While Netflix’s The Witcher is solely based on the books, the TV series and CD Projekt Red’s video game adaptation have now crossed over in an unexpected way. A popular song from The Witcher TV series can be seen in Geralt of Rivia’s first adventure, 2007’s The Witcher, thanks to a new mod.

You can add “Toss A Coin To Your Witcher,” a song performed by the show’s version of Dandelion at the end of the second episode, to the original Witcher PC game by downloading Hubert Wiza’s mod from Nexus Mods. Once installed, it appears as an in-game cutscene during The Witcher’s third chapter. The song replaces Dandelion’s performance at The New Narakort Inn.

The Witcher’s main campaign is lengthy and getting to the third chapter just to see the cutscene could take a while, so Wiza uploaded the full performance to YouTube for your convenience. You can check it out below.

This mod really capitalizes on The Witcher games’ recent resurgence in popularity. Since The Witcher TV adaptation debuted on December 20, the games have seen huge player spikes on Steam. CDPR’s third installment in particular, The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, had more people playing than ever before since its 2015 launch. Though the show and the game remain separate entities, CDPR and author Andrzej Sapkowski recently settled a royalties dispute that “confers new rights” to the developer.

Prior to Netflix’s The Witcher receiving less than favorable reviews from some critics, the show had been picked up for a second season. In our The Witcher Season 1 review, we said, “If you’re utterly devoted to the world of The Witcher, you’ll certainly enjoy the familiar aesthetic and characters, but beyond that, this series is hard to recommend.”

from GameSpot – Game News https://www.gamespot.com/articles/cd-projekt-reds-the-witcher-gets-netflix-toss-a-co/1100-6472492/

The first week of 2020’s Xbox One game deals is a good one. Netflix’s The Witcher Netflix series has stolen viewers’ hearts, causing The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt to spike in popularity. And if you want to get in on that, The Witcher 3, its Complete edition, and the expansion pass are all discounted on the Xbox One for the next week–if you’re subscribed to Xbox Game Pass for console, then you can play the base game free of any extra charge.

However, there is much more than just The Witcher on sale. Both Grand Theft Auto 5 and Red Dead Redemption 2 are discounted, in addition to some of the best games from this year: Resident Evil 2, Mortal Kombat 11, and Devil May Cry 5. The Outer Worlds is also on sale. Now while these games are discounted, it’s important to note that some of them are available as part of Xbox Game Pass. These include GTA 5, Devil May Cry 5, and The Outer Worlds.

We’ve collected a selection of the best deals and compiled them in a list below. The majority of these deals are valid until 3 AM PT // 6 AM ET on January 7, though there are a few exceptions–The Witcher 3 and its various add-ons and editions are discounted until January 9.

In related news, Microsoft still has an awesome deal for Game Pass. You can get your first three months of Xbox Game Pass Ultimate for $1. Ultimate grants you access to the Xbox Game Pass libraries for console and PC, in addition to Xbox Live Gold, which grants you access to online multiplayer, free monthly games, and exclusive discounts.

Xbox One game deals

• Ace Combat 7: Skies Unknown — $30 ($60)
• Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night — $28 ($40)
• Borderlands 3 — $39 ($60)
• Dark Souls Remastered — $20 ($40)
• Dark Souls 3 — $15 ($60)
• Deus Ex: Mankind Divided — $4.49 ($30)
• Devil May Cry 5 — $19.79 ($60)
• Dragon Ball FighterZ — $15 ($60)
• Grand Theft Auto 5 — $15 ($30)
• Monster Hunter World — $15 ($30)
• Monster Hunter World: Iceborne expansion — $30 ($40)
• Monster Hunter World: Iceborne Master Edition — $40.19 ($60)
• Mortal Kombat 11 — $24 ($60)
• The Outer Worlds — $45 ($60)
• Red Dead Redemption 2 — $30 ($60)
• Remnant: From the Ashes — $28 ($40)
• Resident Evil 2 — $19.79 ($60)
• Resident Evil 7 — $15 ($20)
• Sleeping Dogs: Definitive Edition — $4.49 ($30)
• Soulcalibur VI — $18 ($60)
• Tekken 7 — $15 ($50)
• The Witcher 3: Complete Edition — $15 ($50)
• The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt — $12 ($40)
• The Witcher 3: Expansion Pass — $10 ($25)

from GameSpot – Game News https://www.gamespot.com/articles/the-witcher-3-and-more-xbox-one-games-discounted-i/1100-6472488/

With Half-Life: Alyx officially made public, Valve seems to be getting more comfortable with reveals. The company has given permission to an indie studio to show a behind-the-scenes look at F-Stop, the Portal prequel that never saw the light of day.

F-Stop was a nonviolent puzzle game with DNA similar to Portal. The entire game–led by a Valve producer named Joshua Weier who worked on Portal and Portal 2–was centered around the “Aperture Camera,” an item that could copy, paste, and rescale items in the game’s world. Unfortunately, as revealed in a 2011 interactive book titled The Final Hours of Portal 2, Valve put an indefinite hold on the project after workshopping it for a while.

LunchHouse Software, an indie studio currently working on its own physics-based puzzler titled Punt, is only now, almost a decade later, giving us a look inside what Valve had been planning. With Valve’s permission and access to the F-Stop’s official source code, Lunch House has peeled back F-Stop’s curtain through a brand-new docuseries called Exposure. The first episode, while short, can be seen below. LunchHouse said more episodes are to come.

The studio said Exposure, which will document F-Stop’s various mechanics as Valve developed via the original source code, is “not based on speculation or hearsay.” The first episode only shows the “base mechanics” of F-Stop, but the team at LunchHouse is excited to “[share] more with you all in the near future.”

from GameSpot – Game News https://www.gamespot.com/articles/valves-canceled-portal-prequel-revealed/1100-6472483/

We’ve finally arrived in 2020, and that makes this weekend’s visit by Destiny 2‘s weekend vendor, Xur, the first of the year. As usual, Xur brings a host of Exotics that can help you fill out your collection, as well as a handy Fated Engram to get you one item you don’t already have and that’s not in his inventory.

If you’re cramming activities to upgrade your Sundial obelisks or complete more baked treats for The Dawning, visiting Xur can be a great way to get yourself new items that can help. While you’re at it, be sure to check out our Dawning recipe guide to help you make all the treats you need to unlock the holiday event’s Exotic sparrow.

Xur Location

Xur is located on Io in the Giant’s Scar area this weekend. He’s offering Lord of Wolves as his Exotic weapon. For Hunters, Xur has ST0MP-EE5 leg armor; for Titans, it’s Dunemarchers leg armor; and for Warlocks, you can get Sanguine Alchemy chest armor.

To find Xur’s location, spawn in at the Giant’s Scar transmat zone, then ride your sparrow north through the archway. Head to the left side of the area and look for a cave set into the wall. Xur hangs out inside.

What Is Xur Selling?

The inventory Xur brings to the solar system this weekend isn’t too impressive, although he does sport one Year Two item in Lord of Wolves. If you don’t have it, the shotgun is still a powerful tool in the Crucible, although the period in which it was nearly unstoppable and used by everyone has long passed, thanks to a patch from Bungie. For Hunters, the ST0MP-EE5 boots are also a must-have for some tougher platforming activities, so take the opportunity to snag these if they’re not already in your collection.

If Xur’s wares aren’t compelling, you can always roll the dice on the expensive Fated Engram he brings with him. This gives you a single Exotic from the limited pool of ones you haven’t already earned, for the price of 97 Legendary shards. If there’s something you’re missing from your collection and you want it sooner rather than later, it can be a good deal–starting with the Season of Dawn, all Exotic Engrams are Fated Engrams, but you’ll have to level up your Season Pass or wait for a random drop to get some. Be sure to purchase it on the character who’s missing the Exotic, and note that you can only get one per week, so choose wisely which of your characters makes the buy. If you’re a PC or Xbox One player taking advantage of cross-save, you can now potentially get Wavesplitter from the Fated Engram as well.

Xur Item Lineup (January 3-6)

• Lord of Wolves (Exotic shotgun)
• ST0MP-EE5 (Exotic Hunter leg armor)
• Dunemarchers (Exotic Titan leg armor)
• Sanguine Alchemy (Exotic Warlock chest armor)

Lord of Wolves

Not too long ago, Lord of Wolves dominated the Crucible, but Bungie has since adjusted the gun to make it less dominant in PvP activities. It’s still a very handy weapon, however, thanks to its two firing modes. The standard firing rate is similar to most shotguns, while holding the reload button switches to Release the Wolves mode, which fires a longer, more powerful shotgun burst of several shots. Think of it like a shotgun that shoots like a fusion rifle–which makes it pretty devastating.

ST0MP-EE5 (Hunter)

Though they’re among the oldest Exotic armor in Destiny 2, for Hunters, the ST0MP-EE5 boots are a must. They increase your sprint speed, slide distance, and jump height, which makes them phenomenal for tough platforming areas featured in The Whisper or the Pit of Heresy. Those mobility bonuses can also make them great in PvP situations, too. Put these boots in your rotation if you haven’t already.

Stats:

• Mobility: 18
• Resilience: 6
• Recovery: 2
• Discipline: 10
• Intellect: 6
• Strength: 6
• Total: 48

Dunemarchers (Titan)

It’s not just Hunters who can enjoy an Exotic that makes them quicker; Titans also get a boost to their mobility with Dunemarchers. These boots increase your sprint speed, but with a violent bonus–sprinting builds up a static charge that you can release on enemies when you melee them. Punching an enemy with a charge built up will chain lightning to their nearby allies.

Stats:

• Mobility: 13
• Resilience: 7
• Recovery: 6
• Discipline: 6
• Intellect: 6
• Strength: 12
• Total: 50

Sanguine Alchemy (Warlock)

There are several Exotics that boots Warlock Rifts, depending on the effects you need for a given situation. Sanguine Alchemy gives you and your teammates “heightened senses” when you stand in Rifts. That effect maintains your radar even when you’re aiming down sights and marks powerful enemies, allowing you to see them even when they’re out of your direct line of sight.

Stats:

• Mobility: 12
• Resilience: 7
• Recovery: 8
• Discipline: 6
• Intellect: 12
• Strength: 6
• Total: 51

from GameSpot – Game News https://www.gamespot.com/articles/where-is-xur-destiny-2-exotic-location-weapon-and-/1100-6472481/

Sony has announced the PlayStation 5 is coming this holiday season, which leaves less than 12 months for the company to announce all the details in preparation for launch. If Sony follows the roadmap set by the PS4, the PS5‘s big debut could be extremely close.

PS4 Reveal’s Event Date, Time, And Location

In January 2013, Sony invited media to attend a special “PlayStation Meeting” to take place on February 20 at 6 PM PT in New York City. The showcase took place at the PlayStation Theater near Times Square, and sure enough, it was at that event that the company outlined the PlayStation 4 launch plans.

This event was the first we’d heard of the PS4’s tech specs, with a detailed breakdown from hardware architect Mark Cerny. The event also showed the DualShock 4 controller with Share functionality, a PlayStation smartphone app, and promised games would be playable while downloading. It also gave a launch window of holiday 2013.

If Sony follows this timeline, which would allow maximum time for its retail partners to prepare for the holiday season, we can expect a similar rollout of information. The debut would take place in the first quarter, possibly as early as February. The 2013 event was scheduled for the evening, giving US fans who wanted to watch live from home the opportunity to do so after work. That time would be all the more important now, as publishers have increasingly messaged directly to fans.

As for the venue, the PlayStation Theater closed its doors as of December 31, 2019. That means the company couldn’t host the event there, for obvious reasons. But Sony could use another theater, or continue using its own property with the concert venue Sony Hall in New York.

E3 No-Show?

Alternatively, Sony could hold its announcements for the second quarter, near or even overlapping with E3. The annual ESA event is usually a showcase for new hardware, and will likely be the first public hands-on with Sony’s primary competitor, the Xbox Series X. Sony may skip the event altogether, as it did in 2019. It hasn’t given any public indication that it plans to come back this year.

Ceding the E3 ground to Microsoft would allow the industry’s biggest event to focus almost entirely on Sony’s chief competition. Sony may not be keen on giving Microsoft such a gift, so it could counter-program with its own event even if it doesn’t attend the show. That could be the reveal of the PlayStation 5, or it could be a public showing that builds upon the momentum from an earlier reveal event.

What We Know So Far

Whenever Sony chooses to lift the curtains, it will add much more to the limited details we have so far. Sony has begun talking about the PlayStation 5, but very rarely and in a tight-lipped manner. In fact, the company only confirmed late in 2019 that the system would be called the PlayStation 5 at all.

So far we know that the PS5 will be backwards compatible with PS4 games, and your older games will run faster thanks to the new system’s solid-state drive. A leaked comparison video showed the load times on PS5 as compared to a PS4 Pro.

We also know the system will use an AMD CPU based on a third-gen Ryzen. It will have eight cores of the Zen 2 microchip. The graphics chip will be a custom version of the Radeon Navi. All that hardware power is said to support 8K resolution, and ray-tracing for both graphical and audio effects. Sony has also confirmed it will include a Blu-ray disc drive, which can play 4K Blu-rays. Finally, it will be compatible with PSVR in some capacity, and Sony issued a statement promising increased energy efficiency as part of a UN initiative.

The PS5 controller will replace the rumble tech from the last several PlayStation controllers with new haptic feedback. It will also include adaptive triggers on L2 and R2, which allows developers to adjust the resistance. Sony says that these two features working in conjunction with each other creates a unique simulation experience. A new UI will allow you to view more details about friends’ games without opening the applications.

What We Don’t Know Yet

That leaves plenty for Sony to reveal, whenever the company decides to do so. We haven’t been given solid information on the price, release date, or launch lineup. We have no information on what the hardware–the console or controllers themselves–will actually look like. And the company’s commitment to more nebulous ideas like PSVR aside, we don’t know exactly what that means.

Most significantly, we haven’t seen any of these hardware or UI features in action. Hearing about features like ray-tracing is one thing; seeing the difference it can make to an environment in a real game is another one entirely. Seeing the PS5 load Spider-Man much faster than usual was nice, but a new console launch demands some graphical “wow” moments. Sony is sure to provide those with a look at next-generation software running on the PlayStation 5.

from GameSpot – Game News https://www.gamespot.com/articles/when-is-more-ps5-info-coming-a-look-back-at-ps4s-r/1100-6472466/