Category: Games

For the romantic outlaws among us, Red Dead Online has something for you as part of its weekly update. Just make sure you have time to make the effort if you want to be rewarded.

The Lovers Collection reward is available from Madam Nazar, whose location regularly changes. If you cannot find her in person, you can also mail her the supplies via a post office. In order to complete the mission and receive your reward, you must give her the Chocolate Daisy, Yellow Gold Diamond Ring, and the Two of Cups Tarot Card.

Several new clothing items were also added in the update, including new permanent hats in the Wheeler, Rawson & Co. catalogue. Limited-time clothing is back, including several coats like the Morning Tail and Irwin.

Experience bonuses are available for Moonshiner, Bounty Hunter, Trader, and Collection activities. Missions and sales in these activities will earn 40% more experience and Role XP, and you can get started more quickly with five Gold Bars taken off the Bounty Hunter License, Butcher Table, and Collector’s Bag costs.

If you’re a PlayStation Plus member, you’ll get three free Mash Refills and Trader Resupplies and Twitch Prime members who have connected their accounts to Rockstar Social Club will get a Collector’s Bag and Polished Copper Moonshine Still for free.

Red Dead Online is included as part of Red Dead Redemption 2 for free. The game recently came to PC, including Steam, in late 2019. Just last week, the game gave away freebies like arrows and bolas to celebrate hitting a new player record.

Nintendo and The Pokemon Company have announced they will no longer work with a game publication after one of its reviewers leaked images of Pokemon Sword and Shield back in November 2019.

The reviewer worked for Portugese website FNintendo and received a copy of the Nintendo Switch game early. He then shared photos of the game online that revealed multiple Pokemon in Sword and Shield that were unannounced at the time.

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Nintendo and The Pokemon Company discovered the source of these leaks and took immediate action. But now the two companies have gone further and announced in a statement released to press today that they’ve cut ties with that reviewer and FNintendo completely.

“Both he and FNintendo failed to handle confidential material, resulting in a clear breach of the confidentiality agreement between Nintendo and the media outlet. As a result, Nintendo will no longer work with FNintendo,” reads the statement.

“Nintendo will always protect its intellectual property and brands. Leaks hurt not just Nintendo, but the thousands of employees who work hard to bring games to market, and the millions of fans around the world who look forward to news and surprises.

To surprise and delight players through new experiences is a shared passion for Nintendo and The Pokémon Company. We will pursue all avenues to preserve surprises for players of future Pokémon titles.”

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FNintendo has released its own statement on the matter, which admits to being the source of the leaks, and offers an apology. Here’s FNintendo’s statement:

“At the beginning of November, a series of off-screen photographs leaked multiple new and unannounced Pokémon from Pokémon Sword and Pokémon Shield. We want to take this opportunity to openly admit to our readers that FNintendo was responsible for leaking some of these photos.

Nintendo offered us a copy of the game for review purposes, with clear embargo guidelines, to which we agreed. This copy was then sent to one of our reviewers, who leaked the information. Following the investigation, FNintendo severed its relationship with this reviewer.

Our relationship with Nintendo Portugal dates back 11 years, but our part in this leak is a clear breach of the confidentiality agreement between us, and, as a result, a total breach of trust with Nintendo.

We recognise it is impermissible to break embargo guidelines and we failed to handle the review materials with sufficient care. We fully respect Nintendo’s decision to cancel the confidentiality agreement between our companies as a result of this breach of trust, and accept that we will no longer receive products from Nintendo, nor will we be invited to attend their events.

We want to apologise to Nintendo and The Pokémon Company, and to our readers for letting them down.”

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It isn’t just FNintendo that were hunted down by The Pokemon Company for leaking unannounced Pokemon. In late November 2019, the company announced it was after 4Chan and Discord users that leaked photos from the Sword and Shield strategy guide before it was released.

Then, in December 2019, The Pokemon Company said it had been given legal permission to pursue those leakers to the full extent of the law. This involved seeking financial reimbursement from the leakers and any legal punishment that is deemed appropriate by court.

It wasn’t just Pokemon Sword and Shield that was subject to huge leaks last year either. We summed it all up in the biggest leaks of 2019, which includes some of the biggest game announcements in recent years alongside info on next-gen consoles.

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Chris Priestman is a freelancer who writes news for IGN. Follow him on Twitter.

Animal Crossing: New Horizons arrives on Nintendo Switch in a little over a month, and new details about the game continue to trickle out in the lead up to its launch. We recently learned New Horizons may receive some kind of paid add-on content, and now another feature has been confirmed by Nintendo’s website.

According to Nintendo’s Animal Crossing: New Horizons page, the game supports the seldom-used Nintendo Switch Online smartphone app. This app allows Nintendo Switch Online subscribers to voice chat while playing compatible games and offers additional functionality for certain titles, namely Splatoon 2 and Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.

For Splatoon 2, the NSO app lets users access SplatNet, which displays detailed stats, the map rotation schedule, a gear shop, and other useful information. Smash Bros. Ultimate, meanwhile, has an ancillary service called Smash World, which lets NSO members view screenshots, video clips, custom stages, and other content shared by other players.

Nintendo hasn’t shared any further details about New Horizons’ NSO app support, so it’s unclear whether the game will use the app strictly for voice chat or offer a more detailed service like Splatoon 2 and Smash Bros. Ultimate, but you’ll need to have a Nintendo Switch Online subscription in order to use the app and play New Horizons online with others.

In other news, Nintendo recently confirmed that New Horizons only lets you have one island per Switch console. The game also does not support Nintendo Switch Online’s cloud save backup feature, but Nintendo will give NSO subscribers some way to recover their save data should something happen to their Switch. You can read more about the game in our roundup of everything we know about New Horizons.

New Horizons launches on Switch on March 20. The game is now available for pre-order on the Switch Eshop and other retailers. Be sure to check out our Animal Crossing: New Horizons pre-order guide for more details on where you can reserve the title and what pre-order bonuses are available.

The second major expansion for Metro Exodus is out now on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC. Titled Sam’s Story, the latest story DLC for the post-apocalyptic shooter is available as part of the $25 Expansion Pass or can be purchased separately for $18.

The story follows US Marine Sam, who you might remember as a supporting character in Metro Exodus’ main campaign. Sam is a Spartan Ranger who has worked under Colonel Miller since the nuclear war devastated Moscow, joining series protagonist Artyom on his search for a new world outside of the Metro tunnels.

Sam’s Story features a brand-new storyline and characters, as well as new weapons and mutant variants. “Sam had long dreamed of returning to his homeland, and perhaps even finding his father alive,” the synopsis says. “The prospect seemed impossible in the darkened tunnels of the Metro, but when the Spartans discovered that Moscow was not the only city left alive after the war, holding out hope didn’t feel so foolish anymore.

“Sam, determined to find a way back to the USA, departed from the Aurora to make his way through Vladivostok’s tsunami-ravaged harbors, ruined industrial buildings, and crumbling residential districts. However, to complete his journey, Sam will discover that he needs every tactic he has learned so far to survive, as his surroundings prove to be far trickier than expected.”

Sam’s Story is the second major expansion for Metro Exodus following the release of The Two Colonels last year. You can currently purchase Metro Exodus on PS4, Xbox One, and on PC via the Epic Games Store. Epic’s exclusivity is coming to an end soon, however, which will see the game launch on Steam on February 15.

If you’ve been enjoying Season 4 of Apex Legends, chances are you’ve had some time playing around with the latest roster addition, Revenant. And if you have, you might be thinking about grabbing some new skins to stand out. But maybe you just want to scare other players, which is exactly what the dead eyes of the Gilded Rose Revenant skin will do.

You can grab the skin through Twitch Prime from now until March 7, but you need to think long and hard about the implications if you do. Sure, the red and gold color scheme is really attractive, as are the floral accents down Revenant’s arms. But it’s those eyes that are just a deal-breaking.

Cold, static and constantly gazing at you down the sights. Even the description for the Gilded Rose knows how horrifying it will be to have this version of Revenant after you.

“Roses are red, Revenant’s skin is too, and he’ll never, ever stop hunting you!” Well thanks for that terrifying image to fall asleep to, Respawn.

When Revenant is not haunting your dreams, he’s likely tearing things up in Season 4 of Apex Legends, which will be getting Duos back for a limited-time Valentines event. If you want to be a better death-dealer as Revenant, check out our starters guide for Apex’s latest legend.

Cliff Bleszinski, lead designer on the first three Gears of Wars games, revealed that he almost made an Aliens first-person shooter a couple of years ago that would have had a grown-up Newt as the main character.

Bleszinski shared the news on Twitter, saying that he was in talks to make an Aliens FPS with Fox, who own the Aliens franchise, but when the film company and game publisher was bought by Disney the game was “lost in the shuffle.”

Ripley would be alive and be your “Cortana/Anya.” You’d play as grown Newt. On Earth. Weyland-Yutani are weaponizing the aliens in a Black Mesa style facility and, of course, all hell breaks loose.

Your robotic pal i.e. Bishop? A new one named “Casey” after her doll in Aliens.

— Cliff Bleszinski (@therealcliffyb) February 10, 2020

 

You would have played as Newt, the young girl from the 1986 film, on Earth after xenomorphs break out of Weyland-Yutani facility that was trying to weaponize the deadly aliens.

To make this happen, all of the canon after the second Aliens film would have been ignored, as Newt dies in transit between the second and third film. Ellen Ripley would have been alive and acted as your Cortana-style guide throughout the game.

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Newt would also have had a robotic pal, similar to Bishop from the film, but would have been called Casey after the doll Newt has in Aliens.

This Aliens game would have been made by the studio that Bleszinski founded in 2014, Boss Key Productions, which closed down in 2018 due to poor sales of its games. Boss Key only made two games, LawBreakers and Radical Heights, both of which were online shooters.

Bleszinski’s Aliens game isn’t the only one that’s known to have been lost. Last year, Chris Avellone talked about Aliens: Crucible, an RPG that was prototyped by The Outer Worlds developer Obsidian before being cancelled.

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In better news, the Aliens shooter that’s being made by Cold Iron Studios, is still thought to be in active development. Fingers crossed it comes out one day.

There’s also Alien: Isolation, which has recently come to Nintendo Switch, and Alien: Blackout, which launched for smartphones in 2019, so you can play those if you need an Aliens game fix.

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Chris Priestman is a freelancer who writes news for IGN. Follow him on Twitter.