Happy Wednesday! Every Wednesday, Sidequest brings you Get Your Game On, a round-up of recent gaming news. What games are you playing lately or looking forward to? Let us know on Twitter! I’ve been playing Life is Strange 2: Episode Three, which released last week. It’s been an emotional rollercoaster as brothers Sean and Daniel, who had been train-hopping and homeless since the last episode, have found a community of friends and jobs working at a pot farm. If you’re looking for an immersive story game that explores themes of found family and friendship in the context of insecure employment and living on the margins of society, check out Life is Strange 2.
Here’s news we’ve been thinking about this week!
Final Fantasy 7 Remake Trailer
Square Enix released a trailer for the long, long, long-awaited Final Fantasy 7 remake.
While we see Cloud, Aerith, Barret, and a few other characters, we notably don’t see Tifa (although her name is visible on her hit points meter). More information on the remake should be coming in June.
Detective Pikachu Breaks Box Office Records
Pokémon: Detective Pikachu broke several box office records in its opening weekend, including the biggest U.S. opening weekend gross ticket sales of a video game adaptation ever. It surpassed the 2001 Tomb Raider to take this record. It had the best Thursday preview gross and best Friday/opening day gross of any video game movie.
Monster Hunter: World Iceborne Announced
Monster Hunter: World is getting a new expansion that Capcom calls “massive.” Iceborne will release for PS4 and Xbox One on September 6, and for PC sometime this winter. Here’s the gameplay reveal trailer:
Fortnite Skins and Bullying
One of the more heartbreaking news stories of the past week is this excellently reported piece by Patricia Hernandez at Polygon. While Fortnite is free to play, skins for player characters often require real money to obtain. This leaves players who use default skins as targets for bullying. It’s heartbreaking to see how bullying offline and online can go hand-in-hand in many ways. Sidequest community, have you seen bullying due to skins or other indicators of finances happen in Fortnite or other multiplayer games? What are your thoughts? Let us know on Twitter, or shoot an email to editors@sidequest.zone. We might be interested in discussing this more.
Fortnite Updates: Map Changes and Battle Pass
Speaking of Fortnite, its latest news includes map changes, the end of an iconic weapon, and a new season battle pass.
Variety Gaming to Shut Down
Brian Crecente, video game editor at Variety, tweeted what appears to be news that Variety’s gaming vertical will shut down:
I see word is getting out about @Variety_Gaming. Good news bad news.
We're going to have some great E3 coverage this year.
I will no longer have a job the day the show ends.
Aint no party like an E3 party!
— Brian "Seeking New Opportunities" Crecente (@crecenteb) May 10, 2019
Variety Gaming is around until the end of E3 and we will be providing full coverage up to and through the show. After that, I will no longer be at Variety. I don't know what will happen with game coverage, current articles, or the vertical. It is officially being "re-assessed"
— Brian "Seeking New Opportunities" Crecente (@crecenteb) May 11, 2019
As this news comes not long after Vice announced Waypoint would fold into the Vice name, it’s been a tumultuous past few weeks for games journalism.
Bethesda Tabletop RPG Removed Due to Apparent Plagiarism
Last week, Bethesda released a promotional tabletop RPG game, called “Elsweyr,” set in its Elder Scrolls universe. Not long after, it came to light that the game had eerie similarities to an existing D&D adventure, “The Black Road,” that had been published by Wizards of the Coast.
More News
A new Ghost Recon game, Ghost Recon Breakpoint, appears to be releasing in October thanks to a leaked listing on Ubisoft’s online store.
Tetris 99 for Switch added offline play in a DLC release last Friday. You can purchase the DLC for $10.
Nintendo announced its E3 plans, including a Nintendo Direct presentation on June 11.
Ever been curious what it takes to make a large-scale mod to a game like Fallout 4? This post about Fallout: Miami and Fallout: Cascadia, which is set in Seattle, may interest you.
Castlevania Anniversary Collection is a new collection for PS4, Xbox One, PC, and Switch, and it releases on May 16. For $20, you get Castlevania, Simon’s Quest, Dracula’s Curse, Super Castlevania IV, The Adventure, Belmont’s Revenge, Bloodlines, and Kid Dracula.
Writer at Sidequest and WWAC; past: Newsarama, Comicosity, executive editor of Kollaboration. I’ve watched over 200 hours of Life is Strange playthroughs. Talk to me about LiS, The Last of Us, and the games and fandoms you love! Twitter: @loudlysilent
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