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After 12 years with Gearbox Software, audio director and composer Raison Varner has announced on Twitter that he will be moving to Obsidian Studios. Varner has worked on all of Gearbox’s flagship games over the years, as well as voicing various Borderlands psycho enemies and the Loader Bot in Tales From The Borderlands.

Varner was the music director on Borderlands 3, working with a team of composers to push the game’s soundtrack to be unique and creative, while still belonging cohesively to a single game. Under Varner’s leadership, Borderlands 3 pushed the possibilities of what a game soundtrack would do. In an interview with GameSpot, Borderlands 3 composer Jesper Kyd said the game featured “a really deep interactive music system with many layers and modular pieces that are randomly put together in-game, so the music sounds a bit different every time you play the game.”

Obsidian’s latest game The Outer Worlds launched in October 2019, with story DLC planned for an as-yet unknown date in 2020. The Nintendo Switch release of The Outer Worlds was pushed back due to coronavirus, now with a release date of June 5 2020. The future of Obsidian was made more concrete with Microsoft’s purchase of the company in 2018, with a focus on allowing the studio to make the kind of games it wants to make.

Empire of Sin, the upcoming 20s-set mobster strategy game from Romero Games Ltd, will feature a real-life figure from developer John Romero’s family tree. Elvira Duarte was Romero’s great-grandmother, an eccentric character who developers John and Brenda Romero wanted to honor in the game. The announcement has been made to coincide with Mother’s Day.

In the video below, John and Brenda explain that Duarte was an interesting character–she walked around with a green parrot on her shoulder, who would deliver punchlines to jokes she told. She ran three brothels, but quit and retired after winning the lottery. And now, a century later, she’s a video game character.

Duarte will be a playable mob boss in the game, with her own powers and a revolver that she can take enemies down with. She’s introduced in the trailer below.

Elvira Duarte’s “mob ability” in the game is called Devil’s Breath, which allows her to take control of enemy characters and use them to kill their own people.

The in-game model of Elvira is based on John’s grandmother Socorro, one of Elvira’s nine children. As Brenda says, she kind of looks like John, too. In any case, it’s a cool bit of character trivia–if you pick Elvira, you know you’re playing as a real person.

Empire of Sin is coming to Switch, PS4, Xbox One, and PC this year. The game will release in Fall 2020.

The next update for Halo: The Master Chief Collection on Xbox One is coming soon, and it introduces a new bug in Halo 2: Anniversary. In a blog post, developer 343 Industries warned players that the new update adds a bug where the reticule moves off-center for couch co-op split-screen multiplayer.

343 said it is currently working on a fix for the problem, with the aim of it releasing in the coming weeks.

“Our test teams identified a newly introduced issue in H2:A where the reticule is off centered when playing split screen multiplayer,” 343 said. “The team is working on a fix for this and we will be targeting a hot fix build update for this in the coming weeks ahead.”

This update releases on May 12, which is the same day that Halo 2 comes to PC through The Master Chief Collection. The May 12 Xbox update also includes performance updates for Halo 3 that aim to bring the game back to a better state.

“Our goal is to bring Halo 3’s performance on Xbox back to what it was prior to our update when Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary launched on PC. In great news, the team has been conducting internal tests and they are showing positive improvements for the experience which you will see in this update,” 343 said. “The team is not done and will continue more extensive testing and listen for community feedback on any additional areas of improvements needed for Halo 3’s performance.”

In other Halo news, Microsoft has announced an all-new MCC Pro Series tournament, while the first beta tests for Halo 3 and ODST on PC are due to begin soon. These Halo: MCC updates are happening concurrently with the development of Halo Infinite, which is a launch title for Xbox Series X this Holiday. The first gameplay footage for Halo Infinite is likely to premiere in July during an Xbox 20/20 event.

Thimbleweed Park, Ron Gilbert’s charming 2017 adventure game, just got a surprise free spin-off. The new game, Delores: A Thimbleweed Park Mini-Adventure, is available to download now on Steam and the Epic Games Store. It weighs in at just 52MB.

The new game is a parallel story following Dolores, one of the main characters from the original game, getting a job as a photographer. It’s designed as a test for Gilbert’s new adventure game engine, which is why it’s free–don’t expect an experience as long as the original. It is not available on consoles.

Here’s the launch trailer for the new adventure, if you need further convincing to download a free game.

Thimbleweed Park is also discounted by 60% on Steam and the Epic Games Store right now, but that discount is due to end very soon.

The original game received a 7/10 in GameSpot’s 2017 review. Reviewer Matt Espineli described the game as “a time capsule that reminds us what we love about the point-and-click genre while still retaining many of its unremedied issues.”

Given that Microsoft has said almost nothing about what to expect from Halo Infinite, which is releasing later this year, fans are understandable hungry for any morsel of news about the game. Halo community manager John Junyszek has now shared a tease for Halo Infinite as it relates to its use of Medals.

Replying to a fan who remarked that Medals feel meaningless in Halo 5 because they are doled out so generously, Junyszek said, “We’re definitely aware of this feedback,” adding the smiley face and punch emojis to his message, whatever that means.

Reading between the lines here, it seems developer 343 Industries is planning some kind of change for how Medals work in Halo Infinite. Some people criticized Halo 5 for simply having too many medals. Other people, meanwhile, enjoyed the frequent feedback of in-game performance. It’ll be interesting to see how Halo Infinite addresses the feedback.

Halo Infinite is primed for its proper unveiling at the Xbox 20/20 event in July. It is the third brand-new Halo game developed by Microsoft’s 343 Industries after taking over control of the franchise from series creator Bungie. Halo 5 was criticized by some for its lackluster campaign, so fans may be happy to know that Halo Infinite puts a renewed focus on Master Chief and the art style is meant to hearken back to Halo’s earlier days.

Halo Infinite is a launch title for the Xbox Series X; it’s also coming to Xbox One and PC. Xbox Game Pass subscribers–on Xbox and PC–can get the new Halo game for no extra cost.

While you wait for Halo Infinite, you can check out Halo 2: Anniversary on PC starting May 12 and take part in an all-new MCC Pro Series tournament. Microsoft is also bringing Halo 3 and Halo 3: ODST to the PC through The Master Chief Collection, and the first beta tests are due to begin soon.

Halo: The Master Chief Collection continues its PC rollout, with Halo 2 Anniversary releasing on May 12, and plans already underway to get Halo 3 to users as soon as possible. Microsoft recently released the first screenshots of Halo 3 and Halo 3: ODST on PC, and now they’ve announced that the first “flight” (their term for a beta test) will start soon.

In a new MCC Development Update on Halo Waypoint, 343 Industries has promised that preparations are underway for the “Ring 1” flight to begin soon. Ring 1 is typically a very small group of folks who work closely with the developer, but future updates will bring in other members of the Halo Insider program to test the game ahead of launch.

According to the update, testing will begin “in the coming weeks,” and will begin expanding out to more Insiders soon. “As it progresses and we work through our process we will make sure to keep folks apprised of when and where to expect the next series of PC flights to take off,” the update reads.

Since Halo 3: ODST does not have its own multiplayer mode, there’s a good chance it will release alongside Halo 3 after the flight period. After that, Halo 4 will be the last remaining part of The Master Chief Collection to come to PC.

Unfortunately, it seems that Halo 2 Anniversary’s PC launch will be fairly compromised–at launch, at least.