PlayStation highlighting 2020 Indies, Mobile Game Pick-ups?

PlayStation 4 Indie Highlight's for 2020

Sony reveals 5 independent games coming to PlayStation 4 this year

Sony will be announcing five new indie games for PlayStation 4 today via the official PlayStation blog and will continue to make announcements throughout the day.

So far, two of the titles have been presented:

• Boundary by Surgical Scalpels Studio – Orbital Security Detail Trailer – TBA 2020 – PlayStation.Blog
  “Astroperators gear up for zero-gravity shootouts with high-tech weaponry in outer space FPS Boundary.”
• Going Under by Aggro Crab Games – Announcement Trailer – September 2020 – PlayStation.Blog
  ”Going Under is a satirical dungeon crawler where you must explore cursed ruins of failed tech startups. As an unpaid intern in the dystopian city of Neo-Cascadia, wield office junk as weaponry and make your way through offbeat procedural dungeons beneath your company campus.”

Stay tuned: Keep an eye on the PlayStation Twitter and YouTube accounts as well as the EU or US PlayStation blogs to keep up with announcements as they happen.

Time For A Quick Daily Quiz?

Which of these sci-fi movie series did Bethesda make licensed games for?

• The Terminator
• Rollerball
• Predator
• Westworld

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

Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire was one of the earliest Nintendo 64 games

Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire was a big deal in 1996, spanning comic books, a novel – and a videogame.

Picking up after Empire Strikes Back and following smuggler Dash Rendar, it was one of Lucasfilm’s first attempts at crossover events and was an early title for Nintendo 64.

Double Fine Productions’ Tim Schafer, a veteran of Lucasarts, is mentioned in the credits in a section named “never actively tried to sabotage the project.”

Beat the game on medium or higher difficulty, and you are rewarded with a cutscene showing Dash Rendar and Leebo surviving the Skyhook Battle above Coruscant.
Join up with our community on Twitter and Facebook to discuss today’s fact.

What's happening in Mobile Today

Stave off boredom with mobile games

Now that everyone is staying home for the foreseeable future, there’s more need for entertainment than ever and there’s more competition for big screen time than ever before. Maybe it’s time to have a look at some mobile games?

• ½ Halfway by Tepes Ovidiu – Game Trailer – April 14th, 2020 for iOS – A gentle puzzler about reunion
• Becoming Bytes by Chariots Gaming – Trailer – Out now for iOS and Android – Free-to-play
• Bullet Hell Monday Finale by MASAYUKI ITO – Trailer – Out April 13th for iOS and Android – Free-to-play, Arcade
• GRIS by Nomada Studio – Trailer – Out now for iOS and Android – Adventure
• Bark Park by Ancient Games – Trailer – Out April 8th for iOS – Party Game
• Wraithmind by TEKO – Trailer – TBA 2020 for iOS and Android – Turn-based RPG
• Mass for the Dead by Crunchyroll Games – TBA 2020 for iOS and Android – Turn-based RPG
• Disney Mirrorverse by Kabam – TBA 2020 for iOS and Android – Action-RPG
• Dark Raider by Triniti Interactive – Trailer – April 4th for iOS and Android – Action, Hack and Slash
• The Procession to Calvary by Joe Richardson – Trailer – TBA 2020 for iOS and Android – Adventure, Indie

Phil Spencer Talks Xbox Series X

Xbox boss Phil Spencer on ‘building games from home’ and Xbox Series X

Phil Spencer recently appeared in an hour-long interview with Unlocked talking about how Microsoft is dealing with COVID-19, the upcoming Xbox Series X launch and how they are dealing with supply chain disruptions and homebound workers.

Some interview highlights:

• Supply chains in China are starting up again
• Biggest challenges right now are:
  • Building games with huge teams all working from home
  • Testing the Xbox Series X from home
  • Dealing with overwhelmed developers and management
• “Nothing right now says we’re not going to make the dates we’re planning”
• “Safety and security” are the number-one priorities
• Microsoft “haven’t really started on any Plan B” for Xbox Series X launch
  • Launching late in Japan hurt the Xbox One
  • Microsoft is more concerned with delayed software than hardware
• Unlikely to have specific Xbox Series X launch events ‘for any individual game’ – not even Halo Infinite
• 343 Industries considers opening up their process more
• No word on whether Halo Infinite will launch for Xbox One first if Xbox Series X is delayed
• Microsoft and Sony are both dealing with the same problems

VR Bits

GRIP: Combat Racing developers add VR mode as April Fool’s joke

The developers of GRIP: Combat Racing released a video called Vomit Racing Edition as an April Fool joke and then pushed an update allowing lucky VR users to enter the vomitorium themselves.

Developer Caged Element underscored that this mode is emphatically not for VR newcomers. The new VR mode has a third-person view and no way to switch to cockpit view, there are absolutely no comfort options and no plans to add them either.

If you ever need a Heimlich maneuver but no-one’s around, just strap into VR and launch GRIP: Combat Racing in VR mode instead!

Modder brings Half-Life 2 to Source 2

Half-Life modder Vect0r has revealed a mod that he has worked on ever since Half-Life: Alyx launched nearly two weeks ago: porting Half-Life 2 into Source 2. So far, Vect0r has managed to convert the original maps and assets to run in the Source 2 engine.

Valve has not released the Source 2 SDK, so this is more of a reverse-engineering than modding effort. If you want to keep up with the mod, you should join Vect0r’s Steam group.

Throw your weapons in Quake VR

The Quake VR team has released a new video offering a peek at the v0.0.4 update. There’s a weapon holster coming up, as well as weapon throwing.

Out of ammo? Throw your gun at the enemy! Out of guns? Chuck your trusty axe at ’em! You’ll finally be happy you went to that silly axe throwing bar. The developers haven’t announced any release date yet except that it’s “coming soon”. In the meantime, you can download Quake VR here.

What Else Happened Today?

• Bethesda has cancelled its June digital showcase, will share more new and announcements “in the coming months” instead
• The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel IV coming to the west, arriving on PlayStation 4 this year. PC and Switch versions next year
• Cellar Door Games teases Rogue Legacy 2 with some artwork, including #April2nd to underscore that this is no April Fool joke
• Mortal Shell announcement trailer from Cold Symmetry, scheduled for release in Q3 2020 for PC, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One
• New Commandos game from Claymore Game Studios brings the iconic strategy game back for PC and next-gen consoles

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The Complex PS4 Code

You have a chance to win a PlayStation 4 code for The Complex if you refer DailyBits to a friend! Use our widget to earn referrals, which you can build up throughout the year giving you a greater chance of being selected.

The Complex is currently available on the PlayStation Network for £9.99 and we’ve got a code to hand out today. This will be available for all our subscribers.

After a major bio-weapon attack on London, two scientists find themselves in a locked-down laboratory with time, and air, running out. With choose-your-own-path style gameplay, your actions and your relationship with other characters will lead you to one of eight suspenseful endings.

Quiz Answer - Did You Get It Right?

Which of these sci-fi movie series did Bethesda make licensed games for?

Answer: The Terminator!

Bethesda has always had a penchant for open-world games. They released a game based on the first Terminator movie in 1991, around the time the second movie hit cinemas.

It featured two campaigns: One where you play as Kyle Reese and try to protect Sarah Conner, while the other one puts you in charge of the Terminator and lets you hunt them both. The game does an impressive job of recreating Los Angeles considering the hardware limitations and even lets you break into shops and cars.

Bethesda made five Terminator games, the last one being Terminator: Skynet in 1996. The later games were less ambitious but still noteworthy first-person shooters, and particularly Future Shock and Skynet were ahead of the curve. Their early open worlds may not have been as flashy as the ones that set the world on fire a decade later, but Bethesda certainly helped push the envelope.

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