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Pokemon Masters Anniversary Event, PS5 landing Mid-November?

TODAY: Looks like PlayStation 5 will launch sometime in November — Netflix is making a live-action Resident Evil series following Wesker’s family — Don’t worry, you’ll probably last longer than A Boy and His Blob

Top Story

Gamescom 2020 Opening Night Live round-up

Gamescom 2020 just opened its digital doors with the Opening Night Live broadcast, positively bursting with trailers and announcements. Here are the highlights:

Time For A Quick Daily Quiz?

Which Pokémon game used the VRU?

  1. Pokémon Snap
  2. Hey You, Pikachu!
  3. Pokémon Channel
  4. Pokémon Ranger

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

A Boy and His Blob can be very short

Imagineering’s 1990 platforming puzzler A Boy and His Blob: Trouble on Blobolonia was made in just six weeks, but you can complete it even faster: Thanks to a glitch, you can trigger the ending cutscene in less than two minutes. Just abuse the rocket power-up and go out of bounds!

There are a few more signs that development went very quickly. For instance, you can feed Blobert a ketchup jellybean by throwing the honey jelly bean and then quickly switching to ketchup, which turns him into a rather useless brick wall. Datamining the game also reveals that there are graphics for a jellyfish, an apple, a bubble and a gingerbread man, but they went unused.

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

Pokemon News and Events

Get ready to Mega Evolve!

The Pokémon Masters EX anniversary content is now up and running: The Champion Stadium is open, and you can battle the Kanto Elite Four and Champion. Mega Evolutions are available in Pokémon GO and the Mega Pokédex is online.

Pokémon GO

  • Mega Evolution allows Pokémon to Mega Evolve
  • Mega Pokédex is introduced
  • 200 Mega Energy needed to evolve Kanto starters
  • Mega Raid Battles have started appearing
  • A Mega Discovery Special Research available
    • Mega Venusaur, Charizard, Blastoise & Beedrill currently available

Pokémon Masters EX

  • Three new Spotlight Scouts announced:
    • Sygna Suit Red Poké Fair Spotlight Scout
    • Sygna Suit Blue Poké Fair Spotlight Scout
    • Sygna Suit Leaf Poké Fair Spotlight Scout
  • Blue (Sygna Suit) & Blastoise and Leaf (Sygna Suit) & Venusaur added
  • Stamina Gift login bonus every day until September 10th
  • Additional 200 Stamina every day until October 1st

Pokémon Sword & Shield

  • First of the Pokémon Players Cup Finals streaming today
  • Official online circuit in place of cancelled in-person tournament
  • Pokémon TCG Finals preshow today, with finals Saturday and Sunday

PlayStation 5 Release Date

PlayStation 5 launch mid-November?

Neither Sony nor Microsoft have announced exactly when their next-gen consoles will launch, although Microsoft has narrowed it down to November.

There are confident reports that PlayStation 5 will launch around mid-November, which would fit with reports saying Sony’s PlayStation 5 marketing effort will begin in earnest on November 13th in the UK.

Loud launch: That means PlayStation 5 should launch around the same time as Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War, Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla and Cyberpunk 2077. “It’s a complicated time, and you would typically place a strong bet on PS5 arriving somewhere in the middle of November,” said Christopher Dring, head of games B2B at Gamer Network.

Black Friday: “Ideally, you’d want to launch before the end of November if you want to capitalise on the Christmas sales window, as getting your product out before the final payday of the year is a key move,” he continued. Sony is aiming to launch PlayStation 5 simultaneously in all territories.

Keeping it Physical

Super Rare Games announces physical editions of Dandara: Trials of Fear

Dandara: Trials of Fear is Super Rare Games’ next release, and this is the first time the 2D metroidvania has had a physical release. Dandara (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qi01Myfy5cU&) features a unique movement style: You can only move using directional jumps between different surfaces!

Two versions will be available, with the prices we’ve mentioned below not including tax or shipping, so expect it to cost a bit more when that’s added on:

  • Standard Edition, £27: The game cartridge in a standard case
  • Collectors Edition, £75: The game cartridge in a standard case, plus a 180 page full-colour guidebook, a custom artwork playing card deck, an A3 double sided map, 2 soundtrack CDs, 2 sets of trading cards, a sticker, a pin badge, and a pendant, all in a collectors box.

Pre-orders open on September 3rd at 6pm BST on Super Rare Games’ shop. As usual, both editions are limited: 4,000 standard and 1,000 collectors copies will be available. You can find out more about Dandara: Trials of Fear on developer Long Hat House’s website.

What Else Happened Today?

Quiz Answer - Did You Get It Right?

Which Pokémon game used the VRU?

Answer: Hey You, Pikachu!

The VRU was a voice recognition unit for Nintendo 64, only used in two games: The train simulation game Densha de Go! 64 and Hey You, Pikachu!

Hey You, Pikachu! included a microphone along with the VRU, and let you befriend adorable wild Pikachus by talking to them. Why didn’t Nintendo bring this revolutionary technology to more games?

Well, the VRU wasn’t great at voice recognition, and was tuned for high-pitched voices so it didn’t work very well for teens and adults. Nintendo also launched a microphone add-on for GameCube, which supported only five games including the extraordinarily odd feudal pinball real-time strategy game Odama.

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