracker application called Pata Tracker, documentation for which is available here.
Pixelbox is available for download on Windows and MacOS right here. Since it is an electron application, it should be possible to build a Linux install, but no binaries are currently provided. You can learn more about Pixelbox in the video below.
Apple Arcade has a brand new title in the form of Scrappers, a multiplayer beat-’em-up in which you literally clean up the streets as a team of robot garbage collectors. It takes place in the future, after humanity has destroyed itself. We thought it was a great idea to fire all of the world’s rubbish into space in a rocket, which subsequently crashed down and destroyed the planet.
Skip to the not-so-distant future and robots have taken over. Trash has become a valuable commodity; so much so that rival gangs now stalk the streets looking to keep it all for themselves, and you have to fight them off as you complete your daily rounds. You can partner up with three other players in multiplayer, or go it alone across the game’s over 20 different stages.
There are two key components to Scrappers: cleaning up the streets and beating up any fools trying to stop you. You run around picking up trash and passing it to your teammates, who are carrying a huge stack. The larger the stack, and the more you work together as a team, the greater the rewards.
Then there’s the combat, which should appeal to fans of Streets of Rage. You perform a variety of different combos and attacks, whether it’s with a weapon or your fists. You can unlock new weapons and ‘Scrappers’ (playable characters) by getting high scores, which also provides custom parts that you can use to tweak your garbage truck.
Aside from the lengthy campaign, there are a bunch of minigames to participate in, which you unlock by completing levels on a Super Mario World-style map. There are four different areas to travel through, which are wholly different from each other visually.
If you think you have what it takes to clean up the city of Junktown, head on over to the App Store right now and download it. You’ll need an Apple Arcade subscription to play it.
Apple was the most imitated brand in phishing attempts in Q1 2020
By Mike Peterson Tuesday, April 14, 2020, 12:16 pm PT (03:16 pm ET)
Apple was the most imitated brand in web-based phishing campaigns in the first quarter of 2020, new research shows.
An example of a fradulent Apple phishing page. Credit: Malwarebytes Lab
Phishing remains one of the most popular tactics for cybercriminals and other bad actors to steal data or money across through fraudulent links sent via email, text or web browser redirects.
According to a new report from cybersecurity firm Checkpoint, web-based phishing campaigns remained the most popular in Q1 2020, accounting for 59% of attempts. Apple ranked as the most imitated brand for the category, followed by Netflix, PayPal, and eBay.
Apple’s jump from 7th place in the fourth quarter of 2019 to first place in Q1 2020 may have been the result of phishing campaigns attempting to take advantage of the buzz surrounding unreleased Apple products, Checkpoint theorizes.
Due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, there are a few other notable changes. Mobile-based phishing detections became the second most common attack vector, up from third place in Q4 2019, likely due to more users working from home. Previously, email ranked in second place.
Services commonly used in both at-home leisure and work, like PayPal and Netflix, also saw a boost in popularity between the Q4 2019 and the beginning of Q1 2020.
Checkpoint notes that the total number of brand-based phishing attempts remained stable between Q4 2019 and Q1 2020.
Earlier in April, the U.S. and U.K. governments warned citizens against clicking on any suspicious links to supposed relief websites.
Review: Overcooked 2: Gourmet Edition – The Perfect Recipe For Multiplayer Fun
After nearly two years of regular post-launch support, it seems that Team17 and Ghost Town Games are finally ‘finished’ with Overcooked 2. The developers have been provided some excellent additions in the time since launch, and all of it is now being tied together with the aptly named Overcooked 2: Gourmet Edition. For the purposes of this bonus DLC review, we’ll be focusing more on the content introduced in the expansions; if you‘d like to know more about the core game, feel free to read our full review of it here.
In addition to the full experience of the base game, Overcooked 2: Gourmet Edition also includes a few themed mini-campaigns that were added, alongside a slew of new cooks that you can play as across any of the content. One thing we’d like to highlight right away is that all these expansions taken together provide a substantial amount of extra content. Viewing it from purely a quantity standpoint, the DLC content actually doubles the length of the base game, and it introduces several new and cool gameplay mechanics, too. In many ways, one could even view all this extra content as a soft-sequel. It’s all built upon the foundation of Overcooked 2, but the new mechanics that are explored elevate the content higher than ‘just’ themed level packs.
We’ll start this off by delving into the three expansions offered by the season pass, the first of which is called Campfire Cook-Off. Here, the cooks trade in their chef hats for much more functional baseball caps and take their kitchen skills into the backcountry, where campfire s’mores reign king. The deep woods aesthetic presented here looks great, and it’s punctuated by small details like how the knives you chop food up with are replaced by axes. These axes are actually tied to a bigger game mechanic, too, as you must periodically chop up wood to place on the fire so you can keep cooking with it. Additionally, some levels feature heavy backpacks that must be worn at all times by your cooks, each of which contains an essential ingredient for the dish you’re making. Together, these two mechanics sufficiently add some interesting wrinkles to the standard gameplay, as you must now be vigilant of various cooking temperatures and have to basically chase after ingredients.
The next expansion is called Night of the Hangry Horde, and it trades in the rustic locales of the last expansion in favour of much spookier, horror-themed kitchens. Most notably, this DLC introduces a brand new horde mode that introduces light survival horror elements to the standard arcade action. Here, instead of just having one delivery window, there are now three or four, and they are each regularly bombarded by the ravenous Unbread. While the Unbread zombies wait for you to finish their orders, they’ll attack the boards nailed over their window, and you’ll have to regularly spend the money you make from orders to keep nailing new boards in place lest the zombies come in and lower your castle’s health bar. Additionally, Night of the Hangry Horde introduces a couple of other new game mechanics in its main levels, wherein you must regularly shovel coal into a furnace to keep the ovens going and the chopping boards have been replaced by a guillotine that instantly cuts whatever food you place beneath it. The new game mechanics and game mode introduced here make Night of the Hangry Horde the best of the expansions, exemplifying everything that one could ask for out of a DLC expansion.
The final DLC in the season pass is Carnival of Chaos, which sees our cooks showing off their prowess underneath the Big Top. Compared to the previous two expansions, this one feels a little more rote in its execution, but it still introduces some cool mechanics to make life hell for you. The most notable of these is a cannon which can fire cooks across the map. It requires at least two cooks to use – one to climb in, and the other to fire the button – and occasionally must be aimed properly to ensure the projectile cook reaches the correct destination. Additionally, Carnival of Chaos introduces the idea of combo meals to the mix, which often necessitates the usage of new condiment and beverage machines. Though Carnival of Chaos is missing a ‘wow’ factor here to really change up the way you approach your cooking, it still provides some sufficiently challenging levels to grapple with and is a joy to experience.
The next notable DLC is a standalone campaign of equal length called Surf ‘n’ Turf, which sees your cooks donning their swim trunks and providing service at a beachfront restaurant. Most notably, there’s usually no sink to wash dishes here; instead, your cooks must use a nearby water gun to both wash dishes and put out occasional fires. Additionally, fireplace bellows are often used to stoke the fires for making kebabs. You’d be surprised how much these seemingly innocuous tools can affect your performance, and the near-constant presence of water ensures that Surf ‘n’ Turf features some of the toughest level design in Overcooked 2.
Finally, there’s the Seasonal Update content, which was added for free to the base game for all players to enjoy. The first of these is a campaign centred around the Chinese New Year, and it most notably introduces another new game mode called ‘Survival’. Here, you add precious seconds to the clock with each successfully delivered order, and your goal is simply to make it as far as you can before failing. The other half of the seasonal content is called Winter Wonderland and sees your cooks making various Christmas themed desserts in freezing snowscapes. This content pulls together several ideas introduced in all the previous DLC’s, making it a sort of variety pack that keeps you guessing.
Conclusion
In case you haven’t gathered it yet from reading thus far, Team17 and Ghost Town Games explored a lot of cool ideas via DLC content, and ensured that each expansion had unique theming and gameplay mechanics. Considering that all of this is offered in addition to the absolutely stellar base campaign – which already felt complete on its own – Overcooked 2: Gourmet Edition really stands as a no-brainer. Overcooked 2 is one of the very best local co-op games you can currently buy for the Switch, and if you’ve been looking for that next game to play when you have friends over, look no further than this.
Super Pixel Racers Brings Nostalgic Top-Down Arcade Racing To Switch This Week
If you’re into your top-down arcade racers, Super Pixel Racers looks like it could well be worth a go when it launches on Switch later this week.
With 2D pixel graphics and a 16-bit soundtrack sure to have you reminiscing over the good old days, Super Pixel Racers has players taking on a range of different race styles. You can use any winnings you make to buy new cars with their own individual driving qualities and upgrade schemes. The aim here is to try out different cars and find the style which suits your playing style the best.
Here’s a look at the race styles you can expect to enjoy, as well as some other handy features:
Rally Cross: Classic race against up to 7 other drivers
Rally: Reach checkpoints on a procedurally generated outdoor track
Land Rush: Be in front of the pack when the time ends
Takedown: Destroy the other cars
Hunt: Chase the target down
Drift Show: Score points by drifting
Thirteen Unique Racetracks: From desert dunes to the city streets. A host of unique pixel environments set the stage for some truly super pixel racing.
Hone your drifting, score some Nitro: The more you drift, the quicker your nitro gauge fills up. Use it for an instant hit of speed; equally useful for dodging obstacles or slamming into opponents.
Vehicle Damage & Explosion Mechanics: In-race collisions result in visible damage to your pixel racer. Once a car takes too many hits, it goes up in flames!
The game is set to launch on Switch this Thursday, 16th April. You can pick it up for $14.99 / £11.69, although a 10% discount is available if you grab it from the eShop before launch.
Like the look of this one? Think you’ll take it for a spin? Tell us below.
