After a quick tease showcasing new content coming to The Outer Worlds, developer Obsidian Entertainment has revealed the next story DLC, Murder on Eridanos, set for release on March 17. As the final DLC for The Outer Worlds, this endgame-focused expansion centers around a classic murder-mystery on the planet Eridanos, with your character having to solve a complex and strange ‘whodunit’ to uncover who assassinated the spokesperson for a new brand of space vodka.
Set for release on March 17, with the Switch version coming sometime later, the Murder on Eridanos DLC features new quests, gear, and a weird questline that seems totally in line with the bizarre plot of this space RPG. What makes Eridanos a stranger setting than the usual areas is that the planet’s key locations are spread across a set of floating islands, each with its own points of interest, quests to find, and gear to add to your expanding inventory. Ahead of the announcement, GameSpot spent some time with the new DLC and uncovered the strange happenings on Eridanos.
The main story of the Murder on Eridanos expansion focuses on the death of the celebrity Halycon Helen, who was set to be the spokesperson for Rizzo’s Spectrum Brown Vodka. After her suspicious death, you’re tasked with finding her killer, which will inevitably uncover a sprawling plot involving weird, behavior-altering parasites, Eridanos’ local Tossball team, and the happenings within the Grand Colonial luxury hotel. This new DLC will also introduce new gadgets, including the Discrepancy Amplifier that allows you to uncover hidden clues and secrets. Along with these gadgets, you can find new weapons like the Utter-Buddy, a science melee weapon that is essentially a souped-up cattle prod. There’s also new armor and cosmetics to find, including the Ranger Mascot’s Noggin’, which comes from Eridanos’ Tossball team’s mascot.
As mentioned previously, the final DLC will be a late-game-focused affair. Along with the new quests and gear, the expansion will also increase the level cap by 3, so if you own the previous DLC–Peril on Gorgon–then the Outer Worlds’ final level cap will be level 36. For those who want to jump into the Murder on Eridanos expansion once it launches, your character will need to be level 30 and have completed the Radio Free Monarch quest in the main story.
Gallery
Releasing on March 17 and costing $15 USD, this new expansion will mark the end of content coming to The Outer Worlds. For more on the game, be sure to check out our gameplay video that showcases the opening sections of the DLC, along with a look at one of the side-quests.
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With a likeable loser anti-hero, colourful high school hallways full of misfit teens and teachers to meet, and a snide remark at the ready for almost every interaction, Cyanide & Happiness – Freakpocalypse has all the ingredients to bring the caustic comedy of its comic strip origins to life in videogame form. But while this adults-only point-and-click adventure initially resembles South Park: The Stick of Truth minus the turn-based fighting system, the combat isn’t the only thing that it’s lacking.
For starters, its story is somewhat poorly structured, with the ‘Freakpocalypse’ event in question relegated to a cutscene in the cliffhanger ending. It’s seemingly there purely as a device to set up the two sequels that are apparently planned for a later date. I was pretty surprised to see the closing credits roll just as I thought Freakpocalypse’s story had finally begun to get out of first gear, and I couldn’t help but feel that – as a standalone game – Freakpocalypse comes across as noticeably unfinished, like abandoning a comic after reading the first panel in a three-panel strip.
Happiness is a Warm Pun
For the vast majority of its brisk four-hour runtime, Freakpocalypse’s plot centers around social outcast Cooper ‘Coop’ McCarthy and his quest to avoid bullies, woo his crush, and perform odd jobs for his grandma, whose raging libido is played for cheap laughs. That’s not to say Freakpocalpyse isn’t genuinely funny at times, and certainly I got a kick out of the mixed metaphor-riddled pep talks from Principal McNally and the freestyled song lyrics of the guitar-strumming Warren Wonderwall lurking outside of the school. It’s also endearing that desperately asking a character to be Coop’s prom date is an option in just about every dialogue tree.
But elsewhere, the humour is mostly either presented in the form of corny dad joke puns — with the kid getting a drink in the hallway being named ‘Walter Fountain’ or another in the locker room showers named ‘Hayden Shoulders’ — or it’s just toilet stall graffiti-style smut. When Coop eventually leaves the school and heads to Rod’s Pizzeria, there’s a jar on the counter labelled ‘Just the Tip’… and if that’s too subtle for you, there’s also a picture on the wall of a towering sausage with two vegetables at its base. I appreciate low-brow humour as much as the next childish idiot, but the dick jokes here are a bit too, well, limp.
Strip Search
So too are the puzzles, which are far too basic to even tease your brain let alone wrestle it into a headlock and give it a rigorous noogie. When the school janitor’s closet is locked, you go and speak to the janitor who tells you the keys are in the boiler room, and sure enough… they are. That’s it. Puzzle solved. Some of these fetch quests do get slightly more convoluted later on, but at no point did they stop me in my tracks or make me ever contemplate the use of the built-in hint system. It’s initially cute the way that Freakpocalypse self-deprecatingly refers to its story and side objectives as ‘chores’, but less so when they very quickly start to feel a bit too much like brainless busywork.
[poilib element=”quoteBox” parameters=”excerpt=%5BPuzzles%5D%20are%20far%20too%20basic%20to%20even%20tease%20your%20brain%20let%20alone%20wrestle%20it%20into%20a%20headlock%20and%20give%20it%20a%20rigorous%20noogie.”]Not only are Freakpocalypse’s puzzles overly basic and lacking in variety, but there’s also a slight clumsiness to how you progress through them at times. Early on I’d already stumbled upon a rope and pulley and combined them to lift up a desk in the woodshop classroom to uncover a missing library book, before I’d even encountered the librarian who tasks you with finding it. This meant that when I eventually did visit the library and open an initial dialogue with her, she sent me to search for a book that I was able to return it to her instantly, which came across as an unintentionally comedic exchange.
There are some moments that cleverly play with the conventions of the point-and-click genre. When you try and drag a USB thumb drive from Coop’s backpack to the printer in the principal’s office, for example, it doesn’t fit at first and returns to his inventory upside down for you to try and use again, because that’s literally the experience of inserting any USB device into any USB port ever. But such inspired instances are rare, and despite there being an abundance of objects to interact with in every corner of Freakpocalypse’s vibrant small town setting, the general lack of surprise means it’s mostly all click and no point.
Silver Rain Games, an interactive entertainment development studio founded by Assassin’s Creed Origins’ Bayek of Siwa actor Abubakar Salim, has partnered with Electronic Arts’ EA Originals Label.
EA Originals will provide funding for Silver Rain Games’ unannounced IP and will give “guidance and support in the team’s journey to bring a fresh perspective to games and to the industry.”
Abubakar Salim and Melissa Phillips
Silver Rain was founded in December 2019 in the U.K. and it launched with the intent to “generate thought-provoking and innovative games and content across different mediums of entertainment.”
Salim, who also starred in HBO’s Raised by Wolves, co-founded the company with Melissa Phillips. Phillips will lead as Head of Studio and has previously worked as the BAFTA Games Programme manager on BAFTA Games programs and events.
Since its inception, the company has grown to approximately 20 staff members, who are all currently working remote.
“In what has been a challenging year, we have assembled an extraordinarily creative and worldly team who are eager to work on projects that bring their global perspectives to life. Together we will construct an exciting universe that unlocks the power of storytelling and the brilliance that brings,” said Salim. “We couldn’t be happier to work with the EA Originals team, who are phenomenal partners for us as we begin this journey. Not only does each of them understand our vision to inspire and entertain, but they also welcome this exciting new age of game development.”
EA Originals is EA’s way of working with the “best and boldest independent studios across the world to make sure these games get the scale of audience they deserve, with zero compromise on artistic vision.”
The label has already released such games as Unravel, Sea of Solitude, Rocket Arena, and Josef Fares’ A Way Out.
Electronic Arts has announced that it has partnered with Silver Rain Games, welcoming the studio’s upcoming debut title into the expanding library of EA Originals. Silver Rain Games is an indie studio founded and now led by Abubakar Salim (who voiced Assassin’s Creed Origins‘ Bayek and currently portrays Raised By Wolves‘ Father) and Melissa Phillips (who previously worked as the BAFTA games program manager). Prior to EA’s announcement about the partnership, I had the chance to sit down with both co-founders.
“It speaks volumes–the fact that you can’t actually define the genre of what [EA Originals] has built,” Salim told me when I asked as to Silver Rain Games’ reasoning for wanting to partner with EA. “That’s the beauty of the art form of what they support and build. There’s a freedom that the EA and the Originals team bring that allows you as the developer to truly find the strengths and weaknesses of what you bring to the table. At the end of the day, it’s the developer’s game.”
Phillips said that “for now” Silver Rain Games and EA’s partnership is only in regards to this first game that the studio is working on, which is still unannounced. During the interview, both Salim and Phillips remained tight-lipped about the game. “We want to tell you; we totally want to tell you,” Phillips laughed after I jokingly admitted that, though I was trying my best, it was proving difficult to talk around a game that I knew nothing about.
Even if neither one could tell me about Silver Rain Games’ upcoming debut title, the two did share their thoughts on what they hope will be the lasting impact of the game. “It goes back to what we as a studio are just trying to do,” Salim said. “We’re trying to bring thought-provoking content. We’re trying to bring enjoyable content. We’re trying to bring things that people want to escape from, but also just can’t get enough of.”
Phillips added that the idea of “curiosity” is also informing what their game is. “I think we’ve all had that experience early on in our game life, where we find something as children and we’re like, ‘Oh my God, it’s amazing. We want to just enjoy the whole thing,'” she said. “I think that’s the sort of feeling that we want to instill in the next generation of whoever’s playing our game. We’re very keen on welcoming new players, perhaps people that haven’t ever picked up games before as well.”
As our conversation came to a close, I asked both Salim and Phillips as to what their favorite types of games and stories are. Salim quickly jumped in first, praising stories that move the player and “reflects something of you as an audience, as a participant,” perhaps evening revealing a side of you that you didn’t even know existed. Phillips followed up by talking about her love for strategy simulation. “I like stats,” she said. “I don’t need to see any action. Just give me the numbers. It needs to feel like work, and then I’m happy.”
“Take what you can from that, Jordan, and imagine the game we are building,” Salim followed up, which got a good laugh out of all three of us. But in all honesty, I’m intrigued to see what kind of ideas sprout from the combined creativity of two people with such differing tastes. For now, we’ll just have to wait and see. The next EA Original game scheduled to release is It Takes Two, a co-op action-adventure platformer that will launch for Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, PS5, PS4, and PC on March 26.
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A recent video surfaced of drone footage travelling through Bryant Lake Bowl in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and what’s notable is how skilled the pilot is along with how cool the final product of the video looks like. It’s worth your time to check it out for yourself.
It’ll be a few months yet before we can start thinking about things like putting our grubby mitts all over bowling balls thrown by dozens of other bowlers. Even so, we’re anticipating the day when we can once again gather at places like this bowling alley, which is the subject of the stunning short film, captured via drone, below.
The video comes via YouTuber jaybyrdfilms. In the video, an FPV drone begins above the bowling alley and snakes in through the door and around the alley as people bowl and chat. It works its way back into the back of the alley and back out, giving us a look at the whole building before the end.
A lot of work went into the video–the sound work was definitely done in post but adds a lot of atmosphere as you can hear people chatting about scoring a turkey (three strikes in a row) while balls crash into pins. It’s all at once technically stunning and nostalgic. The video is so slick that it almost looks like CGI, but this is a very real place (that I’ve been to once and driven by a few hundred times).
The film has a smashing finish, if you catch my drift. Jaybyrd has another video, also shot in Minnesota, of a motorcyclist driving through a closed-down mall late at night that feels like something usually relegated to Grand Theft Auto games and John Wick movie sequences.
GTA Online‘s latest update sees the return of savvy businessman Lamar Davis, who’ll be handing out double cash rewards and Reputation Points all week long. Davis won’t be the only game in town though as Martin Madrazo will also approach players with the same offer, so it’ll be worth keeping your eye on your phone to see who calls you first.
Double cash rewards and Reputation Points will also be available in a number of other activities, as Transform Races and Business Battles will be vying for your attention with added financial bonuses.
Hunting Pack: Remix will also offer increased rewards within its high-risk and high-reward arena. If you play as a Runner in this mode, you’ll need to keep the speed up to stop the bomb strapped to your vehicle from exploding while Attackers are tasked with bringing you down by any means necessary, avoiding any Defenders in the process.
If you’re looking to expand your wardrobe, you can pick up a Dinka Aged Tee for free this week provided that you picked up the original Dinka T-shirt previously. Completing any prep work for the Doomsday Heist before March 17 will also reward you with the Neon Skull Emissive Mask, which can be claimed up any time after March 22.
There’s also still time to earn the Panic ProLaps Basketball top if you complete the Cayo Perico Heist finale before March 17. To get the matching shorts you’ll need to successfully stuff a secondary target into your loot bag during that heist.
If you stop by the lobby of The Diamond Casino & Resort, you can give the Lucky Wheel a spin to walk away with cash, reputation points, clothing, and other mystery prizes. If you’re really lucky, you may even win the HVY Nightshark, an armored SUV that can absorb a brutal amount of damage.
Discounts this week include deals on real estate and vehicles for budding supervillains. The Unholy Hellbringer shotgun, Rhino Tanks, and facility real estate have all had their prices slashed by 40%.
GTA Online Weekly Deals
Facilities plus customizations and add-ons — 40% off
Terrorbyte truck plus customizations and add-ons — 40% off
An Xbox broadcast to celebrate Bethesda joining the company will be aired today, but it won’t focus on providing news or revealing projects. It will likely feature announcements of new Bethesda games joining Xbox Game Pass.
The broadcast is titled ‘Bethesda Joins Xbox – Roundtable’, and is scheduled for 10am Pacific / 1pm Eastern / 6pm UK on YouTube today. The video description reads: “A conversation with key leaders celebrating Bethesda joining Team Xbox.”
Xbox head of marketing, Aaron Greenberg has made clear that “this is NOT FOCUSED ON NEWS/REVEALS, but a great chance to learn more about the teams & people at Bethesda.” [Greenberg’s Emphasis]
The broadcast follows Microsoft’s official acquisition of ZeniMax, which turned eight Bethesda developers into first-party Microsoft studios. In that initial announcement, Head of Xbox Phil Spencer promised further Bethesda games would be added to Xbox Game Pass later this week to celebrate – it’s likely those will be announced during the broadcast.
We may not learn quite as much about Microsoft’s plans for Bethesda studios, however. Spencer previously explained that more news about how Xbox’s new teams will work is coming “later this year”. Spencer has previously explained that Microsoft legally could not address plans with Bethesda until the acquisition was complete, so discussions may still be in the early stages.
One thing we do know is that “some” future Bethesda games will be Xbox & PC exclusive after the acquisition. “With the addition of the Bethesda creative teams,” Spencer wrote earlier this week, “gamers should know that Xbox consoles, PC, and Game Pass will be the best place to experience new Bethesda games, including some new titles in the future that will be exclusive to Xbox and PC players.”
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Joe Skrebels is IGN’s Executive Editor of News. Follow him on Twitter. Have a tip for us? Want to discuss a possible story? Please send an email to [email protected].
After nine seasons, American Horror Story is still going strong with captivating storylines, unforgettable characters, and a bunch of nightmares in between. As many of you already know, some of those nightmares are based on reality. Many of the major plot points and characters are inspired by true stories. While we’re gearing up for season ten, we’ll examine each season’s true crime inspirations.
American Horror Story: Asylum drew a great deal of inspiration from history, and many of Asylum’s most unforgettable characters are based on real figures. In the video above, Greg breaks down AHS Season 2’s true crime inspirations: infamous serial killer Ed Gein, the real life Hans Gruper – Josef Mengele, the abductions of Barney and Betty Hill, and Staten Island’s Willowbrook State School.
Confirming rumors, Microsoft has officially announced it will hold a “roundtable” event today at 10 AM PT where it will share more details on Microsoft’s $7.5 billion buyout of ZeniMax. The deal was officially completed this week, paving the way for Bethesda to become part of Microsoft.
What To Expect
This won’t be a news event where we find out more on The Elder Scrolls VI, Starfield, or the next Fallout game. Xbox marketing boss Aaron Greenberg said, “Note, this is NOT FOCUSED ON NEWS/REVEALS, but a great chance to learn more about the teams & people at Bethesda.”
Microsoft confirmed that Bethesda will develop games that will be exclusive to Xbox and PC, but neither company has said more. Given Greenberg’s statement that this roundtable is not expected to be a news event, we may not hear more, though it’s possible we’ll get some kind of commentary.
For his part, Bethesda’s Pete Hines said the roundtable will introduce people to the “faces behind the Bethesda games and studios you know and love.” The exact list of panelists for the roundtable has not been announced, nor do we know the length of the event.
This isn’t the first time that such a roundtable has happened, either, as Phil Spencer from Xbox and Pete Hines and Todd Howard from Bethesda sat down for a wide-ranging chat about the deal back in 2020. You can watch and listen to that podcast here on YouTube. The big difference is that Microsoft now officially owns Bethesda and may be able to speak more freely about the future.
What Time And How To Watch
You can watch the Microsoft-Bethesda briefing right here through the YouTube embed. It’s scheduled to begin at 10 AM PT / 1 PM ET / 6 PM GMT.
More Game Pass Games
A big part of the deal is focused on Game Pass, and we’ll begin to see more of that this week. Microsoft and Bethesda have confirmed that additional Bethesda games will join Game Pass this week. We still don’t know what they are, but all should be revealed very soon, if not on this stream, then sometime later.
We will report back with any and all big news from the roundtable event as it happens, so keep checking back with GameSpot for the latest.
