biteho.com

Cyberpunk 2077 was recently delayed to September, pushing the anticipated game back significantly. That also may have had an impact on the game’s planned multiplayer, which CD Projekt Red has now said probably won’t launch for at least two more years.

In an investors call, the studio said that “2021 appears unlikely” for the multiplayer release. That means the mode, which will come as a free update to the game, will show up in 2022 at the earliest. The company did not specify any more details about the multiplayer mode, but did suggest it’s being developed in parallel as a AAA experience of its own.

In the statement explaining the delay to 2077, CDPR said the game is complete and playable already, but “there’s still work to be done.” The studio says the bulk of the remaining development is playtesting, fixing, and polishing the game. It promised it will be issuing “regular updates” on its progress in the meantime.

Cyberpunk 2077 was originally slated for April 16. Its new release date of September 17 puts it much closer to the launch of new consoles, which has renewed speculation that it could appear on Xbox Series X and PlayStation 5. CD Projekt Red says that, for the time being at least, the game is only being developed for current-gen.

After a bit of delay, you can now register for the second of Pokemon Sword & Shield‘s official online competitions. Called Galar Newcomers, the competition will only allow Pokemon new to the Galar region and Galarian forms of existing Pokemon, like Weezing. And like the previous online competition, Galar Beginnings, you’ll get 50 Battle Points just for participating, so there’s no reason not to sign up and give it a shot.

Registration for Galar Newcomers will stay open until Thursday, January 23 at 3:59 PM PT / 6:59 PM ET, and then the battles themselves will take place from January 23 at 4 PM PT / 7 PM ET to January 26 at 3:59 PM PT / 6:59 PM ET. This is a slight change from the dates and times that were initially announced; the competition was first slated for January 30, and registration was supposed to be open for several days before it finally did go live at 10 PM PT on January 15.

To sign up:

• Open up the menu in either Pokemon Sword or Pokemon Shield
• Select VS to go to the Victory Station menu
• Select Battle Stadium (this will connect you to the internet)
• Select Online Competitions
• Select Search Official Competitions

From there, you’ll be guided through the registration process. Note that you need a Nintendo Switch Online subscription to participate.

To get the reward of 50 Battle Points–a very valuable currency used to purchase all sorts of battle-related items–you only have to battle once during the competition window. Win or lose, you’ll get the BP just for participating. That’s a huge chunk of BP to get all at once, so don’t miss the opportunity.

Unlike Galar Beginnings, which used the single battle format, Galar Newcomers will be fought in double battles. All Pokemon will be auto-leveled to 50, and Legendary Pokemon, including Zacian and Zamazenta, will not be allowed. However, Gigantamax will be allowed. You can battle a maximum of 15 times per day that the competition is active.

To get prepared, make sure you get the current free gift of 40 total Battle Points and try catching some Gigantamax Pokemon. Right now, Pokemon Sword players have a greater chance of encountering Gigantamax Coalossal and Gigantamax Flapple in Max Raids, while Pokemon Shield players can find Gigantamax Lapras and Gigantamax Appletun. Both games are also seeing an increase in Gigantamax Alcremie, which looks like a giant cake. All but Lapras are eligible for Galar Newcomers, so now’s as good a time as ever to Raid. For tips, see our Max Raid guide.

Humble’s latest bundle is a big one and for a great cause, too. The Humble Australia Fire Relief Bundle costs $25, all of which goes to three charities helping with the Australian fires. And for that $25, you get 29 games, the vast majority of which were developed in Australia.

The 29 games include Hollow Knight, Void Bastards, and Armello, in addition to Duck Game, Hand of Fate 2, and 24 others. All of the games redeem on Steam, and if you already own some of the games, you can send the game key to a friend.

All of your money goes to RSPCA Australia, which will enter fire zones and help injured animals; WIRES, which is a wildlife education and rescue service; and World Wildlife Fund, which is dedicated to wildlife response, habitat restoration for people and nature, and future-proofing Australia from further devastation. You can choose how much of your money goes to each charity or do an even split among all of them.

The Humble Australia Fire Relief Bundle is available for one week only, so if you want to help support the country’s fire relief efforts, you’ll want to do so before January 23. $25 is all that’s needed to get these games, but if you’d like to help out further, then you can donate even more money through this bundle.

Full list of included PC games

• Hollow Knight
• Void Bastards
• Armello
• Euro Truck Simulator 2 (includes Australian Paint Jobs Pack)
• Duck Game
• Hand of Fate 2
• Paradigm
• Crawl
• The Adventure Pals
• Regular Human Basketball
• Satellite Reign
• Hacknet (includes Hacknet Labyrinths DLC)
• Mr. Shifty
• Primal Carnage: Extinction
• Assault Android Cactus+
• The Haunted Island, a Frog Detective Game
• Framed Collection
• Think of the Children
• Feather
• Tower of Guns
• Rising Dusk
• Death Squared
• Paperbark
• Quest of Dungeons
• The Stillness of the Wind
• The Gardens Between
• Paper Fire Rookie
• Masquerade: The Baubles of Doom
• Machinarium

Overwatch has begun its annual Lunar New Year event, which means another special mode, new weekly challenges, and loads of themed skins to collect. The “Year of the Rat” event lasts from January 16 to February 6, and is available across all platforms: PC, PS4, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch.

The new game mode is CTF Brawl Blitz, a modified version of the standard Capture the Flag mode. It puts flags much closer than usual, but you’ll need six flags (instead of the standard three) to win. You can also get cosmetic rewards by winning nine games in any mode each week. The weekly rewards are listed below.

Finally, there are a number of other cosmetics to collect through the usual means of randomized loot boxes or in-game currency. Those include the Legendary skins Opera Brigitte, Face-Changer Sombra, Mask Dancer Moira, and Samul Nori Lucio. The Sombra skin is a unique one, as it actually cycles between six different masks periodically. Those all join the Epic skins available through the weekly challenges, along with tons of icons, emotes, and sprays. You can check out the array of new skins below.

This event follows just a month after the Winter Wonderland event, so Blizzard has been dropping new goodies to collect fairly frequently. This is all while also working on Overwatch 2, which game director Jeff Kaplan said slowed the pace of seasonal events.

Weekly Challenge Rewards

• Week 1: Monk Doomfist (Epic)
• Week 2: Ancient Chinese Bronze Winston (Epic)
• Week 3: Papercutting Wrecking Ball (Epic)

Warning: This article contains major SPOILERS for the final episodes of the Arrow-verse crossover Crisis on Infinite Earths.

[poilib element=”accentDivider”]

Arrow’s Stephen Amell has commented on the Earth-shattering ending of the Crisis on Infinite Earths crossover event while reflecting on his character’s long, rocky journey to reach this point.

Amell, who has starred as Oliver Queen on Arrow since the franchise began, took to Twitter in the wake of the last two parts of Crisis on Infinite Earths to acknowledge his character’s final sendoff.

“8 seasons and an entire Universe seems like a pretty good time to step away,” he wrote. “What a ride.”

8 seasons and an entire Universe seems like a pretty good time to step away.

What a ride.

— Stephen Amell (@StephenAmell) January 15, 2020

In the eighth episode of Season 8 of Arrow (aka Part 4 of the 5-part Crisis on Infinite Earths crossover event), the heroic archer sacrificed himself for the sake of humanity, as he used his Spectre powers to attempt to weaken the Anti-Monitor so that the rest of the heroes could be victorious in the final battle. As a result, Arrow’s principal character takes his final bow, two episodes before the flagship series’ conclusion.

[ignvideo url=”https://www.ign.com/videos/2019/11/27/arrowverse-the-road-to-crisis-on-infinite-earths”]

In a recent interview with The Hollywood Reporter, showrunner Beth Schwartz opened up about Ollie’s fate, as she assured fans that the demise of the Lazarus Pit-resurrected character is permanent on this occasion.

“Yes, he is really dead this time,” she confirmed to the outlet. “Because the whole point of this death and the culmination of what brings us to the crossover is that everything he’s learned throughout the series and these past eight years has led him to this moment to give the ultimate hero’s sacrifice.

“And that’s his life — to save everyone else. That’s what a hero does. His journey has led him to make that ultimate sacrifice for his family, for his friends, for the other superheroes. And it just worked out in the timing of doing Crisis that the story made sense.”

[widget path=”global/article/imagegallery” parameters=”albumSlug=arrow-crisis-on-infinite-earths-part-four-photos&captions=true”]

However, Schwartz also revealed that this is not the last we have seen of Amell on Arrow, as “he will be in the series finale” in some capacity, adding that it’s now up to Amell and the other shows to decide whether the character should make any future appearances on screen.

“These are questions for the other showrunners, but it starts off the Legends of Tomorrow season,” she said of the impact of Oliver’s death on the rest of the characters in the Arrow-verse. “Arrow was the first show, and all the other new shows came from Arrow. Every single character on the shows have their own relationship and emotional connection to that character and they’ll forever be changed by his death.”

In our review of the final two chapters of Crisis on Infinite Earths, we praised Oliver Queen’s sacrifice, saying he was “given the heroic sendoff he deserves” in an “extremely endearing ending sequence that really sets the tone for the Arrowverse going forward.”

[widget path=”global/article/imagegallery” parameters=”albumSlug=a-history-of-dcs-crisis-comics&captions=true”]

For more on the Crisis on Infinite Earths ending, read about how DC’s TV and Movie Universes are now officially connected and check out our round-up of Twitter reactions in the aftermath of the surprise cameo no one expected.

[poilib element=”accentDivider”]

Adele Ankers is a Freelance Entertainment Journalist. You can reach her on Twitter.

Epic Games Store has generated $680 million since in its first year, with the platform’s exclusives having “driven the majority of revenue so far”.

Talking to GameDaily.biz, Epic Games Store General Manager, Steve Allison, explained that growth and revenue created by the store is “ ahead of our early expectations”. He noted that exclusives account for 90% of all the store’s new releases, and are the main provider for Epic’s revenue despite strong performance from non-exclusive games.

[ignvideo url=”https://www.ign.com/videos/2018/12/08/the-epic-games-store-is-the-first-real-threat-to-steam”]

“Exclusives have been critical in gaining momentum in the presence of a competitor that began 2019 with more than 90% market share,” Epic CEO Tim Sweeney told GameDaily.biz. “Securing exclusives for Epic means we can significantly assist developers with product funding and invest in marketing and awareness knowing that these efforts bring in new customers to our store, rather than just sending more business to the incumbent.”

Epic promises that “tons” of exclusives are heading to the Epic Game Store in 2020, indicating that its strategy is here for at least the foreseeable future.

The $680m revenue comes from the 108 million PC customers that use the Epic Games Store. Those users have also claimed more than 200 million free games, thanks to Epic having offered 73 games free of charge over 2019. The company plans to continue offering free games in 2020, too.

[widget path=”global/article/imagegallery” parameters=”albumSlug=igns-top-25-modern-pc-games&captions=true”]

The company’s revenue figures also relate to actual spending by customers, without any discount coupons included. Epic reports that $23 million in discounts was funded by the company in the period.

Last year Tim Sweeney explained that the company’s intentions with EGS exclusives was to disrupt the status quo in games retail. Currently, PC gaming is dominated by Valve’s Steam platform, which takes a higher cut of profit from sales away from developers than Epic does. Sweeney has said that Epic would end exclusivity deals if Valve commits to offering developers a better return on their profits.

[poilib element=”accentDivider”]

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

For the past week, the Epic Games Store has been giving away Sundered: Eldritch Edition, but with a new Thursday comes a new free PC game from the Fortnite company. This week’s title is Horace, a story-focused puzzle-platformer about a good-natured robot who’s in with a tough crowd and asked to do some nefarious things.

Horace’s story is funny and full of heart, yet also tragic at times. It’s also a challenging platformer, with some fun surprises along the way. To claim it on the Epic Games Store, all you need to do is head to Horace’s store page, click “Buy Now,” and complete checkout. You won’t be charged, but you will be able to install and play Horace any time you want.

If you want to see some gameplay, be sure to check out GameSpot sister site Giant Bomb and its Horace Quick Look. They show off part of the story, some tricky sections of puzzle-platforming, and one of the surprises you can expect from the genre-blending adventure.

Horace is free to claim until January 23, when it will be replaced by Epic’s next freebie, logic puzzle game The Bridge.

Originally, the Epic Games Store’s free games program was supposed to end last year, but the company recently revealed that it’s extending the free game giveaways through 2020.