Dungeons & Dragons company Wizards of the Coast announced today that it is opening a new studio in Austin, Texas, that will be headed up by former BioWare stalwart James Ohlen. Ohlen left BioWare last year after a 22-year career, during which he amassed design and writing credits including the Baldur's Gate series, Neverwinter Nights, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, Jade Empire, and Dragon Age: Origins. 

"I didn’t think that I would be coming back to the game industry so soon but working with Wizards is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity," Ohlen said. "Our mutual love of RPGs, world-building, and interactive storytelling is a perfect match." 

What exactly the new outfit will be getting up to hasn't been revealed at this point, but a rep said that it will a "multimedia studio," with "freedom to develop different expressions." Interestingly, and also a little bit disappointingly as a big Baldur's Gate fan, it apparently will not be a D&D project: Wizards of the Coast said the studio "will focus on the creation of original IP outside of the Magic: The Gathering and Dungeons & Dragons brand." 

One possibility is that it will be related to Odyssey of the Dragonlords, an "epic adventure book" in the works at Arcanum Worlds, a publishing venture Ohlen co-founded last year with fellow former BioWare bros Jesse Sky and Drew Karpyshyn. The company launched a $50,000 Kickstarter to support the book on April 16, and after just one week it's already pulled in almost four times that amount.

Hutton Orbital is perhaps the most notorious space station in all of Elite Dangerous. Located in Alpha Centauri—just down the road from our own solar system—this modest little outpost is almost 7 million light seconds from the system's hyperspace jump arrival point. This means that, even travelling in supercruise, it can take over an hour of continuous flying to reach it.

Some players discover this the hard way. They accept a mission in a nearby system to ferry cargo to Hutton Orbital, blissfully unaware of the sheer distance they have to cover to make the delivery. They point their ship towards the station and wonder why, after twenty minutes, or even longer, they don't seem to be getting any closer to their destination. This happened to me when I was a rookie pilot, yet here I am, years later, flying there purely by choice.

The long haul to Hutton Orbital has become something of a rite of passage for Elite players—and one developer Frontier has acknowledged with the Hutton Mug, a rare commodity that can only be bought at the station. So last night I decided to make the gruelling journey to this backwater outpost myself—partly for the novelty of having endured it, but mostly for the mug. I like mugs.

It's not a particularly difficult challenge. You just point your ship at the station, engage the throttle, and occasionally adjust your heading—and not even that often. But it is deeply boring; a test of patience rather than skill. But I don't think that'll be a problem for me, because I'm a Euro Truck Simulator 2 veteran. Driving in one direction for long periods of time is actually fun to me—and in Elite I don't even have to worry about traffic or changing gears.

That's not to say the trip is completely danger free. As someone who always flies in open, a mode where it's possible to run into other humans, I'm a little worried about some griefer camped out at Hutton waiting to blow me to pieces the moment I arrive. I've also heard of players running out of fuel and getting stranded in deep space, but I don't think that should be a problem in my Asp.

And so I fly to Alpha Centauri, line my ship up with Hutton Orbital, and begin the dreaded journey. The station is 6,784,404 light seconds, or 0.22 light years, from the system's jump point. A couple of thousand light seconds feels like a lot to me when I'm running trade routes in Elite, so I'm instantly daunted by the distance. But hey, this is the perfect opportunity to catch up on some podcasts.

Twenty minutes pass and, yes, this is really dull. I keep zoning out, but it doesn't really matter because, so far, I haven't even had to nudge my Asp to keep it pointed at the station. But there is something quite pleasant about being in the lonely depths of space. Usually when I'm in supercruise there are other ships buzzing around me like flies, but out here there's nothing.

Ten more minutes pass. Then another ten. I start questioning why I'm even doing this in the first place. Is this really a good use of the only life I'll ever have? Eden, the planet Hutton orbits, is still a miniscule glowing speck in the distance. Ten more minutes. Then another. At least in Euro Truck Simulator you have to occasionally brake or indicate or merge into another lane: here it's just watching and waiting, listening to the rumble of your engines, watching stellar dust streak past your windows. It's pretty chill, but not exactly entertaining.

It's an hour before I start to feel like I've actually made any progress. Eden is much more visible now, as is Proxima Centauri, the star it orbits. And my ship occasionally drifts now, which gives me something to do other than stare at the stars. Then, finally, I approach the station, slow down, and drop out of supercruise. It's taken me 1 hour and 33 minutes to reach Hutton Orbital, and I'm genuinely thrilled to see this backwater dump floating in the void.

There are no other players around, sadly. I was hoping to say hello to a fellow pilgrim. I dock at the station and fill my hold with Centauri Mega Gin, another rare commodity, and yes, the fabled Hutton Mug. I take a selfie next to the station, because that's what everyone who comes here does, and I notice that my Asp's paintwork has worn off at the front. That's what spending over an hour in supercruise will do to you, I guess. I decide not to repair the damage, leaving the scuffs and scrapes there as a sort of badge of honour.

I feel slightly hollow as I jump back to my home system. Reaching Hutton Orbital wasn't quite as satisfying as I thought it would be. If it was a little more difficult I might feel more fulfilled. But all I've really done here is manage to not fall asleep for an hour—which I suppose is a kind of achievement when there's nothing to look at except a starry void. I think, ultimately, the idea of going there is much more exciting than actually doing it. And I learned this the hard way.

But I really love that this challenge exists at all. It's always great to see something created by players in a game that is then acknowledged and supported by a developer. I don't think you should rush out and attempt your own Hutton Orbital run, but it's an enjoyably silly (if tedious) way to spend an hour and a bit in Elite's vast galaxy. And if you fill your hold up with those rare commodities, you could make some decent money for your efforts. Me, I'm just happy to have gotten here in one piece and returned home with a novelty mug.

Surviving Mars' terraforming expansion, Green Planet, will launch next month alongside Project Laika, a content pack that will let you introduce critters onto your increasingly verdant world. Pups, penguins, you'll even be able to bring a platypus to Mars. Some will be pets, but you'll also be able to raise livestock, too. Check out the feature breakdown of both DLCs above. 

You'll be able to make Mars barely recognisable, seeding it with grass, lichen and trees, and you'll eventually have to melt the icecaps and capture ice asteroids to get all the water you'll need. It looks like it's pretty hands-on at first, but nature will start to take over, spreading organically across the planet. Once Mars has a breathable atmosphere, colonists and animals will finally be able to leave the domes without lugging around oxygen tanks. 

Terraforming introduces new threats, however, including greenhouse gases and acid rain. Also, all these asteroids you'll be capturing? They can slam into the planet and cause a marsquake. Presumably it'll squash any buildings it lands on, too. 

You can see how to start terraforming in the tutorial video below. 

With Green Planet, you'll get seven new terraforming buildings, while Project Laika will add animal farms that will let you breed eight different kinds of livestock, including cows, chickens and pigs. You'll get 25 different pets, too, from the mundane to the exotic. 

I'm looking forward to finding out how penguins fare on an alien world. I've got a feeling they'll be running the place within a year. 

Green Planet and Project Laika are due out on May 16. They're available separately for $19.99 and $5.99, but you can also pick them up together in Green Planet Plus bundle for $23.90.

The next game from Frontier, creator of Elite Dangerous and Planet Coaster, is a zoo simulator. It makes sense, really. The developer has created zoo management games in the past, and it feels like a natural extension of the Planet series. But Planet Zoo it's a very different game from Planet Coaster, with a focus on caring for animals, ecology, and preservation over the immediate, gut-churning thrills of a theme park.

You can read all about the game, including interviews with several members of the development team in issue #331 of PC Gamer, released May 2 in the UK. But until then, here are some highlights from our first look at the game.

It's super authentic

Just as the Planet Coaster team spent time at real theme parks, speaking to the people who design and run them, the Planet Zoo team has consulted with zoos in the same way.

"I can't name drop, but we have spoken to zoos," says Piers Jackson, game director. "We've visited them, spoken to the staff, vets, keepers, and management. We've immersed ourselves in it. It's important that we understand the inner workings of a zoo. We have people working in the company with experience of it, and we've consulted with researchers who've given us large amounts of information about the animals. So really there are many approaches we have when it comes to authenticity."

"Animal husbandry is core to any modern zoo, and some of these zoos are doing a fantastic job in that regard," he says. "We've spoken to zoo keepers as part of our research on this project, and they are there for the animals. They're trying to repopulate the wild wherever they can. That's something we very much wanted to reflect in Planet Zoo."

The animals are incredibly realistic

Planet Zoo's animals are fairly astonishing, with subtle, realistic animation and a sense that they're weighty, distinctive living things, rather than just hollow 3D models. Frontier wants you to care deeply for the creatures in your zoo, and a lot of work has gone into building that empathy.

"When it comes to animating the animals, it's not just about making sure they move right, but that we capture something about them," says Chris Marsh, lead animator. "We took trips to a few zoos and collected a lot of our own reference material. I wanted to know how they feel when they're in a habitat, and existing together as a family unit. You can make the weight and animation timing perfect for a single creature, but when you drop five of them into an enclosure they need to interact believably."

"We want these animals to feel like they're important to you, that you do need to look after them and care for them," says Piers Jackson. "And we have seen these attachments grow. One team member followed one of his elephants through a full life cycle, and it was distressing when it died. That's a really cool moment. A real bond. The work of the team, be it the character modellers, the animators, or the guys doing the AI, has come together to create something that people are really invested in."

Keeping them happy will be a challenge

"In any simulation management game you have to allow people to do things badly," says Piers Jackson. "People have to be allowed to fail or push the simulation in a way that you didn't intend. And there can be consequences to that. Creating a habitat that isn't good for an animal will have a negative impact on its wellbeing and the guests. But I think people will find ways of creating successful habitats that we haven't thought of, and that's part of the joy of making a customisable game like this."

"Running a zoo is all about making sure the animals are well cared for, and that's really the core of Planet Zoo," says Jonny Watts, Frontier's chief creative officer. "You have to make sure the habitats have the correct biomes and temperatures. But there's also a whole other area called enrichment. This means things you put into the habitat to stimulate the animals and break up their day, or recreate experiences they would have if they were in the wild."

Everything affects the simulation

"You'll have emotional highs and lows," says Jonny Watts. "When an animal dies it also affects the economy. Money stops coming in, which is an important gameplay mechanic. It works on two levels, emotional and financial. If a ride breaks down in Planet Coaster you can send the engineers to fix it. But you can't bring a dead animal back to life. That's a beautiful bit of destruction and, from a pure gameplay perspective, a great ingredient for the simulation. And from that you get this emotional ebb and flow."

"Pathing is also important, because you need to create an efficient network for your keepers to restock food and so on," he adds. "If they're miles away from an animal, or the path there is too complex, they can go hungry. Your paths also have to offer places for the guests to get a clear view of the animals, as well as effortlessly guiding them between habitats in good time. We want everything you do in Planet Zoo, from a creative point of view, to affect the management simulation too in some way." 

It's a very Frontier game

"Attention to detail is almost an obsession at Frontier," says Piers Jackson. "Grounding things with a scientific background is what we do best, whether it's mapping a galaxy or making the most authentic rollercoasters down to the nuts and bolts. Or in the case of Planet Zoo, making sure the zoo the animals are part of is representative of what a modern zoo stands for, and that conservation and husbandry are catered for properly."

"A streak of authenticity runs through all our games at Frontier," says Jonny Watts. "I'd love it if people were inspired by them to pursue a career in zoology or astronomy, the same way Life on Earth inspired me to study zoology. Our games are fun, but there's always a message in there. Not an overt one. But enough to inspire people, I hope."

"We have to make sure Planet Zoo abides by the principles of the Planet franchise," explains Watts when I ask him about what his high level goals for this new game are. "It's all about this deep, piece-by-piece construction, giving people the tools to create anything they can possibly imagine. We have this Lego philosophy where it'll take you time to build something, but when you do it you really revel in your achievement."

BattleTech is planning a city break this summer with the Urban Warfare expansion. Up until now, lance battles have mostly taken place in the wilderness, with the occasional trip to a gloomy outpost, but with Urban Warfare you'll be able to kick the oil out of mechs on city streets and rooftops surrounded by destructible buildings. Check out the trailer above. 

Urban environments aren't just a nice change of scenery; they'll also present new tactical challenges. Buildings offer plenty of places to hide and lots of cover, but you can also kick them down and deny the enemy safety. Health and safety is clearly not a big concern in these cities, either, as there are explosives scattered around, just waiting for to be set off. 

As well as being able to use the tried and tested 'hide behind a wall' method, you might want to try the new ECM tech, once lost but recently rediscovered, which will make you and nearby friendlies invisible, at least to enemy targeting systems. Of course there's a counter, so you'll need to watch out for mechs equipped with probes. This tech sounds like it should come in just as handy outside cities, too. 

There are two new mechs, one of which packs both the ECM and probe, and it's not just mechs with some tricks up their sleeves. You'll have to fight three new enemy vehicles sporting prototype ECMs and probes, as well. 

The last expansion introduced branching story missions, Flashpoints, and Urban Warfare adds another to the list, along with a new kind of encounter where your lance will have to take out an enemy base while trying to protect their own from enemy attackers.

It's quite a bit more than a new biome, then, though that's still definitely the highlight. I'm sick of trees. Give me a skyscraper to punch.  

BattleTech: Urban Warfare is due out on June 4. 

Divine Confetti is a Quick Item found in Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice and is used to increase your damage against spirits and apparitions. When applied to your weapon, Divine Confetti adds a purple glow and will dispel effects from enemies if they're hit multiple times. It is invaluable in fights against certain enemies such as the Headless mini-bosses and Shichimen Warriors.

You'll find a certain amount of Divine Confetti as you play: some enemies will drop it and you'll find more as you explore. It's also worth remembering that once you reach a certain point late in the game, you'll be able to purchase infinite Divine Confetti for 300 sen a piece. If you don't want to wait until then, there is a place where you can farm this item fairly early on.

Where to farm Divine Confetti

You'll have access to this farming location once you reach Ashina Castle and unlock the Upper Tower—Antechamber Idol. The blue-robed samurai that you'll find in this area have a higher chance than most of dropping Divine Confetti, though the drop rate is still fairly low. 

You have a few options here. You can either work your way from the Antechamber Idol all the way to the Dojo Idol, killing all blue-robed enemies you encounter. Or if you prefer, you can pick off two or three enemies—or however many you feel comfortable with—before resetting them by resting at the Idol.

It should be noted that, while the above area seems to be the most effective place to farm Divine Confetti, you're still at the mercy of RNG and results will vary greatly. You can increase the chances by using a Mibu Possession Balloon and The Most Virtuous Deed skill may also help. Some players have reported that using the Demon Bell to increase the difficulty also increases the drop rate, though this is still unconfirmed.

Nine Divine Confetti you may have missed

If you're further on in the game and only need to grab a few extra Divine Confetti but you haven't yet unlocked them at the merchants, there are a couple of locations which yield multiple pickups.

You can find three in the Bodhisattva Valley area. From the Idol, make your way to the cave with the Giant Serpent (where you find the Dried Fruit). There is a grapple point above and to the right of the statue here; grapple up and follow the path to find three Divine Confetti.

You can find six more at the Mibu Village in Ashina Depths. Five are found near the beheaded Buddha statue, close to the drinking NPC and another is found inside a house just before you reach the Water Mill Idol. Later you are able to buy Divine Confetti from merchants, though the cost is high.

 Snake Eyes Shirafuji is an optional mini-boss in Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice. She's one of two bosses responsible for guarding the entrances to the Gun Fort and is located on a platform between the Sunken Valley and the Gun Fort Idols.

How to find Snake Eyes Shirafuji

From the Sunken Valley Idol, jump from the cliff but be immediately ready to grapple the trees as you're falling. From here you'll want to move quickly from platform to platform to avoid the gunfire from enemies in the area. You'll find the boss straight ahead, but instead of engaging her, you should veer left and jump up to a ledge to hug the cliff wall. Head across the bridge, being careful of the gap in the middle—as well as the gunners still firing at you—and make your way to the Gun Fort Idol. Resting here will reset all of the enemies that you've aggroed along the way.

When you're ready, backtrack across the bridge and along the ledge to start the encounter.

Snake Eyes Shirafuji Strategy

The Sabimaru prosthetic tool is a good option for this fight as Shirafuji is susceptible to poison. You'll need to perform two deathblows to defeat her and she has a number of devastating ranged attacks up her sleeve, meaning you'll want to stick as close to her as possible for most of the encounter. You can approach her normally or sneak up behind her to perform a stealth attack which will make short work of one of her lives.

A lot of Shirafuji's moves can be deflected, including most of her ranged attacks; she likes to attack with two or three hit combos, most of which will end with a gunshot, so don't be caught off-guard. She'll try to kick you away to gain distance to use her gun but this can also be deflected. If you see a red icon appear at any point during the fight, dodge away as this signals her unblockable grab attack which will deal a lot of damage if it connects. 

Once you've taken around a third of her health, her posture becomes much easier to break; Firecrackers can be helpful here and will allow you to stun her to get some free hits in. If you need to heal up, make use of the terrain for cover as she will simply resort to shooting you if you move away from her to recover health. 

If you're still having trouble with Snake Eyes Shirafuji, you can check out our combat tips for Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice.

Pathologic is an unusual game. It's a first-person psychological horror/survival game released by Russian studio Ice-Pick Lodge in 2005 that probably didn't make a hell of a lot of sense in its native language and was rendered absolutely impenetrable by a notoriously bad English translation. Few people who played it managed to get anywhere with it, and those who powered through to the end had no idea what the hell they'd just been through. It was wall-to-wall bonkers, and not in a fun, Monty Python kind of way, but in more of a "I just sustained a significant head injury and now these creepy emaciated children are trying to stab me" kind of way.

Despite all that, it managed to amass something of a cult following, and there was some legitimate interest around these parts when a remake was announced in 2014. Half a decade later it's just about ready for release (and confusingly named Pathologic 2). To give the uninitiated a taste of what it's all about a demo is now available to everyone.   

The demo is short, covering an introductory segment and half a day as the Haruspex, one of Pathologic's three playable characters, but developer Ice-Pick Lodge said that it has "tried to structure it in such a way that it would be representative of the game and what people might find interesting about it." The standalone installer is small, but the full demo will require a download of about 11GB. 

The Haruspex chapter of Pathologic 2, which I have no doubt will be every bit as weird as the trailer above promises, is scheduled for release on May 23. 

Geralt deserved a restful retirement to the peaceful vinyard life after his final adventures in The Witcher 3: Blood & Wine, but who said that really had to be the end? Modder memr clearly wasn't ready for The Witcher 3 to be over and done with, as they've released a new project, called Radish Modding Tools, which is "a collection of in-game mods and external tools aimed to enable the creation of new quests by mod authors."

The Witcher 3 doesn't have an especially active mod scene these days, and most of the best Witcher 3 mods focus on overhauling combat or making quality of life changes. That's partially because the official mod tools were disappointingly limited compared to The Witcher's and The Witcher 2's. 

These new Radish Modding Tools can't replace a powerful toolset from CD Projekt, but should be a lot better than nothing. As memr writes, "Although only a smallish subset of all possible features is supported it *should* allow to create non-trivial, story-based quests—just don't expect clicky-pointy-done workflows."

Radish Modding Tools is still a work-in-progress, and memr writes that "The tools will be updated/published as a package once the most pressing bugs are worked out." In the meantime, there's an example mod on the Nexus that shows what the tools are capable of. Memr built a new area for Geralt to travel to, and the mod shows off Radish's ability to create in-engine cutscenes.

Memr elaborates a bit in the mod's comments: You can't create or import new animations with Radish, but you can create new terrain. And you can use all the game's existing animations, which is a hell of a library already.

"The most difficult aspects for 'real' quests will be the actual planning and laying out of the quest," memr writes. "I can create a go-there-pickup-n-of-generic-thingie-bring-it-back-sprinkled-with-generic-attacking-monsters quest without scenes on vanilla hubs in a weekend—but that would be a pointless, generic quest, wouldn't it?"

If you're not the mod-making type, but hope to see some new quests trickle out of the modding community a few months from now, keep an eye on Nexusmods' Witcher 3 Quests and Adventures category.

Below I've included a few screenshots of the mod tools in action.

PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds' first full year since the 1.0 launch earned PUBG Corp $920 million in revenue and $310 million in profit, the publisher announced in its 2018 financials. The battle royale left Steam Early Access at the end of 2017, and by June last year it boasted more than 400 million players across all platforms. 

Analyst Daniel Ahmad shared some of the revenue details, originally translated by Sinonobu, on Twitter. The bulk of the revenue still comes from PC, despite the mobile version alone quickly becoming just as popular as Fortnite. PC contributed around $790 million in revenue, which is a 314 percent increase over the previous year, with mobile and consoles lagging behind quite a lot, with $65 and $60 million respectively. 

With 200 million players as of last December, the mobile figures might be a great deal higher, but Tencent developed and published PUBG Mobile, not PUBG Corp. It's free to play, unlike the PC and console versions, though it still has microtransactions.

53 percent of the revenue comes from players in Asia, where PUBG isn't even close to ceding its crown to Fortnite. And that's excluding Korea, which accounts for more revenue than all of Europe and nearly as much as North America. Its popularity might seem to have dwindled a bit in the face of competition from Fortnite and, more recently, Apex Legends, but that's clearly not the case everywhere.

Cheers, GamesIndustry.biz.