Minecraft goes WAKA-WAKA, Mario 64 PC Has Mods

Top Story

Minecraft Dungeons starring Pac-Man

Pac-Man celebrates his 40th anniversary this year, and as part of the celebrations the literally iconic hero will appear in Minecraft Dungeons.

A new trailer reveals that “legendary arcade classic PAC-MAN comes to Minecraft” for Switch. It appears there will be a Pac-Man-themed city, new features and last but not least – the ability to build your own mazes.

• 10 explorable 3D mazes
• High score leaderboards
• Build your own mazes
• New power-ups and other new features

There are also a lot of Minecraft influences, such as a ghost that looks suspiciously like a Creeper. Minecraft Dungeons is an action-RPG that has more in common with Diablo than the original Minecraft, and launched for Switch on May 26.

Time For A Quick Daily Quiz?

Who played the villainous Kane in the Command & Conquer series?

• Matthew Yang King
• Tim Curry
• Justin Gross
• Joseph D. Kucan

The answer will be revealed at the bottom of today’s issue. Join up with our community on Twitter and Facebook to discuss what the answer could be.

Daily Fact

Viva Piñata started life as a PDA game

Rare’s original vision for their 2009 life simulator Viva Piñata was a lot more naturalistic, and it started out as My Garden. It later became Amazing Garden, but eventually the piñata-inspired art direction changed everything.

The original target platform was – believe it or not – Microsoft’s Pocket PC PDA, before development moved to Xbox and finally Xbox 360. Rare wanted a unified style for all their animals, and that’s how the piñata theme came to be.

Join up with our community on Twitter and Facebook to discuss today’s fact.

Paradox Interactive's New Studio

Paradox opens studio in Barcelona

Paradox Interactive just opened their seventh internal studio, this time in Barcelona. The new studio is named Paradox Tinto and will be directed by Europa Universalis creator Johan Andersson.

The new studio will have a “small core team” initially overseeing the continued development of Europa Universalis IV, and the new studio will also be involved in future grand strategy projects. Andersson said he’s “excited and grateful for this opportunity to build up a new studio” and the chance to pursue new grand strategy ideas.

“The success of our studios over the last few years has allowed us to continually add more capabilities and new ideas, with more games going into active development and more ambitious plans every day. We currently have around 70 open positions across our seven studios, with plans to recruit roughly 200 people in 2020 alone,” said COO Charlotta Nilsson.

Paradox Interactive also owns and operates Paradox Development Studio, Paradox Arctic, Paradox Tectonic, Triumph Studios, and Harebrained Schemes. Triumph and Harebrained were independent developers before Paradox acquired them.

This Week In Gaming

Get ready to Command & Conquer

The first week of June brings Riot Games’ first-person shooter Valorant and the Command & Conquer Remastered Collection, and The Outer Worlds finally arrives on Switch.

Tuesday – June 02

• Valorant launching for PC

Friday – June 05

• Clubhouse Games: 51 Worldwide Classics launching for Switch
• Command & Conquer Remastered Collection launching for PC
• The Outer Worlds launching for Switch

What Else Happened Today?

• ShopTo briefly lists Prey VR for PlayStation VR in a now deleted pre-order listing for Prey VR
• Mod support added to fan-made Super Mario 64 PC port despite Nintendo’s efforts to shut down the project, and mods are already being shared
• Wedding Season begins in Animal Crossing: New Horizons so get on with your wedding planning and have a gander at the tasks and rewards
• 22 Gigantamax ready to rumble in Pokémon Sword & Shield Max Raid Battle event starting on June 2nd and lasting until June 29th
• Riot Games announces Valorant launch times with Asia-Pacific territory being first, followed by Europe and Russia before finally launching in the Americas

Esports Bits

More content for Street Fighter V

Capcom has revealed the final update for Street Fighter V. Season V adds five characters and three new stages, and comes as a bit of a surprise to the fighting game community, which assumed that Champion Edition was the final update to the game.

Capcom was not planning to add more content to Street Fighter V, but the response to Champion Edition exceeded their expectations, and the developers decided that one last hurrah was in order. Capcom will announce more about Street Fighter V Season V later this summer.

Snappi will substitute for Xyp9x

Following Andreas “Xyp9x” Højsleth’s decision to take a break from competitive Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, Astralis has signed a short-term deal with Marco “Snappi” Pfeiffer. That means Snappi will be reunited with former teammate, Jakob “JUGi” Hansen, who joined Astralis earlier this month.

Xyp9x announced that he will take a break to “find the motivation to get back to competing for Astralis”. Astralis has consistently dominated Counter-Strike: Global Offensive for the past two years, and it will be interesting to see whether the Danish giants can stay at the head of the pack. Snappi’s first tournament with Astralis will be BLAST Showdown between June 1st and 7th.

DOTA 2’s The International Battle Pass nears $12m prize poo

Since launching The International 10 Dota 2 Battle Pass last week, Valve has already raised close to $12 million for the tournament prize pool. Demand was so intense that all Counter-Strike: Global Offensive servers as well as Steam was down for a short while after launch.

The prize pool had already surpassed $8 million within 24 hours, smashing sales records. While part of the explanation is gamers stuck at home thanks to COVID-19, but Valve also included more content than usual to ensure the Battle Pass was a must-buy for Dota 2 fans.

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Atomicrops for Switch & PC

You have a chance to nab a Nintendo eShop code or an Epic Games Store code for Atomicrops if you refer DailyBits to a friend! Use our widget to start earning referrals, which you can build up throughout the year to increase your chance of being selected.

Atomicrops is available on the Nintendo eShop for $14.99 or £13.49, and we’ve got several codes to hand out this week, and please note that Switch codes are only available to European readers.

Modern city life got you down? Well, you’ve just inherited your late uncle’s farm. Time to pack your bags and start fresh in the peaceful countryside. What could possibly go wrong? A nuclear apocalypse, that’s what. Now you’re in a hellscape wasteland defending the last surviving source of sustenance – your crops. And every mutant wants a piece. Do as any self-respecting farmer would: Farm. Marry. Kill.

Quiz Answer - Did You Get It Right?

Who played the villainous Kane in the Command & Conquer series?

Answer: Joseph D. Kucan!

There aren’t many game series defined by a single actor, but Command & Conquer is one of them.

Joseph D. Kucan started out as voice director for Westwood Studios, but with the advent of full-motion video in games, he started experimenting with integrating video in games and proceeded to play arch-villain Kane as well as direct Command & Conquer’s live-action cut scenes. They might be a bit stilted and cheesy, but have an undeniable charm.

It also helps that Kucan portrayed Kane throughout the whole series. He played Kane for so long that it even earned him a place in the Guinness Book of Records for longest-running actor in a game series. So when you fire up Command & Conquer Remastered Collection later this week, send a warm thought to Joseph D. Kucan.

Today’s issue of DailyBits was written by Simon Priest, Gavin Herman, Erlend Grefsrud, Christian Vaz and Jamie Davey.