Month: March 2021

The PlayStation Vita is poised to receive a new game next month despite having been discontinued for two years. Developer Flying Oak Games announced that its roguelite ScourgeBringer is coming to the handheld on April 22.

The news comes via the developer’s Twitter account, where Flying Oak Games also confirmed that ScourgeBringer hits the PlayStation 4 on the same day. The studio said there will be physical versions on PlayStation 4 and PlayStation Vita, with PS4 preorders for the Standard and Collector’s edition now live on PS Vita preorders opening “in a few days.” It’s unclear if the game will feature cross-save support. All versions are region-free and include all languages.

ScourgeBringer is a challenging roguelite similar to Dead Cells and Forgone. Players control the female warrior Kyhra to uncover the truth of what happened to the world and her people. It’s on all the major platforms, including Nintendo Switch, PC, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X|S.

The PlayStation Vita was discontinued in 2019, with the production of new physical games wrapping up in March of the same year. As of March 2019, there haven’t been any new PlayStation Vita systems or physical games for it. This doesn’t mean there haven’t been new games for the Vita since it was discontinued in 2019. According to GameSpot sister site Metacritic, February 2021 alone saw three new Vita titles: Gods of Almagest, Habroxia 2, and Pachi Pachi On A Roll. ScourgeBringer could just be the first physical Vita game in a long time.

The Vita was found in the headlines last year during a The Last of Us Part II gameplay sequence as part of a State of Play livestream. Ellie, one of the playable characters, can be seen interacting with–and ultimately stabbing in the neck–an unsuspecting PS Vita player.

Pokemon Go‘s Season of Legends has officially begun, and as part of the new content season, Landorus is back in Raids for a limited time. The Legendary Abundance Pokemon is appearing as a five-star Raid boss from now until March 6, and this time, you’ll have a chance to encounter Shiny Landorus. To help you add the Legendary Pokemon to your collection, we’ve rounded up some tips on how to beat and catch Landorus below.

Landorus Raid Schedule

Incarnate Forme Landorus is appearing in Pokemon Go again until 8 AM local time on March 6, giving you only a few days to capture it. To participate in a Landorus Raid, you’ll need to have either a Raid Pass (to join the battle in-person) or a Remote Raid Pass (to join the battle remotely). You can get one Remote Raid Pass as part of Niantic’s free weekly item bundles, which are available in Pokemon Go’s in-game shop every Monday in March.

Following Landorus’s departure, Incarnate Forme Tornadus will appear in Raids again until March 11, while Incarnate Forme Thundurus will be available from March 11-16. After that, the Legendaries will each return to Raids in their Therian Formes–the first time these variants will be available in Pokemon Go. Therian Forme Landorus will appear sometime in April.

How To Catch Shiny Landorus

As previously mentioned, you’ll have a chance to encounter Shiny Landorus during its current stint as a Raid boss. However, your odds of finding one are fairly small, and there’s no way to tell if Landorus is Shiny until you’ve defeated it and made it to the catching phase. If you’re hoping to catch a Shiny version, your best chance is to participate in as many Landorus Raids as you can before the Legendary leaves the game again.

Landorus Weaknesses And Counters

Landorus is a Ground/Flying Pokemon. Thanks to this unusual combination, certain types that normally have an advantage over Flying Pokemon–such as Electric and Rock–only deal neutral damage to Landorus. Likewise, since it’s part-Flying, Grass Pokemon (which are normally strong against Ground types) will only do neutral damage to Landorus.

Despite this, Landorus has some glaring weaknesses, particularly to Ice Pokemon. Since both Ground and Flying are weak to Ice, Ice Pokemon will deal four times as much damage as normal to the Legendary, making them your best choice when battling Landorus. Water Pokemon also have a type advantage over Landorus, making them good alternatives. You can see some solid Pokemon of each type below:

• Ice: Lapras, Mamoswine, Glaceon, Weavile, Kyurem, Galarian Darmanitan
• Water: Mega Blastoise, Mega Gyarados, Kyogre, Swampert, Feraligatr, Palkia

Nacon, publisher of The Sinking City, has denied developer Frogwares’ claims that Nacon bought a copy of The Sinking City, altered it to include Nacon logos, and reuploaded the game to Steam to sell to customers without Frogwares’ permission.

In a post to Steam today, Nacon said that the version of The Sinking City published on Steam under its name is “an official and complete version,” and that the only issue with the release is a lack of Steam-specific features such as cloud saving and achievements — a problem it attributes to a “lack of cooperation” with Frogwares.

This comes in response to a blog post yesterday from Frogwares attesting that while a legal battle over whether Nacon has the rights to publish The Sinking City was underway in French courts, Nacon purchased a copy of the game from Gamesplanet, altered certain elements such as splash screens and logos to make it appear as though the game was licensed to Nacon, and then reuploaded it to Steam as an official version.

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The Sinking City was first removed from multiple storefronts back in August 2020, with Frogwares saying at the time that the publisher had breached its contract with the developer, stopped providing owed payments, and tried to mask the involvement of Frogwares in the versions of the games it was licensed to distribute. The dispute, which also involves a number of other similarly-published Frogwares titles such as the Sherlock Holmes games, has gone before French courts. A decision is still pending.

First launched in 2019, we reviewed The Sinking City at launch and found the game compelling in its storytelling, though clunky in certain mechanics such as open-world travel and combat.

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Rebekah Valentine is a news reporter for IGN. You can find her on Twitter @duckvalentine.

Today PC games can save big on a bunch of games from Humble. You can get 12 games, and that includes the excellent Control game, for about $1 per game. In other deal news, Final Fantasy VII Remake is free for PS Plus members starting today (and you can get over 40% off a 1 year membership). God of War and Horizon Zero Dawn for the PS4 are back down to $10, Watch Dogs: Legion is only $24.99, Godfall for the PS5 is $39.99, and more.

New Humble Choice Bundle Includes Control and 11 Games for $12

This month’s Humble Choice PC bundle starts today at 10:30am PST, 1:30pm EST, but we already know some of the games that will be included. The highlight is Control, which won IGN’s 2019 Game of the Year. The other games are as follows:

• Control
• XCOM: Chimera Squad
• ELEX
• WWE 2K Battlegrounds
• Hotshot Racing
• Peaky Blinders: Mastermind
• Kingdom Two Crowns
• Wildfire
• Cyber Hook
• Pesterquest
• Boreal Blade
• Ageless

Control by itself is currently $29.99 at Steam but you’re getting all 12 games for much less. The Humble Choice Premium subscription costs only $12 per month for new customers (for up to 1 year) and you can cancel anytime, which means you can sign up for this single month only for $12. Along with the free games, you’ll also get access to the Humble Trove digital library and up to 20% off other Humble purchases while your subscription is active.

• Get Control and more games for PC from Humble for $12

Final Fantasy VII Remake Free for PS Plus Members Starting Today

Final Fantasy VII Remake is free for PS Plus members through the month of March. The other free March games include Remnant: From the Ashes, Farpoint (PSVR) & Maquette

• Play FFVII: Remake Free for PS Plus Members

1 Year of PS Plus Membership for as Low as $32.99

For those of you who aren’t PS Plus members, you can save up to 45% off a 1 year subscription now by using our coupon code. The PS Plus membership is necessary to play online, but it also offers perks like new free games every month, exclusive discounts at the PlayStation Store, and (for PS5 owners) access to the PS Plus Collection. The PS Plus Collection includes games like God of War, Persona 5, The Last of Us Remastered, Days Gone, Final Fantasy XV, Mortal Kombat, Ratchet & Clank, and more. StackSocial offers a slightly better deal but you’ll have to create an account to use the code. DailySteals allows you to use the code even with guest checkout.

• Use code “IGNPSN” to get it at DailySteals for $34.99
• Use code “IGNPSPSAVE” to get it at StackSocial for $33

More Deals for March 2

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Eric Song is IGN’s deal curator and spends roughly 1/4 of his income on stuff he posts. Check out his latest Daily Deals Article and subscribe to his IGN Deals Newsletter.

Scientists are creating “smart tattoos” that use the technology in TVs and phone screens to make tattoos glow. And scientists say there are applications for glowing tattoos that go beyond just cool looks.

The report, from Advanced Electronic Materials and reported by SciTech Daily, says the tattoos are temporary and are placed by taking the OLED tattoo paper and pressing it against the skin with a wet cloth. The smart tattoos are easily removed by scrubbing with soap and water.

While these tattoos will undeniably make for some great Halloween costumes and cosplay, scientists point to more practical uses that can greatly help people. When combined with other “tattoo electronics,” athletes can use light-emitting tattoos to detect when they are dehydrated or when they’re about to get sunburnt.

“The tattooable OLEDs that we have demonstrated for the first time can be made at scale and very cheaply,” Professor Franco Cacialli, the senior author of the paper, said. “They can be combined with other forms of tattoo electronics for a very wide range of possible uses.”

Cacialli points to medical uses for smart tattoos that can make breakthroughs in the fight against cancer.

“In healthcare, they could emit light when there is a change in a patient’s condition – or, if the tattoo was turned the other way into the skin, they could potentially be combined with light-sensitive therapies to target cancer cells, for instance,” Cacialli said.

The OLED tattoos are approximately 2.3 micrometers thick or, as SciFi Daily puts it, 1/400 of a millimeter. The researchers successfully used the technology to make a green light glow on glass, paper, plastic, and an orange. The tattoos can also be placed on fruit or food packaging to detect when they are expired, according to SciTech Daily.

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In other science news, scientists have taught an AI to beat Pitfall on Atari and discovered that humans can fall into black holes. NASA also recently landed the Mars Rover on Mars and hid a message inside the parachute that the internet decyphered.

Anybody in a sci-fi mood can check out IGN’s list of the best sci-fi movies on Netflix or the top 10 gadgets from games, movies, and TV that we wish were real.

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Petey Oneto is a freelance writer for IGN.