And with that, another two-week period has ended and the Epic Game store free game has changed out.  Last period, we had Tumbleweed Park, but we have no transitioned to the Sci-Fi Action RPG Transistor.  The game will be free from today through May 2nd, when it is slated to be replaced by   Transistor on PC was reviewed by Randy several years ago and he absolutely loved it, so grab it while it is free and start to enjoy it today.

Its time for Bethesda's weekly Inside the Vault post about Fallout 76, and this week it is centered on weekly challenges and rewards from May 7th - Jun 17th.  During the six week period, you can take on any of the weekly challenges, complete the objectives in order to claim a Legendary Weapon as a reward.  Below are the weeks, dates, challenges and rewards, with details on each after the jump:

Week 7: May 7 – 13
Challenge: "Stake your Claim on the Wasteland"
Reward: “Resolute Veteran” — Legendary Gatling Gun

Week 8: May 14 – 20
Challenge: "Team Up"
Reward: “Commander's Charge” — Legendary Revolutionary Sword

Week 9: May 21 – 27
Challenge: "See the Light"
Reward: “Night Light” — Legendary Tesla Rifle

Week 10: May 28 – June 3
Challenge: "Go on a Fishing Expedition"
Reward: “Kingfisher” — Legendary Harpoon Gun

Week 11: June 4 – 10
Challenge: "Succumb to Depravity"
Reward: “Unstoppable Monster” — Legendary Deathclaw Gauntlet

Week 12: June 11 – 17
Challenge: “Down on the Farm”
Reward: “Salt of the Earth” — Legendary Double-barrel shotgun

In addition, the post outlines some recent Survival Improvements, Scoreboard updates, changes to Adventure Mode C.A.M.P. damage and some changes in the fundamental way you construct your C.A.M.P. structures.  You can check out all the details after the jump, or on the official blog post page.

Want to feel like a real detective? Then The Sinking City is going to oblige you. It's not going to hold your hand. It's not going to fill your overhead map with objective markers. But it will let you take your time, scour the environment, mouse-hunt for clues, and lean into people for evidence. 

You are Charles W. Reed, private investigator with a dopey backpack and an eye for Lovecraftian horror. The Sinking City takes place in the New England city of Oakmont, "A City on the Rise," har har. Oakmont is an open-world city afflicted by a supernatural flood. And if you understand the game's H.P. Lovecraft-inspired horror, then you'll know that dealing with madness as a game mechanic will be par for the course. It's some now-you-see-it, now-you-don't, madness-from-the-deep kinda stuff.

The Sinking City is made by Frogwares, who've been making okay Sherlock Holmes games for the past 17 years or so. We looked at Sherlock Holmes: Crimes and Punishments and reviewer Ben Berry found "Smartly written dialogue, strong voice acting, and terrific graphics" helping to smooth over a few technical stumbles. I've never dipped my toes into any of Frogwares' detective games, but their reputation is well-established for making you be the detective rather than letting the developers lead you by the nose until it's case closed.

The Sinking City will be out June 27 on PC, PS4, and Xbox One.

Something that flew a bit under the radar yesterday was a lengthy blog post by Epic Games which outlines best security practices for your Epic game account and where the company has been and wants to go for account security in the future.  While there is not a looming threat right now, the company states they have dealt with botnets creating false accounts, forums being hijacked as well as individual accounts being hacked (due to outside compromises) over the years.

Having said that, Epic wants everyone to know that they should be utilizing one of the two Multi-Factor Authentication (e-mail or app-based authentication) options to protect your account.  In addition, future accounts will soon be required to go through e-mail verification and the company plans to roll out SMS text authentication as well.

I cannot stress enough how important it is to use every tool you have to protect your gaming accounts as well as never share your log in information regardless of the platform or game store you are using.

Mortal Kombat 11 is just days away and we finally have a gameplay trailer for one of it's most anticipated characters, the Emperor of Outworld himself, Shao Kahn. 

Shao Kahn is only available to those who pre-order the game. If I had to guess, after launch if you want to play as Shao Kahn you will have to buy him like Goro and Darkseid from Mortal Kombat X and Injustice 2 respectively. 

Mortal Kombat 11 launches this coming Tuesday, April 23rd for PS4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch and PC. 

You're not too far, far away from being able to play Star Wars Pinball on Nintendo Switch.  This Zen Studios creation will be the first Star Wars game released on the Switch.

Star Wars Pinball boasts 19 galactic-themed pinball tables - each formatted and set across the episodes, including the trilogies, Rogue One, Solo, and the animated series.

The game will feature new game modes to keep your bumpers bumpin', such as the Galactic Struggle, a career mode, and a training ground to get your feet wet (dubbed "Force Training").

And of course, you must choose between the Light Side and the Dark Side.

The Galactic Struggle is a community-based game mode, allowing players to contribute points to the side of their choosing.  The career mode was designed to be on the go, as it's full of short, objective-based challenges.

Zen Studios also augmented gameplay by giving players the ability to rotate between horizontal and vertical screen orientations (with vertical giving you that traditional pinball feel).

Star Wars Pinball will be available September 13, 2019, on the Switch via the eShop or hardcopy. 

May the force be with you.

Deep Silver is really giving Saints Row The Third: The Full Package the VIP treatment for its May 10th launch on Nintendo Switch. If you pre-order the game at Gamestop, you reserve a Deluxe Pack that includes Saints-themed analog stick grips, a double-sided poster, a screen cleaner cloth, two sheets of console stickers, three lithographs, a double-sided case art inlay, and a deluxe game card case featuring the game's original 2011 box art.

In addition to the tasty extras, the Switch port is the definitive edition of the game, packing in all the DLC (aside from a couple extra goodie packs that were axed for obliterating balance in the original game), plus online and local couch co-op. I can already guarantee this is going to be a blast at parties where the libations are flowing.

I was a huge fan of Saints 3 way back in the day; I kept my can of promotional "Saints Flow" energy drink from the demo event THQ held, and I actually 100% completed the game on PS3. I've been dying for an over-the-top, open world game on Switch since the console launched and this will fit the bill nicely. Don't get me wrong, I love Breath of the Wild, but sometimes you just want to skydive out of an exploding VTOL jet while wearing a hotdog costume.

Frontier Developments has announced that the Carnivore DLC Pack for Jurassic World Evolution is now available for PC, PS4 and Xbox One for $4.99. This pack adds three new meat-munching dinos: Herrerasaurus, a very ancient and primitive carnivore with a narrow build; Proceratosaurus, the oldest known ancestor to T-Rex; and Acrocanthosaurus, a large, thickly-muscled monster that walked with a hunched posture to accommodate its unusual inner-ear structure. This pack accompanies the Capture Mode update, which adds a free camera and the ability to disable the in-game HUD, which should make for attractive screenshots. You can check out a trailer for this DLC below.

Ubisoft is performing a classy gesture with the announcement today that they will be contributing €500,000 toward the rebuild efforts of Notre-Dame de Paris Cathedral in Paris.  For those of you that are unaware, the cathedral had a massive fire earlier this week that destroyed the iconic roof and spire and left much of the interior in disarray.

The Cathedral holds a special place to the company, as it is one of the centerpiece landmarks in their Assassin's Creed Unity title, and was recreated with significant detail in-game.  As a result of their love for the game and the cathedral, Ubisoft will also be giving away the game on PC for free for a week from 4/17-4/24.  You can pick up the game via Uplay or via the Ubisoft Store through the 24th.

As mentioned in our preview, Derail Valley is an excellent train simulator built from the rails up to be an equally good VR title. VR lends itself extremely well to many types of vehicle simulation, but it appears that operating locomotives is one of the most enjoyable of the bunch. As it was, and still is, in Early Access, we looked beyond some of the more egregious teething problems that would be considered to be gamebreakers in a full release. Some of the worse were the way rocks and vegetation would block the railroad, albeit without actually blocking your train, the nearly impossible task of feeding coal into the steam engine's fire box in VR, and seemingly constant and unavoidable derailments. While it was easy to see what the game would eventually become, it took a lot of patience to keep playing it with those problems.

The development team has been working diligently on getting new features in place while balancing the need to get some of the fundamentals fixed. The beauty of Early Access is having great visibility into how games actually get made, especially when the dev team is so open in their communications and open to suggestions and resolving complaints. Going above and beyond, they also release a video that describes the items addressed in every build.

As of build #70/71 (the builds are often followed in a day or two by a hot fix for the type of regression bugs introduced with major changes), the game is now quite playable. The rogue shrubbery and boulders have been removed from the tracks, a temporary improvement to the coal shoveling mechanic is in place with a permanent solution to follow, and many of the issues causing improper derailments have been fixed. The game is now, in this writer's opinion, pretty much ready for people that like Early Access, but not too early.

There are still many new features to be added, but the core functionality is not only working, but a great deal of fun.

Derail Valley Early Access is available on Steam for a very reasonable $19.99.