Month: January 2019

Just when you were getting excited to chase down The Last Word, one of Destiny 1‘s best guns, as it makes its return to Destiny 2, Bungie goes and teases an even bigger deal: Thorn.

Bungie released a trailer for its next in-game event, The Draw, for those who purchased its annual pass, which confirmed that players will be hunting down the Exotic hand cannon The Last Word. That’s a Destiny 1 gun many have been wishing would make a return, and it’s one that has a ton of lore and story tied to it.

In fact, The Last Word is one part of a famous duel, in which a heroic Guardian hunted down and killed a murderous one who’d fallen to the Destiny version of the Dark Side of the Force. If you’re hazy on one of Destiny’s best stories, check out our lore catch-up ahead of The Draw.

The Draw already looked like it would be continuing that story, which Bungie has also been advancing throughout its big Year Two expansion, Forsaken. But in the final moments of the trailer for the new event, Bungie dropped a bombshell in teasing the return of Thorn in Season 6, which starts in March.

Destiny 1 players will remember either fondly or with abject disgust the weapon that often dominated the original game’s competitive Crucible. Thorn fired bullets that did delayed damage over time, which meant plenty of players disparaged it and its users as being low-skilled–but that didn’t harm its popularity.

While Thorn’s return seems all but confirmed by Bungie’s trailer for The Last Word, the question of when it’s coming to the game is still unanswered. Bungie previously gave us a sense of when things are happening throughout Year Two with its content map, which also breaks down which events are free to all players and which are exclusive to people who purchased the annual pass. Since The Draw is an annual pass event, it seems likely Thorn will be too–but outside of it happening sometime in Season 6, it’s not clear when we can expect one of Destiny’s evilest guns to once again invade the Crucible.

Capcom’s highly anticipated Resident Evil 2 remake is finally here, but there is still some more content in store for the survival horror game. The publisher has announced it will release a free Ghost Survivors DLC starting February 15, which will give players a chance to experience the game from three new perspectives.

According to Capcom, Ghost Survivors will “explore ‘what if’ stories of three unfortunate souls who never made it out of Raccoon City.” In No Time to Mourn, players will be cast as the gunshop owner; in Runaway, they’ll play as the mayor’s daughter; and Forgotten Soldier places them in the boots of the soldier.

Resident Evil 2 launched for PS4, Xbox One, and PC on January 25 and has already proven to be a big success for Capcom. In the UK, the game debuted at the top of the physical sales chart. The title has also garnered near universal praise from critics, including GameSpot; we awarded it a 9/10 in our Resident Evil 2 review and called it “a terrifying experience like no other.”

“Resident Evil 2 is not only a stellar remake of the original, but it’s also simply a strong horror game that delivers anxiety-inducing and grotesque situations, topping some of the series’ finest entries,” wrote critic Alessandro Fillari. “But above all, the remake is an impressive game for the fact that it goes all-in on the pure survival horror experience, confidently embracing its horrifying tone and rarely letting up until the story’s conclusion.”

If you’re new to Resident Evil 2, be sure to check out our story recap before diving in. We’ve also put together a helpful guide on how to clear the 4th Survivor bonus game. The remake also makes it easier to unlock the secret Tofu Mode.

Of all the major PC games coming out in February, three will not be sold on Steam. Instead, they’re launching on other PC game stores.

These aren’t small titles either. 4A Games’ Metro Exodus, BioWare’s Anthem, and Sumo Digital’s Crackdown 3 all won’t be available on Steam. For PC, Metro is releasing on the Epic Games Store, while Anthem is launching on EA’s Origin, and Crackdown 3 is releasing on Microsoft’s Windows Store. It’s a trend that will continue throughout 2019. Although February’s Far Cry New Dawn is releasing on Steam, another big Ubisoft game–March’s The Division 2–left Valve’s store and is now scheduled to launch on Epic.

Steam hasn’t been totally left out in February. The store is still getting the aforementioned Far Cry New Dawn, as well as Jump Force, but it’s clear the overall landscape of PC gaming is changing. Steam has held a fairly large monopoly on the PC gaming market for the past decade, but developers’ decision to create their own stores has created unprecedented competition.

Although alternate PC game stores have existed for a while, it really wasn’t until late 2018, and the announcement of the Epic Store, that Steam found itself losing high-profile launches. Epic offers developers a more lucrative split of the profits they might make off of their games–especially if the title is made with Unreal Engine. Other than Metro Exodus and The Division 2, Epic also has the exclusive rights to the PC versions of Journey, Ashen, Hades, the final two episodes of The Walking Dead: The Final Season, and several other games as well. Epic has also changed its refund policy to match Steam’s.

As you might assume, Valve isn’t happy to see plenty of high profile games leave its store. The company described the decision for 4A Games to take Metro Exodus off of Steam and put it onto Epic as “unfair” for Steam’s customers, and one made by the game’s publisher without Valve’s knowledge beforehand.

Anyone who’s previously pre-ordered Metro Exodus on Steam will still be able to play on the platform, but future orders must be done through Epic. That said, the PC version of Metro Exodus is only $50 USD on Epic, as opposed to the previous $60 on Steam.

Anthony Daniels, the actor who has portrayed the famous protocol droid C-3PO since the original Star Wars released in 1977, has finished his work on the upcoming Star Wars: Episode IX.

Daniels took to Twitter to make the announcement, saying “Today was 3PO’s last on Episode IX. He’s sad – so am I. But we’re so proud to have worked with such a lovely, talented cast & crew lead by J.J. & Kathy. I’ll miss everyone but I’m glad to know that we’ve been making something exceptional together, to share with the waiting world.”

Today was 3PO’s last on Episode IX. He’s sad – so am I. But we’re so proud to have worked with such a lovely, talented cast & crew lead by J.J. & Kathy. I’ll miss everyone but I’m glad to know that we’ve been making something exceptional together, to share with the waiting world.

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