NewsHit 18 March 2019 – Walkabout With Your Wand Out

This week’s gaming summary with all the biggest stories and the new stuff coming out in the next few days, plus some silliness added for good measure.

You’re a Wizard, Keith (or Sam, or Jamie)

The fabled successor to Pokemon GO – the upcoming Harry Potter Wizards Unite – moves one step closer with a few seconds of actual gameplay footage, some screenshots, and pre-registration now open for Android users via the Google Play store.

The game details announced so far paint a confusing picture of the overall gameplay – something about monsters in the wild (OK I’m on board so far), then there’s some sort of 3D augmented reality locations to discover, and something about mysteries, challenges, professions and crafting. How this actually fits together hasn’t been revealed but this seems far more in-depth than a simple cash-in title aimed at kids. Niantic, the company behind the tech, knows full well how lucrative these games can be if they hit the mark for active players.

Find out more on the game on the official website.

Streaming Master Race

A few interesting developments for PC gamers.

After a period in beta, Microsoft has released the “Wireless Display” app which allows streaming from your PC to your Xbox One as long as you are using a controller (keyboard and mouse not possible). Apparently even Steam games can be streamed from your PC to your Xbox One, but with the caveat that any games with controls schemes unsuitable for controllers might not play well.

Another new feature for Steam users with the announcement of Steam Link Anywhere. This beta program allows games to be streamed to another network – meaning that streaming games wirelessly should be possible to the Steam Link app. There’s a couple of steps to take if you want to join the beta for this one so read the Steam forum update notes for instructions.

Finally this week will confirm what exactly Google is bringing to GDC, although many suspect this will be cloud gaming news following their recent Project Stream which had successful tests of Assassin’s Creed Odyssey streamed via browser. Google are certainly making a big song and dance about it, so you have to assume there’s something exciting on the way. It might not be the fully-fledged console that has been rumoured for some time, but it must be a fully dedicated gaming service of some kind.

The way we play PC games may be starting to evolve again…

Praise you like I should

We are now entering a big time for gaming awards and conventions with the likes of GDC, IGF, PAX East, and BAFTA Game Awards all coming in the next couple of weeks. Thanks largely due to the huge amount of press coverage, it’s often an opportunity for the big players to announce their intentions for the upcoming few months.

Game reveals which were unknown until the event (very rarely), occasionally a piece of hardware or new peripheral to keep players happy. Sometimes a massive steaming piece of PR gold which causes fans to wildly rant (those are the best ones).

On the awards side, this week we had the winners of the SXWS gaming festival awards – with many usual suspects grabbing the top prizes, however there were a few happy surprises thrown in for good measure!

Red Dead Redemption 2 picked up the awards in SFX, Technical Achievement and Trending Game of the Year. Fortnite took home the awards in Multiplayer and Most Promising New Esports Game. Marvel’s Spider-Man took home Animation which was truly justified from the visual flow of that game (and Convergence which is an entertainment crossover award, well duh). Also taking home prizes were Celeste (for Cultural Innovation), Octopath Traveller (for Art), and Beat Saber (for VR).

We’ve also had the BAFTA Games Awards nominees confirmed, so looking forward to the winners being announced in early April. The next few months will be interesting so stick around to see what other gaming news we discover in the near future.

New Shit

Time to check out the new releases for this week in summary table format – let us know if you’re planning to get anything from the list!

Title	Format	Publisher	Release Date
Satisfactory Lands	PC	Coffee Stain Studios	19/03/2019
The Messenger	PS4	Devolver Digital	19/03/2019
Chocobo’s Mystery Dungeon EVERY BUDDY!	NS/PS4	Square Enix	20/03/2019
Fate/EXTELLA: LINK	PC/NS	XSEED Games	19/03/2019 – 22/03/2019
Agartha	PC	Fruitbat Factory	20/03/2019
Azure Saga: Pathfinder	NS	MassHive Media	21/03/2019
Dengeki Bunko: Crossing Void	An/iOS	37Games	21/03/2019
Super Phantom Cat	NS	Veewo Games	21/03/2019
Witch & Hero	NS	Flyhigh Works	21/03/2019

Our World is Ended.	PC	PQube	22/03/2019
Out of the Park Baseball 20	PC	Out of the Park Developments	22/03/2019
SNK 40th Anniversary Collection	PS4	NIS America	22/03/2019
Stories: The Path of Destinies	XO	Spearhead Games	22/03/2019
TT Isle of Man: Ride on the Edge	NS	Maximum Games	23/03/2019

The Wins (alternative news)

Now a round-up of some other sensational gossip from the past week, although the accuracy of certain elements of these news updates could be described as “not”.

No Man’s Sky announces new update featuring shit tons of red and possibly something about actual multiplayer content
Gearbox does everything but announce Borderlands 3: The Clap Trap Murders (or face murder by over-enthusiastic fans if they disappoint with a re-release on Switch)
Japan games featuring gangsters, serial murders and violence pulled from shelves due to lead actor getting caught taking caffeine pills
New game launches in Google Earth – Where on Google Earth is Amelia Earhart?
Stardew Valley launches on Android devices one day early – now all the players have missed the Spring Egg Festival
BAFTA game awards announce nominations with Fortnite pipped for “Most Artistic Lootboxes” and Tetris Effect for “Most Brains Melted”
Windows users accidentally blow up PCs by asking Windows Cortana to install the good Cortana from Halo Master Chief collection