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Knights and Bikes, which launched on PS4, Xbox One, and PC in August last year, is now making its way to Nintendo Switch. The action-adventure game, which sees two kids team up to explore an island, and which can be played entirely in co-op, will come to Nintendo’s portable system on February 6.

The game is available to preorder on the Eshop now, and doing so before the game’s release will net you a 10% discount. You’ll be able to play the game with just one Joy-Con, which is ideal for playing the game in co-op on the go.

The Switch is getting a lot of games lately, including forty next week, but Knights and Bikes stands out. It got an 8/10 in our review, and reviewer David Wildgoose called it a “wonderfully warm, effortlessly inviting experience that’ll make you feel young again.”

Knights and Bikes was published by Double Fine, which is unlikely to publish more games now that Microsoft owns the studio.

Super Monkey Ball: Banana Blitz HD for Steam has received a strange new update that lets you ditch your ball for three other shapes. The game, which first released on the Wii back in 2006 before eventually getting a HD remaster on consoles and PC in 2019, will now let you ditch the ball on PC–but you can’t just control the monkey directly.

On the character select screen, you can now alter what plastic shape AiAi is rolling around in (it’s seemingly not possible for the other monkeys). Type in “cube” and you’ll end up in a cube-shaped lump of plastic; the same is true if you type in “triangle” or “star”. This will also affect how you move, it seems, as the physics differ between shapes.

In a follow-up tweet, it’s been clarified that this update is only coming to the Steam version, and that while you can use it on every level, it’s not guaranteed that you can actually beat all of them in these other forms–you might need to turn back into a ball to finish the game.

The Super Monkey Ball series could return if Banana Blitz HD does well. The game earned a 5/10 in our review, in which I wrote that it is “not a good showcase of what made the series work.”

Star Trek: Picard News and Features

PlayStation has confirmed the first event of the FIA certified Gran Turismo Championships 2020 season will take place in Sydney, Australia on February 15-16

The event promises 50 of the world’s fastest Gran Turismo racers from Europe, the Americas, and Asia going wheel-to-wheel with Australian and New Zealand competitors, including Cody Nikola Latkovski (who grabbed second in both the Nations Cup and Manufacturer Series at the 2019 World Finals in Monaco in November) plus Adam Wilk and 2015 GT Academy winner Matt Simmons.

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“I’m deeply moved to be able to host the FIA-Gran Turismo Championships in Australia,” said GT creator Kazunori Yamauchi in a statement supplied alongside the announcement. “I felt from way back during the first Gran Turismo that Australia is home to some of the most passionate GT fans of the world. Australia is also a very forward thinking country that took notice of the Japanese sports car culture which ultimately led to the creation of Gran Turismo, with cars like the iconic Nissan GT-R, which even became a part of their own sports car culture.”

“Not only that but the Bathurst (Mount Panorama) Circuit is one of the most unique tracks in the world, with its beautiful scenery and frighteningly difficult course lay out. I think it’s the robust car culture of Australia that nurtured fans of Gran Turismo over the last 20 years and led to the birth of top Gran Turismo athletes such as Cody Nikola Latkovski and Adam Wilk. I’m looking forward to seeing them perform well in this world class championship which is being held for the first time on their home turf.”

Tickets are free and are available now on a first come, first served basis. Those who can’t make it to the event at Luna Park’s Big Top event will be able to watch the coverage online via GT’s official channels.

Managed by GT developer Polyphony Digital and FIA, the Gran Turismo Championships were established in 2018 and have previously visited Tokyo, Monaco, New York City, Paris, Nürburg, and several other cities across the globe.

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Luke is Games Editor at IGN’s Sydney office. You can find him on Twitter every few days @MrLukeReilly.

If you’re playing Overwatch right now you may hear the anguished cries of players facing an enemy Reaper. Since he recovers health equal to 40% of damage done, Reaper is extremely difficult to kill in many situations, to the point where it can feel impossible. Thankfully, the latest update being put through its paces on the Overwatch Public Test Realm indicates that Blizzard will make Reaper a little more killable.

The Overwatch PTR patch notes detail a number of changes for Hanzo, McCree, Orisa, Sigma, Baptiste, and of course Reaper–and many of them are quite significant. Reaper’s health regeneration will be dropped down to 30% of damage done, which should make fights against him a little more winnable. Hanzo, meanwhile, has had his Storm Arrow damage reduced, while Orisa has received a variety of nerfs.

McCree players will be happy to hear his health has gone up a little and Deadeye no longer locks aim, but his primary fire has slightly more recovery time. The range on Sigma’s Hyperspheres has been reduced and Baptiste’s secondary fire healing is a little less effective, among other things. You can see the full list of changes below. Keep in mind these are only available on the PTR, where the changes will be tested and, if necessary, tweaked, before being pushed out to the live game for everyone. The PTR is only available to players on PC.

Hero Updates

• Hanzo
  • Storm Arrows – Damage reduced from 70 to 60
• McCree
  • General – Base health increased from 200 to 250
  • Peacekeeper (Primary Fire) – Recovery time increased from 0.42 to 0.5 seconds
  • Deadeye – Firing Deadeye no longer locks the player’s aim
• Reaper:
  • The Reaping (Passive) – Healing amount reduced from 40% to 30% of damage dealt
• Orisa
  • Fusion Driver (Primary Fire) – Damage reduced from 11 to 9
  • Fortify – Cooldown increased from 8 to 10 seconds
  • Halt! – Snare duration reduced from 1 to 0.65 seconds
• Sigma
  • Hyperspheres (Primary Fire) – Range reduced from 22 to 20 meters
  • Gravitic Flux – Can now be interrupted before targets begin falling and impact slow duration reduced from 0.9 to 0.6 seconds
  • Accretion – Explosion damage reduced from 60 to 40
• Baptiste
  • Biotic Launcher (Primary Fire) – Recovery time increased from 0.36 to 0.45 sec
  • Biotic Launcher (Secondary Fire) – Heal explosion reduced from 60 to 50

Overwatch is currently celebrating the Lunar New Year with an event that gives players the chance to unlock more cosmetic customization options. These include the Monk skin for Doomfist, Ancient Chinese Bronze Winston, and Papercutting Wrecking Ball. Overwatch’s seasonal events are expected to slow down as Blizzard shifts its efforts to developing Overwatch 2. As of yet, the sequel doesn’t have a release date, but Blizzard has committed to supporting the original game alongside the sequel.

Over the last week, Bungie fans have been trying to solve a new puzzle-based activity in a place called the Corridors of Time. The quest popped up on January 14th, prompting you to explore a new area and to solve the mysteries within. No other directions were given and it was on the community to solve the mystery of what lies within.

The result? Well, a case could be made that the Destiny 2 Corridors of time Puzzle was a waste. Some have said players didn’t have the opportunity to contribute enough, and that they didn’t understand the mechanics. What’s more, after a big community effort and heightened expectations of a big surprise payoff, the reward turned out to be the Bastion fusion rifle already revealed on the roadmap. While I can understand the argument for it being a letdown, you can look at it from another perspective, too.

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Sure, the submission process was convoluted (players had to run through the puzzle and then send a photo of the floor to streamers, not Bungie, which was… strange). And it’s not unreasonable to feel like the reward was ultimately lacking. But, even so, it’s inarguably impressive that the community rallied together to collect thousands of pictures, piece them together, and then provide the solution allowing schlubs like myself to just click the link on Gladd’s twitter to get it done. Ultimately, Corridors of Time was a success in player collaboration and brainstorming — it just didn’t deliver on a comprehensible collaboration that fans have become accustomed to in Destiny 2.

Yes, it wasn’t great feeling sidelined, not being able to help in a hands-on way beyond sending in a few screenshots. One of the loudest pieces of criticism over the event was how unclear instructions for participating were. Fans cobbled together a system that helped encourage contributions through a Google form and algorithm generator, but the limited event still wasn’t coherent enough for everyone to feel like they could easily contribute. Without a more clear way to show how you could help with in-game indicators, players were lost or stuck because the submission process was too complex, or they didn’t understand what the player base needed to solve the puzzle. Instead, they just sat and watched the streamers participating to wait and see when the solution was found.

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The lackluster reward was addressed by community manager dmg, who said that Bungie had obscured the reward on the roadmap to retain the idea that there was still “value” on the horizon. If the reward of the Bastion fusion rifle that was found behind door number 523 were a unique item that was veiled in the same mystery the puzzle was, word would have spread quickly about the new weapon and analysis would have ensued as to what the weapons final value would have been to the sandbox. Revealing Bastion as a prize as opposed to a “thing we already paid for and knew was coming” would have been much more exciting. There’s no doubt fans were excited for a big surprise, such as a returning exotic from prior games — which would have fit much better with that fantastic lore beat introduced in Corridors of Time. Bastion was a good weapon, but it won’t end up redefining the sandbox and because it was an already known quantity many were left feeling underwhelmed.

Again, the real problem here was that the roadmap “spoiled” the weapon surprise of the puzzle. If you’re a longtime Destiny player, you might remember the first time you saw Vex Mythoclast in the wild. It was an unknown quantity that briefly broke the multiplayer sandbox as it was unbelievably overpowered. Eventually, through word-of-mouth, we discovered that this was a rare drop obtained only by those who braved the Vault of Glass raid and walked away with this coveted treasure. Destiny 2 has lost that mystery because of the roadmap. We love being surprised and The Corridors of Time lost that intrigue.

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The final criticism I keep seeing online is that Corridors of Time felt like it was “only” for streamers. I disagree: While there’s no arguing that Gladd, Sweatsicle, Chevy,  SayNoToRage (and many others) got some good views while solving the puzzle, that didn’t bar others from helping. The streamers provided a centralized location to solve the puzzle, and they also offered ways for the rest of us to contribute to the solution of the puzzle. Still, I would have loved it if there was an easier toolset for something of this magnitude as it required a massive amount of JPGs to be sourced.

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At the end of the puzzle, players experienced one of the coolest lore beats to ever enter the game. Apparently your guardian ventured through this Corridors of Time puzzle, into the future, all in an effort to reacquire their favorite weapon from their own coffin. Not only does this change your fate, but you also get a coveted exotic. Stopping your own death will likely have some dramatic implications for the overall story of your character, and you additionally learn a lot more about Saint-14 if you unlock the lore entries. If there’s one thing Season of Dawn has done well, it’s the story of Saint. The revelations uncovered in this puzzle make the 10 or so minutes it would take to run through the final solution worth it. And while there’s room for improvement for the next challenge (and I hope they do this again), it’s always great seeing community members come together to solve one of Bungie’s fun, thoughtful puzzles. Hopefully, we can all contribute to it in an easier fashion the next time — and Bungie won’t spoil the surprise

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This article discusses the recent Corridors of Time puzzle the Destiny community came together to solve and I wanted to make sure to add credit for those who contributed. Below you’ll find some of the main people who helped with the solution. These names are in addition to all the fantastic community members who took the time to send in images of their own. Thank you!

Streamers: Chevy, EvanF, Frank_UK, Gladd, Clyde, KatieKat, Phammy, Raz, SayNoToRage, Skarrow9, Scycof, Swearcicle, Vendetta, Zoe.

Community Teams: Cor’s Cat Army, Corridor Crunch, Corridors Inc, Rick Kackis, Marsh, Team Ninjy, Team Raid Secrets, Vault Explorers, Zycore

Data Managers: Acey, Chevy, Ebuch, HahaBananas, Infynitee, FatSleepyPanda, FrankUK, iihavetoes, Parisito, Roboto, Stream Chat, Yorickdowne

General Managers: Flame, Hoplite, Parisito, Raz

Art/Dev: Aetherlore, Cor Vous, Niris, Regina, Steffwiz, TJ09, Zycore

In October 2019, Hearthstone pro player Ng Wai Chung, known as “Blitzchung,” was banned from the game after shouting “liberate Hong Kong, revolution of our times” in a post-match interview. Blitzchung’s support of protesters in Hong Kong landed him a six-month ban (which was initially a year ban and a forfeiture of his prize money, although it was toned down), and led to protests at BlizzCon 2019.

Now Blitzchung has spoken up about his decision in a video by People Make Games. In it, he reflects on the choice to say what he said, which was not planned–it was a spontaneous statement.

“So you know, when so many people are protesting out there and I’m just sat there, playing my tournaments…I just kind of feel bad and I want to do something,” he says. Blitzchung lives in Hong Kong and says that he loves it there.

“There is some things more important that my career,” he says, referencing his protest. Asked about the response from Blizzard at the time, he said he was “a bit disappointed” at them. “But I mean, it’s something I can understand,” he adds. He compares Blizzard to Hong Kong itself: “Maybe it’s getting worse, but do I hate it? No.”

Asked if Blitzchung was still glad that he did it, after everything that has happened, he responded positively. “Yeah. I just never…I’ll do it. Even if I had a chance to go back, I’d still do it…it’s a must-do thing.”

In a statement released shortly after the original incident, saying that he was not sure if he would return to the game. “Honestly, I have no idea on that yet. Since my next tournament is very likely to be the grandmaster tournament of next season, it’s probably at least a few months from now on. I will take this time to relax myself to decide if I am staying in competitive Hearthstone scene or not,” he said at the time. However, in this new interview, it’s said that he will indeed return in April.