Pokemon Sword & Shield: Gigantamax Gengar, Machamp, And Snorlax Now Available

Pokemon Sword and Shield‘s Gigantamax Toxtricity event has ended, but a few new Gigantamax Pokemon have begun appearing in the games. For a limited time, Gigantamax versions of Gengar and Machamp will be featured in Max Raid dens, and you’ll have a second chance to catch Gigantamax Snorlax.

All three Gigantamax Pokemon will spawn in Max Raids more frequently until 4:59 PM PT / 7:59 PM ET on March 25. Unlike past events of this sort, none of the Gigantamax Pokemon are version-exclusive; you’ll have a chance to encounter their raids in both Sword and Shield.

Gigantamax Snorlax was previously available in Max Raids earlier this year. If you missed your chance to catch one back then, you now have another opportunity to add it to your collection. Snorlax’s G-Max Move is G-Max Replenish, which inflicts damage on the opponent and restores any Berries that Snorlax or its allies have consumed during the battle.

In addition to the new Max Raid events, a few freebies are still up for grabs in Sword and Shield. Until the end of the month, you can claim 20 free Battle Points as well as a free Bottle Cap. The former can be used to purchase competitive battling items from the Battle Tower, while the latter can be used to Hyper Train one of your Pokemon, increasing its base stats. You can see all the free gifts available right now for Pokemon Sword and Shield here.

Pokemon Sword and Shield are getting two big expansions this year, Isle of Armor and The Crown Tundra, each of which introduce a bunch of new and returning Pokemon to the games, along with new mechanics, areas to explore, and more. The Pokemon Company also recently revealed a new Mythical Pokemon for Sword and Shield called Zarude, which will be featured in the upcoming film Pokemon the Movie: Coco.

Now Playing: Pokemon Sword And Shield Freebies – GS News Update

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Everspace 2 Early Access Pushed To Avoid Cyberpunk 2077 And Outriders

Indie game developers are having a tough time right now, with the postponement of GDC and other big events that, in a normal year, can provide a big boost to a game’s marketing. It’s even more challenging when you find out that your intended release date is close to that of big-name AAA games in the same genre, as Rockfish Games has.

An update on Everspace 2‘s Kickstarter has outlined the game’s bad luck around timing, and given a little insight into how uncertainty around coronavirus has impacted their small studio. “It sounds like right out of a sci-fi horror movie: An aggressive virus is spreading around the globe, causing great uncertainties, severe supply chain issues and cancellations of big international events pretty much everywhere,” the studio said in the Kickstarter update.

“Unsurprisingly, all our GDC meetings with major platform holders and potential console co-publishing partners have been canceled, too. We are now setting up conference calls or meetings at upcoming events. Right now, we are prepared for everything and are hoping for the best. In short: We have to deal with a lot of uncertainties regarding business development, external game production as well as marketing and PR.“

The developer ultimately made the decision to push back the Steam Early Access release from its intended date in September to early December this year, which is not easy for a game that has to answer to almost 8000 Kickstarter backers, but a better option than competing with industry giants.

“Some AAA blockbuster titles will hit our initial Steam Early Access release date,” the Kickstarter update reads. “The hotly-anticipated open-world sci-fi shooter RPG Cyberpunk 2077 was recently pushed back to September, plus the brand new sci-fi looter shooter RPG Outriders from Square Enix has just been announced to release the same month, too.”

“Obviously, there is quite an overlap between those audiences and ours, so we have decided it wouldn’t be wise to directly compete against two sci-fi shooter RPG juggernauts, leaving not much room for any other sci-fi shooter coming out at the same time.”

Originally slated for an April 16 release, CD Projekt Red’s Cyberpunk 2077 has been pushed back to September 17, 2020.

The subsequent delay to Everspace 2’s release will also impact its Alpha and Beta releases, with the closed Alpha now scheduled for the end of May, and the closed Beta for August.

Everspace 2 is a sequel to 2016 sci-fi roguelike Everspace, and promises space exploration, RPG elements and plenty of loot in its single-player adventure. The game will be available initially for PC, with console releases on PS4 and Xbox One scheduled to drop six months later.

Now Playing: Everspace 2 – Official Reveal Trailer | Gamescom 2019

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Former PlayStation Boss Doesn’t Miss The Console Wars

Former PlayStation executive Adam Boyes sounds as if he is happy for the “console wars” period of his life to be over. Boyes, who was vice president for third-party relations at PlayStation from 2012-2016, told USgamer that he loved what he did, who he worked with, and what he achieved during his run at Sony. But there was also a lot of stress.

“Sometimes I feel like I have an opinion, but it doesn’t matter because I did that,” Boyes said about the forthcoming launch of the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X later this year, and all the pressure that comes with being an executive at a company launching a new system. “I put in my all. I loved it. Built an incredible team, had an incredible experience. […] So you think that I would have a FOMO that I’m not part of it, but it really isn’t. There was so much stress and I think the whole console battle concept, it takes you over. It’s like, that’s all you think about.”

Boyes was an executive at PlayStation for the launch of the PlayStation 4 in 2013. The “console battle concept,” as he calls it, is surely in reference to how PlayStation and Xbox are historically known to push very hard against each other as they try to position their own console as the one to buy. Boyes has a history in that kind of upfront strategy.

Boyes and PlayStation executive Shuhei Yoshida stoked the flames of the console with a jab at the Xbox One’s used-game policy during E3 2013. Here they are in their video that puts Microsoft on blast for its strategy (one that was later reversed).

Boyes now heads up Iron Galaxy Studios as its CEO. The company is known for its work-for-hire titles, including the Switch ports of Skyrim, Overwatch, and Diablo III. The developer also makes original games, their latest of which was 2018’s Extinction.

On the subject of console wars, Microsoft’s longtime Xbox executive Phil Spencer has rejected the idea. Go to USgamer to read their full interview with Boyes.

The PS5 and Xbox Series X are both scheduled to release this holiday. Microsoft has been much more forthcoming about the system so far, sharing images of its design and specs. Sony is staying more mysterious, but with both systems due for release soon, that should change any time now.

Now Playing: Biggest PS5 And PS4 Exclusives Coming In 2020 So Far

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare Warzone Battle Royale Reportedly Free to Play

Activision and Infinity Ward are reportedly launching a free-to-play, standalone Call of Duty: Modern Warfare battle royale game called Warzone.

The report comes from YouTuber Chaos, who recently posted a gameplay impressions video that has now been removed. The video explains in detail that Warzone is free-to-play and does not require players to own Modern Warfare. It’s multiplatform and cross-play, too.

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Warzone is reportedly a 150 player battle royale with support for solo, duo, and three-person teams. There are two modes: one which seems a fairly traditional fight-to-the-last-player-standing, and another called ‘Plunder’, which the video does not detail beyond it being a respawn-based mode focusing on collecting cash.

Cash is apparently part of the traditional mode, too; it can be looted across the map and is used at buy stations to purchase killstreaks, as well as revive tokens to get killed team members back in the fight. It looks like building a good stockpile of cash may be important for long-term survival.

Purchasing revives is not the only way to bring back dead squaddies; when you die you reportedly are taken to the gulag, where you must compete in a 1v1 match that is essentially Modern Warfare’s Gunfight mode (the map used in the video is even Gunfight’s Gulag map). Winning this 1v1 will throw you back into the match. Apparently this feature won’t be available in the later minutes of a match.

Warzone’s map is apparently large and completely custom made – meaning no reused building assets – and, like Black Ops 4’s battle royale mode Blackout, will feature classic maps. This time they will be from Infinity Ward’s back catalogue, such as Broadcast, Overgrown, Scrapyard, and Terminal.

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Currently there is no official word from Activision or Infinity Ward regarding Warzone, but Chaos notes in his video that he attended a pre-release preview event in order to capture his gameplay footage. It’s currently unclear if Warzone is due for imminent launch or is still some months away.

For more Call of Duty, check out the leaked Warzone map, which looks identical to that seen in Chaos’ video. There was also a report that Warzone will feature a ping system and vehicles, two features this latest leak also supports.

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Matt Purslow is IGN’s UK News and Entertainment Writer. You can follow him on Twitter

Command And Conquer Remastered Will Upscale The Iconic Original FMV Cutscenes

The team on EA’s new Command & Conquer Remastered have been hard at work hunting down the original assets used in 1995, though some creativity is needed when files go missing.

EA has posted a new video with Producer Jim Vessella, chronicling his search for the original HD copies of Command & Conquer‘s iconic FMV cutscenes. The team decided that they had to use the original footage, as remaking the cutscenes would never be the same, but finding the files was a challenge.

While Vessella managed to track down archival tapes of the footage, it was only saved in a low quality VQA format. The only option left was to upscale the footage, using AI to improve resolution, increase frame rate, and improve the audio.

To get the best result, Vessella went to the community, with some fans having already worked on their own upscaling projects for C&C’s beloved FMV cutscenes. The final result was only possible with the help of fans, which underlines how much passion is going into this remake.

The result is shown as a side-by-side in the video, and while it’s not perfect, it’s still a smooth graphical update on some of the most iconic FMVs in gaming.

As a bonus, the team managed to unearth over four hours of never-before-seen B-roll footage, which will be packaged with the remake on release.

The team behind Command & Conquer Remastered continue to chronicle the work that goes into remastering a 25-year-old game, providing a fascinating insight into how remasters happen as well as the broader history of game development. You can read more about how the team dealt with lost audio files here.

Now Playing: Command and Conquer: Rivals – Official Reveal Trailer | E3 2018

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Final Fantasy 7 Remake’s Midgar Is Designed To Make You Feel Bad About Your Actions

With the news that Final Fantasy VII Remake will take place exclusively in Midgar, it’s not surprising that the city is going to be expanded and reworked. In the remake, the city will be a sprawling, living city–just to make you feel bad about blowing part of it up.

A new interview with producer Yoshinori Kitase and co-director Naoki Hamaguchi has revealed some of the thought that has gone into designing a larger, more complete Midgar.

In the original game, players only spent a few hours at the start of the game in Midgar, while the remake promises a full game’s worth of content in the city.

While this content will include a whole lot of side quests, environmental storytelling will be just as important in the streets of Midgar. “We really wanted to show the everyday lives of Midgar’s citizens,” said Kitase in the interview. “[Partly] to show how they lived in this massive city powered by Mako energy, how and when they’d be using it, to tell that aspect of the story.”

“The original version went straight into the bombing mission. We wanted that feeling that things were already underway, you were in the middle of the action. Yet if you immediately went from there into the panic caused by the bombing mission afterwards, you wouldn’t understand the impact it had on the inhabitants’ everyday lives before that event interrupted them. That’s why we started with this domestic kind of scene.”

The city’s expansion into a more lived-in place isn’t just window dressing–it’s carefully designed to make the player think about the consequences of their actions when they do undertake the bombing mission. “The player gets to see how the [Reactor bombing] impacts the city,” Hamaguchi said. “We want them to feel conflicted about the effects of their actions. That’s why we depicted this area in such detail.”

Eagle-eyed fans of the series may also notice that Midgar takes some of its aesthetic from Advent Children’s version of the city, in keeping with the decision to use the critically-panned 2005 movie as visual inspiration.

“We did refer to Advent Children and other previous series’ work when rebuild Midgar,” Hamaguchi said. “But one of the main things we actually set out to redo was the scale of the city itself. The original wasn’t that realistic if you consider the size of the individual buildings and how big they were in comparison to the overall city.”

You’ll be able to explore Midgar for yourself when Final Fantasy VII Remake launches on PS4 on April 10. A demo of the first act is available right now, and playing it will net you a free PS4 theme. Check out our impressions of the first four hours of the game, as well as our extensive pre-order guide to make sure you get your hands on the remake as soon as possible.

Now Playing: Final Fantasy 7 Remake – Official Opening Movie

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Binging The Office Will Earn Someone $1000

Dish Network is going to pay someone $1000 to watch 15 hours of The Office–so what’s the catch, and more importantly, where do we apply?

The Office officially turns 15 years old on March 24, and Dish is celebrating with this paid 15-hour marathon. Considering The Office is Netflix’s number one most watched show, Dish is unlikely to have a hard time filling this role.

It’s not the first time a company has paid for a dedicated binge-watcher–just last year CableTV paid $1000 for someone to watch the entire MCU collection back-to-back, and live tweet the whole experience (you can find the winner’s tweets here, if you’re curious).

This job is a little less demanding than a back-to-back marathon. Dish is giving its eventual binger a generous nine days to watch 15 hours of The Office, which comes out to around 45 episodes, or five episodes per day.

There is a little homework to go with the watching, of course, so you’re not allowed to spend the whole time scrolling through Twitter. The job involves filling out a checklist of reoccurring tropes in The Office–counting how many times Stanley rolls his eyes, for example.

If you think you’re a great fit for this most demanding of jobs, you can check out the details and apply here before Monday March 16.

Now Playing: Best Things To Stream For March 2020 – Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime Video

One Of The Rarest Video Game Consoles Ever Sells For A Record-Breaking Price At Auction

The “Nintendo PlayStation” console, one of the rarest and most fabled gaming systems in history, has sold at auction for a massive price.

The Heritage Auctions listing (via AresTechnica) shows that the console sold on Friday, March 6, for $300,000. The unspecified person who won the auction actually paid $380,000 with the “buyer’s premium” included.

The $300,000 sale price is far and away the highest-ever price paid for a single gaming item. The previous record belonged to a sealed, unopened copy of Super Mario Bros. for the NES that sold in 2019 for $100,150, according to USGamer.

The identity of the winner was not revealed. Oculus VR founder Palmer Luckey previously revealed himself to be the highest bidder at one point earlier in the auction period, but it’s unclear if he was the winner in the end.

The Nintendo PlayStation was publicly unveiled at the Consumer Electronics Show in 1991, but Nintendo backed out of the arrangement with Sony and, at that very same event, announced it would be entering into a partnership with Philips, which would result in the infamous Philips CD-i (and its notorious Zelda titles). The 200 existing prototypes for the Nintendo PlayStation were said to be destroyed, and some things that should not have been forgotten were lost.

The falling out between Nintendo and Sony is reportedly part of what drove Sony to get into the gaming market to begin with. Both companies have enjoyed great success in gaming, with Sony’s PS4 recently surpassing the Wii with more than 100 million in sales. Nintendo’s newest console, the Switch, is also a sales juggernaut that keeps growing.

NHL 20 Patch Adds One Very Specific Thing

NHL 20 has received a new patch, but don’t expect much from it. The official patch notes for Patch 1.5.1 are just one sentence long, adding one new feature.

The March 8 update for NHL 20 adds content from the recently announced esports tournament, the 2020 NHL Gaming World Championship, for the Hockey Ultimate Team mode.

That’s it. That’s the update.

Some people on Twitter roasted EA Sports for this, including popular NHL streamer Nasher. He joked that this update was so large and substantial that it brought back the much-requested features like GM Connected mode and a story mode for Be A Pro. But this was just trolling. He joked that these features might be added in NHL 27.

The NHL Gaming World Championship starts qualifier matches on March 10. Anyone can take part in the online qualifiers for a chance to rise through the tournament and win $60,000. For more on the tournament, check out the detailed breakdown on NHL’s website.

Now Playing: NHL 20 – Snoop Dogg Content Announcement Trailer

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