Pokémon Presents Airing Tomorrow, EA Scraps Anthem Updates

Henry Cavil reads up on Mass Effect

Henry Cavil, famous for playing Superman and Geralt of Rivia, has posted a picture from the make-up chair including a blurry page from what appears to be a script.

Fans have decided that this is proof that Cavil – a self-professed gamer – is somehow involved in a Mass Effect project, although it's definitely not clear if that might be a film, show or game.

Wiki leak: GamePressure used Focus Magic to remove the blur from the page in the photo, and it appears to be a page from the Mass Effect wiki, detailing events from Mass Effect 3. Either Cavil is catching up on some lore, or he's a terrible tease.

Commander Cavil: Most fans seem to believe that this means a live-action film or series is on the way, while others believe Cavil will appear in the new Mass Effect game currently in development at BioWare. Legendary Pictures acquired the rights to produce a Mass Effect movie at one point, but only the animated movie Mass Effect: Paragon Lost ever saw the light of day.

What was Bungie’s final Halo called?

a) Halo 4
b) Halo: Reach
c) Halo 3
d) Halo: ODST

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.

Wonderful references abound

The Wonderful 101 features a character named Wonder Wonderland, a more or less obvious reference to Alice in Wonderland. The character’s full name is Allison Trump, which just so happens to be the full name of Lewis Carrol’s heroine.

The robot sidekick P-Star is a more oblique reference to developer PlatinumGames, whose logo is the letter P next to a star. Wonder Blue also mutters about a “pain in the butt hedgehog”, a reference to the fastest thing alive who is also voiced by Wonder Blue actor Roger Craig Smith.

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

Pokémon Diamond & Pearl remake tease

One of the most persistent Pokémon rumours claims that Pokémon Diamond & Pearl is coming to Switch as part of the Pokémon 25th anniversary celebration, and now it looks like an announcement is just around the corner.

As part of the P25 Music event, you can claim a singing Pikachu in Pokémon Sword & Shield. It might look like any old Pikachu, but can use the special moves Sing, Encore and Celebrate.

Pokémon Café Mix

• Latest update adds 30 new stages, new Pokémon, gimmicks and offerings
• Celebi Event until March 10th with special customer Celebi

Pokémon GO

• Go events for March announced
  • Searching for Legends event between March 9th and 14th
  • Charge Up event between March 16th and 22nd
  • Weather Week event between March 24th and 29th
  • Incense Day on March 14th, focusing on Psychic and Steel type
  • Raid Weekend event between March 27th and 28th

Pokémon Masters EX

• First part of the Pokémon anniversary
• Leon & Charizard, Marnie & Morpeko, Diantha and Gardevoir and Iris & Hydreigon Sync Pairs coming soon
• Story event featuring Leon, Champion Time starts on February 26th
• The next story event, Shining Heart of Dragons, begins on March 18th

Pokémon Sword & Shield

• Claim Sing Pikachu with code P25MUS1C
  • Sing, Encore, Celebrate, Electro Ball and Light Ball moves
  • Available until March 25th

EA is determined to listen to their fans

Laura Miele is the chief studios officer at EA, and her goal is to “strip away some of the preconceived notions” about what kind of projects the publisher should back.

"In terms of our game development philosophy, our players are always our north star," Miele told IGN. She wants the publishing giant to “really start listening to players and incorporating their voice” during the development process.

Fan service: “A new Skate, College Football, a Command & Conquer remaster, the Mass Effect Trilogy” were all greenlit thanks to listening to what gamers want, and also motivated the post-release maintenance of Star Wars Battlefront 2, which managed ”to turn the perception of that game completely around."

No more Anthem: On the other hand, you can't please them all: EA just announced that BioWare will no longer be working on Anthem, after spending the last two years trying to salvage the game after a weak launch.

Pumpkin Jack codes for PS4 or Switch

We’re giving away five copies of the spooky 3D platformer Pumpkin Jack from indie developer Nicolas Meyssonnier. Should you be one of the lucky few then we’ll give you the option of picking between a PlayStation 4 or a Nintendo Switch code for the game.

To be within a chance to a win all you need to do is follow our Twitter account @DailyBitsGaming and visit our official website. Doing both gives you two entries for double the chance! Check out the Pumpkin Jack Giveaway to learn more.

Cosmic horror in virtual reality

Lovecraftian horror game The Shore just launched for PC, and the developers are promising VR support soon. The game blends action, mystery and horror and tells the story of Andrew, who must brave forces beyond his ken to rescue his daughter.

Virtual Desktop returns to Oculus Quest

If you own an Oculus Quest, you can look forward to an officially supported version of virtual desktop on the Oculus Quest store.

That means you can stream Steam VR and Rift games like Half-Life: Alyx to Oculus Quest and Quest 2 once again, after Facebook forced the developers to remove support for Steam VR games in 2019.

• Halo TV series leaves Showtime in favour of Paramount+ and will premiere early next year
• Play Anno 1800 for free between February 25th and March 1st and keep your progress if you buy it
• PlayStation 5 exclusive roguelike shooter Returnal launches on April 30th, learn more about the shifting planet Atropos in the new trailer
• Patch 1.2 for Cyberpunk 2077 delayed until March after cyber attack sets back the biggest update yet

What was Bungie’s final Halo called?

ANSWER: Halo: Reach!

Bungie remains pretty much synonymous with Halo, over 10 years after they released their final game in the series and left development to 343 Industries. Their swan song was Halo: Reach, which chronicled the fall of the human colony Reach – a bittersweet and less bombastic game than the earlier sci-fi epics.

It also included Forge, a map editor that allowed fans to keep making content for the game and keep it alive. All in all, Halo: Reach was arguably the greatest game in the series, and the question is whether it was a perfect end to Bungie’s work on Halo – or just proof that they could have kept reaching ever-greater heights.

Help Us Improve DailyBits

We hope you've enjoyed today's issue of DailyBits! Please feel free to send any feedback or news tips over to team@dailybits.news. In order to make sure you keep receiving these emails, we'd also like to ask if you could please add us to your contact list, so that we don't land in your spam or promotion folders. Thank you!

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