More PC Game Pass, Miitopia Avatar Craze

PC games “a key part” of Xbox ecosystem

Microsoft has just blogged an update on their intentions for PC gaming throughout 2021 and beyond, stating it’s a vital part of their wider “player-first” approach.

“…”player first” has to apply for PC, as well, and to that end we’ve been making investments across the PC gaming ecosystem to ensure that PC is a key part of how people can play games.” More titles are on the way to PC including through other storefronts like Steam.

Expansion: They’re going to be expanding Xbox Game Pass for PC even more as reception has been great with already 100 titles available to subscribers, and that now includes “award-winning Bethesda games” and even EA’s own third-party EA Play library.

More to do: Xbox Cloud Gaming also lets many on PC experience games they otherwise couldn’t. Microsoft acknowledges they “still have a lot of work to do,” but feel they’re heading in the right direction thanks to all the developer and fan feedback.

Which pinball designer voiced Shao Kahn in Mortal Kombat?

a) Mark Ritchie
b) Barry Oursler
c) Steve Ritchie
d) Pat Lawlor

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.

Hello, My Name Is… not your business

Tales of Symphonia from Namco Tales Studio doesn’t tell you one of its character’s real names. The assassin Sheena Fujibayashi becomes a main protagonist in the RPG group but she only ever gives her alias.

The people of Mizuho village consider names as ‘sacred’ and so only Sheena’s immediate family would ever know her true name. Events in Symphonia take place thousands of years before Tales of Phantasia, which is set in the combined worlds of Sylvarant and Tethe’alla.

Join our community on Twitter and Facebook to discuss today's fact.

Some of the top Valheim mods today

Valheim has been enjoying a whirlwind of success thanks to its pixelated charm and mythical Norse setting, and it’s seen an explosion of mods from the community.

We’ve quickly rounded-up some of the top endorsed tweaks, additions and overhauls that modders have brought to the freshly crafted table in your mead hall. Being an open world crafting survival game it’s ripe for inventive mods or just quality of life improvements.

• Valheim Plus by Valheim Plus Team
  (3.2k Likes / 266.1k Downloads)
  A whole host of features are introduced that modify stats of players, buildings and entities in the game world. It also lets you “build and place objects with very high precision” using its own system. It also includes a “high performance automation system” for production that will push and pull objects from storage. It’s overall goal is quality of life.
• Equipment and Quick Slots by RandyKnapp
  (2.9k Likes / 131k Downloads)
  A simple mod that gives equipped items their own dedicated slots in player inventory, as well as three more hotkey mapped quick slots.
• Craft Build Smelt Cook Fuel Pull From Containers by aedenthorn
  (2.5k Likes / 109.5k Downloads)
  This mod is dedicated to pulling food, ores and other craftable materials from storage containers nearby to meet requirements when crafting, building, or when using smelters and kilns as well as refuelling fires and cooking etc.
• BetterUI by Masa
  (2.3k Likes / 87.4k Downloads)
  The goal of this mod is to make the user interface better to read and communicate more to the player. It also lets you customise elements and even provides a colour-blind mode, which comes in handy with its coloured durability bars. Item levels are also represented with stars with customised tooltips, and much more.
• Clock by aedenthorn
  (2.0k Likes / 69.9k Downloads)
  A clock system that lets you know what time it’s meant to be in game and it’s configurable to either give you an exact time or an approximation such as ‘Early Evening’ or ‘Late Afternoon’.

Miitopia creations craze for JRPG

Nintendo JRPG Miitopia makes use of its Mii avatars system and has led to a flurried frenzy of talented creations being shared online.

Some are downright impressive while others have inadvertently set loose real horror shows. The JRPG imports your Mii avatars as actual characters in the adventure, and that leaves room for some funny shenanigans, or an excuse to recreate iconic personas.

Miitopia madness

• Pokémon Mii
• Aku Mii
• Grinch Mii
• Shadow (Sonic) Mii
• KEKW Meme Mii
• Mina Ashido Mii
• Peter Griffin Mii
• Piccolo Mii
• Perfect Jotoro Mii
• Alphonse Elric Mii
• Banjo & Kazooie Mii
• Droopy Mii

• Game Boy Color de-make for Pokémon Snap envisioned with a lengthy animation by @Rotobit
• PlayStation Plus games for May will include Battlefield V, Stranded Deep and Wreckfest on PS5
• Minecraft snapshot 21W17A for Java is here tweaking raw ore textures and adding noodle caves
• Metro Exodus PC Enhanced Edition out May 6 with Ray Tracing overhaul that’s free to owners
• Five Nights at Freddy's: Security Breach delay with free Security Breach: Fury's Rage out now

Which pinball designer voiced Shao Kahn in Mortal Kombat?

ANSWER: Steve Ritchie!

On Monday, we quizzed you on Ed Boon’s involvement in the pinball industry. But it was actually a two-way street! Steve Ritchie, the fabled “Master of Flow” that made pinball tables like Black Knight and Firepower, was Shao Kahn’s initial voice in the original Mortal Kombat games. Whenever you’ve heard “Finish Him!” in Mortal Kombat 2 and 3, that was the same guy who helped define the pinball industry.

He’s still in the pinball business, working with Stern on tables to this day. Recently, he has made the third Black Knight table and one based on Led Zeppelin. It makes you think about how oddly connected Mortal Kombat is to pinball. Now we just gotta wait for them to make a MK pinball table…

Today's issue of DailyBits was written by Gavin Herman, Nick Akerman, Erlend Grefsrud, Simon Priest, and Jamie Davey. If you have any feedback or news tips for the team, please email us!