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Oil prices slid by up to 2% in early trade on Friday, adding to overnight declines, on worries that refineries will take time to resume operations after the big freeze in the U.S. South, creating a gap in demand, while OPEC+ supplies were expected to rise.
“The market was ripe for a correction and signs of the power and overall energy situation starting to normalize in Texas provided the necessary trigger,” said Vandana Hari, energy analyst at Vanda Insights.
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U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures fell $1.14, or 1.9%, to $59.38 a barrel at 0421 GMT, after declining 1% on Thursday.
Brent crude futures dropped $1.03, or 1.6%, to $62.90 a barrel, after declining 0.6% on Thursday.
Both benchmark contracts rallied to 13-month highs on Thursday driven by the historic freeze in U.S. southern states. While analysts estimate the extreme cold has shut in as much as one-third of U.S. crude production, attention has now turned to the impact on refiners.
The lack of demand from Texan refiners will likely lead to builds in crude stocks over coming weeks, even though around 3.5 million barrels per day (bpd) of U.S. oil output has been shut, ANZ Research said in a note.
TEXAS BLACKOUTS WAKE-UP CALL FOR AMERICA’S ENERGY CAPITAL
Citi analysts said in a note that some U.S. refineries might bring forward about 500,000 bpd of maintenance work normally scheduled for the spring over next month, ahead of the summer driving season.
The front-month WTI price curve dipped into a shallow contango as low as minus 4 cents on Friday, a market structure in which near-month barrels are cheaper than those in later months, implying current oversupply.
“The small contango…likely signals market expectations for U.S. crude production and supply (including imports) to recover faster than the refining capacity shuttered in Texas by the deep freeze,” said Hari.
U.S. crude stockpiles fell more than expected in the week to Feb. 12, before the freeze, with inventories down by 7.3 million barrels to 461.8 million barrels, their lowest since March, the Energy Information Administration reported on Thursday.
CAROLINAS COULD SEE 1M POWER OUTAGES
Attention is also turning to a looming increase in crude oil supplies from Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and allies, known as OPEC+.
OPEC+ sources told Reuters the group’s producers are likely to ease curbs on supply after April given the recovery in prices.
The United States on Thursday said it was ready to talk to Iran about both nations returning to a 2015 agreement that aimed to prevent Tehran from acquiring nuclear weapons.
While the thawing relations could raise the prospect of reversing sanctions imposed by Trump, analysts did not expect Iranian oil sanctions to be lifted anytime soon.
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“It’s going to be a long road,” said Hari referring to the U.S.-Iran negotiations.
(Reporting by Roslan Khasawneh in Singapore and Sonali Paul in Melbourne; Editing by Tom Hogue & Simon Cameron-Moore)
U.S. stock futures climbed Wednesday ahead of U.S. inflation data, suggesting that the major indexes will resume this month’s rally.
Futures tied to the S&P 500 and the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 0.3%. Contracts on the technology-heavy Nasdaq-100 also advanced 0.3%. Both the S&P 500 and the Dow closed lower on Tuesday after notching record highs earlier in the week.
Stocks have pushed higher this month, with the benchmark S&P 500 notching its eighth record close of the year on Monday. Investors are betting that President Biden’s $1.9 trillion stimulus package will help bolster the economy while vaccinations help reduce Covid-19 fatalities. Investor sentiment has also been buoyed by companies’ quarterly results that have largely proved to be better than expected.
“As long as earnings estimates are going up, stocks are going up,” said Andrew Slimmon, a managing director and portfolio manager at Morgan Stanley Investment Management. “The magnitude of the earnings beats we have seen are so great because earnings have been way underestimated.”
Ahead of the opening bell, ride-hailing firm Lyft rose over 12% after posting a narrower annual loss, suggesting the company is moving toward profitability. Rival Uber Technologies is among the companies scheduled to release its results after the market closes. Uber rose more than 6% premarket.
Investors love stocks that can produce big gains. They especially like it when those stocks are among the leaders of their industries, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJINDICES:^DJI) includes the stocks of 30 of the finest companies in the world. Many investors see the Dow 30 as among the most secure and reliable stocks in the market.
After a strong 2020, some worry that the stock market might have come too far too quickly. For them, safer plays like blue-chip Dow stocks seem like a safer bet. Yet even within the Dow, you can still find companies that sport the kind of growth prospects that will support rising share prices. In fact, if the most bullish analysts on Wall Street are right about them, the following three stocks could see their share prices post gains of 40% or more in the near future.
1. Boeing
Aerospace giant Boeing (NYSE:BA) is the archetypical value play for those seeking down-and-out stocks at a relative bargain. Hit with the one-two punch of having multiple accidents with its new 737 MAX aircraft model and then having air traffic slow to a near-halt during the COVID-19 pandemic, Boeing shares plunged almost 80% between their highs in early 2019 and their worst levels last March.
Image source: Getty Images.
Yet Boeing has more than doubled from its lows, and some Wall Street analysts are highly bullish on the stock. While the average share price target of $230 is only about 7% higher than its most recent close, analysts at Baird upgraded the stock last November from neutral to outperform and set a price target of $306 per share. That would represent a 42% rise from here.
As Baird sees it, the return of the 737 MAX to service should lead to a return to long-term growth for the aircraft manufacturer. Moreover, favorable trends in COVID-19 case counts and the gradual progress in vaccinations could bode well for air travel to go back to past traffic levels sooner rather than later.
Boeing suffered huge losses in 2020 and faces more uncertainty ahead as airlines retrench and figure out how to move forward. Nevertheless, as one of two major global commercial aircraft manufacturers, Boeing should rebound as long as people don’t give up on air travel for good.
2. Goldman Sachs
Goldman Sachs(NYSE:GS) has already given long-term investors a big reward for sticking with the investment banking giant over the past year. Although shares fell sharply at the beginning of the coronavirus crisis because of fears about massive unemployment causing major loan defaults and economic chaos, Goldman’s stock started hitting new all-time highs at the beginning of 2021 and has already risen 13% in less than six weeks.
Analysts believe the good times could still be ahead for Goldman. An average price target of $334 per share is about 11% higher than current levels, but Oppenheimer has more ambitious ideas, with its outperform rating and $445 stock price target set in January representing a nearly 50% gain from current levels.
Oppenheimer was pleased to see Goldman do extremely well when it reported fourth-quarter financial results in January. In particular, the Wall Street bank’s earnings came in a whopping 63% higher than most investors had expected, and Goldman was optimistic about how its prospects look for 2021.
Goldman Sachs essentially treaded water during much of the 2010s, and many believed that the bank’s best days were behind it. But now, confidence in Goldman is back, and a push further into record territory is quite possible.
3. UnitedHealth
Finally, UnitedHealth Group (NYSE:UNH) has been an outstanding performer for years. The health insurance giant clawed back nearly all of its pandemic-crash losses in just a single month, and its stock is up about 10% over the past year.
Wall Street has high hopes for UnitedHealth. Even the average price target of $396 per share is 20% higher than current levels. The top call for $462 from analysts at Morgan Stanley is fully 40% higher.
Morgan Stanley actually has a couple of positive views on the health insurer. Its base target price complements its overweight rating on the stock, with reasonable assumptions in getting to the $462 number. Yet Morgan has also modeled a more bullish scenario under which it would predict a higher target price of $529 per share. That would be roughly 60% above current levels.
Investors are optimistic that UnitedHealth is positioned perfectly for a change in leadership in Washington, with new attention on healthcare that should complement its strategy of having a sizable presence in the Medicare and Medicaid insurance markets. The Optum health benefits and services unit has been an even bigger goldmine for UnitedHealth, and its prospects look strong regardless of what happens with federal healthcare policy. All in all, UnitedHealth is prepared for whatever’s likely to come, and that’s a good position for investors to be in.
Look to the Dow for great stocks
Just because a stock is a household name doesn’t mean you can’t make money investing in it. If Wall Street analysts are right, then gains for UnitedHealth, Goldman Sachs, and Boeing could be sizable in 2021 and beyond. That makes them deserving of a closer look from investors looking for good investment ideas.
Take our mittened hand and let Polygon’s Winter Games package for 2021 guide you through the playground of wintertime games — what’s great, what’s not, and what exciting features await you in the games coming out in February and March.
The winter months are coming to a close, and spring is almost here. We’re already one month into 2021, the first full year of a new console generation, and there’s a lot in store for those who are looking to fill their machines full of games.
While games like Hitman 3 dominated the collective mind share of video game players in January, February and March hold a few big names, from new-gen games to updates and re-releases. And if you’re a PlayStation Plus member with a PlayStation 5, you’ve probably already got two of these downloaded onto your shiny new console.
We’ve compiled a list of all the big games coming in the next couple months, and those that just came out. Whether revisiting past greats like Control and Disco Elysium, going on a new adventure with the Phantom Thieves, or finding out what a “Returnal” is, you’ll hopefully find something in here for you.
Control Ultimate Edition (PS5, Xbox Series X) – Feb. 2
February kicked off with the new-generation version of Remedy’s reality-bending action game. Initially released in 2019 on PlayStation 4, Windows PC, and Xbox One, Control is now on the new consoles, though not without a fair share of controversy.
Control has been playable on the new consoles since they launched via backward compatibility, but Remedy just released updated PS5 and Xbox Series X versions — with a catch. While many other games have used digital carryover and Xbox Smart Delivery options to let all previous owners migrate ownership to new consoles, Control’s carryover is limited only to those who bought the Ultimate Edition, which was released about a year after the original game launched. It’s a decision that has caused a fair bit of discontent among those who bought Control at launch on PS4 or Xbox One. There is a bright side for PlayStation Plus subscribers, though: Control Ultimate Edition was just released as one of the free PlayStation Plus games for February on PS5.
The PS5 and Xbox Series X versions include all Control content, including the AWE expansion that ties the Control universe into Alan Wake. They also have two visual modes: a 30-frames-per-second graphics mode that includes ray tracing, and a performance mode that runs at up to 60 fps.
Control tells the story of Jesse Faden, a woman with a strange past who enters the mysterious Federal Bureau of Control to find her brother. Soon after arriving in the brutalist building, she finds out that things have gone very wrong inside the Bureau: Corruption is spreading, the bureau’s captive and dangerous trinkets have escaped, and leadership is in disarray following the death of the Bureau’s director. It ends up falling on Jesse to find some answers, contain the breaches, and restore order.
In 2019, Control earned one of our Polygon’s Recommends picks and was our runner-up for game of the year, capturing the best aspects of Remedy’s superpowered shooting and effusive style. Reviewer Dave Tach wrote that Control is “as much a technical marvel as an artistic achievement,” combining quirky oddities and beauties together into something unlike anything else out there.
Destruction AllStars(PS5) – Feb. 2
One straggler from the PS5’s launch lineup has finally come around. Destruction AllStars was originally supposed to arrive alongside the console in November, but was delayed shortly before launch. Now it’s here! Developed by British studio Lucid Games, the multiplayer-focused title is available to PlayStation Plus subscribers for the next two months.
As shown in a gameplay trailer, drivers skid around an arena, ramming their fully kitted vehicles into other cars and, once their ride has been wrecked, running around and parkouring on foot, potentially taking over enemy vehicles. It’s a bit like Twisted Metal meets battle royale, with a focus on speed and maneuverability over missiles and guns.
Lucid Games has an interesting history. The studio worked with Ghost Games on 2017’s Need For Speed: Payback, and might be best known for 2014’s Geometry Wars 3: Dimensions.
The free offer of Destruction AllStars for PlayStation Plus users is nice too, as the game was originally set to be one of a few games with a $69.99 price tag at launch. Alongside a free copy of Control’s next-gen upgrade, it’s a pretty good month to be a PlayStation Plus subscriber.
Werewolf: The Apocalypse – Earthblood (PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X) – Feb. 4
The Vampire: The Masquerade world might already have a solid footing in video games, but Werewolf: The Apocalypse has established its own base with Earthblood.
While games like Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines relied on more of an RPG approach, Werewolf: The Apocalypse – Earthblood is much more focused on action. Playing as a werewolf named Cahal, you transform between three different forms, depending on the task, to carry out a war against an oil corporation, Endron.
There’s the obvious werewolf form, turning Cahal into a massive, hulking were-beast that can fight hordes of enemy soldiers. He can also move around in a smaller wolf form, sneaking behind cover and through air ducts for a stealthier approach. Or, if you want to just be a dude, you can do your regular human stealth takeouts, and use Cahal’s crossbow to snipe soldiers and interfere with enemy electronics.
It seems that in every man there is a wolf, and also an even larger wolf. If you’re looking for an action-heavy game set in the broader Vampire/Werewolf universe that explores its lupine potential, Werewolf: The Apocalypse – Earthblood looks to be just that.
The Nioh Collection
The Nioh Collection(PS5) – Feb. 5
Keeping up the trend of the previous generation’s hits coming over to the new consoles, the Nioh series from Team Ninja has gotten a full relaunch. Nioh and Nioh 2 have both been remastered as part of The Nioh Collection, bringing both games to PlayStation 5.
Nioh, first released in 2017, was Team Ninja’s take on the Souls formula. It wasn’t another “it’s the Dark Souls of X,” either; Team Ninja set out to do its own version of what FromSoftware popularized. It’s a story drenched in Japanese history and mythology, with touches of Ninja Gaiden woven into the patchwork of Souls-like action. At the time of release, it was certainly a punishing but promising first draft, and its interlocking systems of guardian spirits, samurai skills, and brutal combat garnered enough goodwill for a sequel.
Nioh 2 leaned even further into the mythology and the difficulty. Here, you play as characters like a half-human, half-yokai demon ninja. You fight gigantic monstrosities, with even more of an emphasis on the combat and the frustration that can ensue when you fail at it. Nioh 2 still proved to be fun to get better at over time, and though it had to fight for the samurai action spotlight with FromSoftware’s Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, it still received praise for what it accomplished and got a number of post-launch expansions.
Little Nightmares 2(PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X) – Feb. 11
It might be February, but that doesn’t mean you can’t still be in the mood for scary games. Tarsier Studios’ sequel to Little Nightmares is on its way to PlayStation and Xbox consoles, as well as Nintendo Switch and Windows PC, and it looks pretty darn creepy.
Tarsier previously worked on happier games, like the LittleBigPlanet series, before releasing horror game Hunger. Then in 2017 came Little Nightmares, a puzzle-platformer that further explored the studio’s capacity for scares in a Tim Burton-esque setting.
The first game was an often creepy, ominous experience about being small in a big, dark world. Each area followed a sort of dream logic, as protagonist Six ran around massive worlds and away from monsters.
Little Nightmares 2 looks to be doing more of the same. In our preview of the upcoming sequel, we saw a similarly unsettling world of haunting realms and evil monsters. Mess up a single puzzle, or get caught while trying to sneak around, and tiny protagonist Mono will meet a terrible end.
The second chapter in particular features a “schoolteacher from hell” with plasticky skin and a terrifying grin, along with a twisting, ever-extending neck that plays into the game’s stealth puzzles. “The teacher’s design is a massive step up from the burlap-sack monsters of the first Little Nightmares and shows just how far Tarsier Studios has come in the few years since its release,” wrote our own Austen Goslin. “The teacher looks like a flesh-and-blood abomination, and every little glance and sneer from her is uniquely creepy.”
You do get some blunt weapons, like a pipe or hammer, to use against the game’s smaller enemies. Those are still horrifying — in the case of chapter 2, the teacher’s minions are a class full of porcelain doll-like students — but they’re at least on the same scale as the main character, so you can fend them off with a few swings. Whatever the other levels hold, it certainly seems like Tarsier Studios’ latest looks to take the small-scale scares further with its next installment.
Super Mario 3D World + Bowser’s Fury
Super Mario 3D World + Bowser’s Fury(Switch) – Feb. 12
The year of Mario might be over, but there’s still more to celebrate ahead. Following a battle royale and a collection of older 3D Mario games, another 3D Mario game is getting a re-release on Nintendo Switch, with a new mode in tow.
Last year was the 35th anniversary of the Mario series, and Nintendo released a number of games to celebrate. Between the Super Mario 3D All-Stars collection, gathering together the Nintendo 64, GameCube, and Wii iterations of Mario’s 3D adventures, and the battle royale title Super Mario Bros. 35, there was a lot of Mario to play on Switch. Now, his Wii U adventures are coming to Switch too.
Super Mario 3D World originally launched for the Wii U in 2013. It gathered together the cast of the original Super Mario Bros. 2 — Mario, Luigi, Peach, and Toad — and built a multiplayer 3D Mario game with lots of fun levels. Each character had their signature skills, like Peach’s ability to float or Luigi’s higher jump. You weren’t just beating them as Mario, but as any of the Mushroom Kingdom’s cast, or together as a party.
Simple concepts like switches and rammerheads got ramped up over time, building up to complex and intricate levels. And if things got too tough, there was the Tanooki suit, which gave you a sort-of easy mode to breeze your way through levels. Also, did I mention the cat bell? The cat suits were a fascinating new development in the world of Mario, helping the game earn high praise in our initial review in 2013 and a spot on Polygon’s top games of the last decade list.
With the Switch version, Super Mario 3D World isn’t just getting a relaunch. The new version will have online play and a photo mode, allowing players to take photos of the cast as they explore in their cat outfits. It will also have a new mode called Bowser’s Fury, where Mario and Bowser Jr. team up to deal with an extra-large, extra-furious version of Bowser that looks kind of terrifying. Of course, to combat the extra-large Bowser, Mario can become a super-sized giant Cat Mario.
Two new amiibo will also launch alongside Super Mario 3D World’s Switch debut: one for Cat Mario and another for Cat Peach, both of which will offer in-game enhancements. The Mario anniversary may be over, but February will see another round of nostalgia for the plumber’s adventures.
Persona 5 Strikers(PC, PS4, Switch) – Feb. 23
It’s been a few years since Persona 5 debuted on PlayStation 4, and even longer since it was first announced. But since launch, the Persona 5 machine has steadily rolled along. Alongside the rhythm game spinoff and the “extended cut” of Persona 5 Royal, the story now continues in a musou-style collaboration between P Studio and Dynasty Warriors studio Omega Force called Persona 5 Strikers.
This particular spinoff has been available since February 2020 in Japan as Persona 5 Scramble: The Phantom Strikers. But near the end of 2020, it was announced that the spinoff would be localized and launched in North America under the title Persona 5 Strikers.
The game once again stars Joker and the cast of Persona 5, also known as the Phantom Thieves. Set six months after the events of Persona 5, Strikers sees the cast reuniting as Joker and Morgana return to Shibuya for a visit. Some things have changed — characters are at different stages of their life, reflecting their own growth throughout the course of Persona 5’s story.
Yet, it’s also a musou-style game, with battles more akin to Dynasty Warriors than a turn-based RPG. In our preview of Strikers, Ryan Gilliam wrote that the game felt like it had a similar relationship to its source material as Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity had with The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. Don’t jump to judgments on that basis, though; Gilliam also said Strikers has more Persona 5 DNA in it than you might expect.
While battles are fast and filled with action, with four playable members of the Phantom Thieves ready to hop in at all times, there are also Bonds to form, conversations to have, and stylish menus to flip through. Time may roll on, but the Metaverse stays the same.
How it carries forward the Persona 5 torch, especially after the addition of Persona 5 Royal’s extra content and the relaxed fun of Persona 5: Dancing in Starlight, will be interesting to see.
Ghosts ’n Goblins Resurrection
Ghosts ’n Goblins Resurrection(Switch) – Feb. 25
Ghosts, goblins, and chivalric knights are back. Ghosts ’n Goblins gets a new look with Ghosts ’n Goblins Resurrection, a new adventure for the heroic knight in shining armor Arthur on Nintendo Switch.
But while the armor — and boxers — are back, it’s all with a storybook style that’s new for the series. Characters like Arthur and the Red Arremer look like they’re torn straight from a Brothers Grimm picture book, and everything from the backgrounds and platforms to the hordes of the Demon Realm moves and animates like a storybook.
This is still a Ghosts ’n Goblins game, though, which means simple controls and lots of challenge. There will be different difficulty options, including a “Page” setting that will grant players immortality, though they won’t be able to experience all of the game’s content that way. There’s also a setting that matches the punishing difficulty of the original games.
Ghosts ’n Goblins: Resurrection looks to take inspiration from both the original Ghosts ’n Goblins and Ghouls ’n Ghosts, and add some completely new ideas. Players will progress through zones, hopping across platforms and vanquishing demonic foes, with each stage completed bringing them closer to finishing the zone and saving the princess.
Though there’s the usual mix of arms and magic, Arthur will also be able to find Umbral Bees to bring back to the Umbral Tree, which can unlock and upgrade magic and skills. And you’ll probably need it against the hordes of zombies and skeletons that stand between Arthur and the kidnapped princess.
It’s definitely a new look for Capcom’s storied series, but considering the company’s track record for video game remakes over the past few years, a Ghosts ’n Goblins revival could have some real potential.
Bravely Default 2(Switch) – Feb. 26
Closing out February is a new RPG whose name might cause a bit of confusion. Bravely Default 2 is coming to Nintendo Switch on Feb. 26, but it’s not a direct sequel to Bravely Default (which already has a sequel, Bravely Second: End Layer). Instead, as in the Final Fantasy franchise, this is a new story with new characters, carrying forward the systems and mechanics of the Bravely Default series.
The first Bravely Default was a wistfully nostalgic RPG from Square Enix, harkening back to classics from its storyline to its design. It was a game where you needed to occasionally grind for levels, and yes, there’s a group of youngsters taking on world-ending evil forces. It wasn’t all by the book, though. A key part of the game’s battle system was using “Default” to bide time, which built up Brave Points for a “Brave” action, creating combos of abilities and all-out assaults.
It resulted in notable success, both as a debut game in a new franchise and relative to Square Enix’s other series at the time. It wasn’t long until a sequel, Bravely Second: End Layer, rolled around. Set two years after the events of Bravely Default, Bravely Second adopted many of its predecessor’s systems, though sometimes to its detriment. In our review, Janine Hawkins noted that Bravely Second: End Layer didn’t feel like it was deficient in any way, but its strict adherence to the original — which was, itself, a fairly clever RPG — ended up being underwhelming.
It’s here where Bravely Default 2 fits in, with its number acting more like a Final Fantasy bump than an actual sequel. Several pieces of its battle system are still around, namely the Brave and Default system, as well as earning jobs from defeating boss enemies. There’s also a demo available on the Nintendo eShop, so if you’re a newcomer to the series, you can try its brand of turn-based RPG action before you buy.
With Team Asano and Claytechworks stepping up again to helm Bravely Default 2, it seems like this could be a solid bet for RPG fans hungry for something new on their Switch.
Yakuza: Like a Dragon (PS5) – March 2
The Yakuza series has traditionally been an action game franchise, with longtime protagonist Kazuma Kiryu taking on legions of yakuza gangsters in larger-than-life situations. It worked really well, carrying a story through six entries and a prequel, Yakuza 0.
With Yakuza: Like a Dragon, the story doesn’t just move forward in time, but also shifts focus to a new protagonist, Ichiban Kasuga. Kasuga grew up in the care of a soapland owner, all the while dreaming of becoming a yakuza under local head Masumi Arakawa. As a young member of the Arakawa family, he takes the rap for a crime he didn’t commit, and goes to jail for a very long time. What happens after he gets out, and how the world has changed while he’s gone, sparks a long journey that has major implications for the series moving forward.
When it launched last November on other platforms, Yakuza: Like a Dragon was a reinvigorating force for the Yakuza series. Kasuga has a particular affinity for Dragon Quest games, so he sees all his battles on the streets as RPG battles. The game still contains all the requisite Yakuza goofiness, like beating someone up with a nearby shop sign or popping champagne in someone’s face as an attack, but in turn-based fashion.
Yakuza: Like a Dragon’s minigames also hold up to the series’ legacy of surprisingly in-depth side ventures, with a business management game that will quickly lure you to the dark side of capitalism. You might also want to open up a guide on the side to help you climb the business ladder and start making the big bucks. How else will you get to see your company’s mascot, a chicken named Omelette, effectively calm an angry shareholder during a quarterly earnings meeting?
Those who already picked up the game on PlayStation 4 won’t need to buy Yakuza: Like a Dragon again if they want to play on PS5, too. Digital PS4 owners will get a PS5 version of the game when it arrives on March 2, according to Sega.
New games for a shiny new console are always welcome, but considering Yakuza: Like a Dragon’s long runtime and fairly involved side missions, it might be the best option for sinking another 60 or 70 hours on your new PlayStation 5. At the very least, it’s worth it for the business management game.
Harvest Moon: One World
Harvest Moon: One World(Switch) – March 2
Sometimes, all we crave is a quiet life out in the country. No worries about social media or loud city life, just a serene existence, tending to crops and livestock, and steadily making friends and forging relationships with your neighbors. That’s the appeal of Harvest Moon and its many successors, though the genre has changed a lot in the time between its debut and the upcoming launch of Harvest Moon: One World.
The upcoming One World is looking to expand the world of Harvest Moon even further. In a gameplay trailer, Natsume showed the ways in which the series is expanding into an open-world game where you can pack up your farm and take it on the move. Yup, portable farms. We are living in the future.
It still has all the trappings of a Harvest Moon game, though, from farming and local competitions to wooing your eligible bachelor or bachelorette of choice. There also looks to be some exploration and mining, and the world is pretty big. The setting for Harvest Moon: One World is actually a world without any crops — a place where tomatoes, strawberries, and cabbage aren’t around. It sounds a bit like the setup of Dragon Quest Builders, but instead of teaching the world to build, you’ll be reviving the farms of the planet.
Of course, you can’t really talk about the farming genre without talking about its revival, sparked by indie spiritual successor Stardew Valley. Patches have still been steadily rolling out from ConcernedApe and Chucklefish, with one of the game’s biggest updates yet arriving just last December. Also competing is Story of Seasons, the split-off series from Harvest Moon, which has its own new entry arriving later the same month for Nintendo Switch. Basically, there’s a lot of competition in the farming life sim genre right now. There were already burgeoning rivalries, and they’ve only expanded with Stardew Valley and the success of other, more general life sim games like Animal Crossing: New Horizons.
It will be interesting to see how Harvest Moon’s new world-spanning adventure approach holds up against the influx of updates and new games.
Kingdoms of Amalur: Re-Reckoning(Switch) – March 16
Kingdoms of Amalur is back, or at least, remastered. The updated version of this Xbox 360-era RPG already hit other platforms, but now it’s heading to Switch, in case you’re looking to take your RPG nostalgia trip on the road.
The original Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning launched for PC, PlayStation 3, and Xbox 360 in 2012, from publisher Electronic Arts and developer 38 Studios. Though Reckoning was relatively well received by critics, 38 Studios ended up going bankrupt for a whole host of complicated reasons. If you’re wondering how the state of Rhode Island got involved in this story, check out our breakdown of 38 Studios’ history. It’s a lengthy story involving a former MLB pitcher and a hefty financial incentive, leading to a yearslong investigation.
Years later, THQ Nordic picked up the Kingdoms of Amalur intellectual property, as well as the rights to the game itself. And now, Kingdoms of Amalur is getting a Re-Reckoning with a remaster for modern consoles. The Nintendo Switch version may be coming just a little bit later than its PC, PS4, and Xbox One counterparts, but the portability definitely makes this version appealing.
Balan Wonderworld(PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X) – March 26
March seems like the right time to add a little wonder back into your life. The announcement of a new game from the former programmer and producer of Sonic the Hedgehog and Nights Into Dreams was a bit of a surprise last year, and as it turns out, we didn’t have to wait long to see the end result.
Balan Wonderworld was announced in June as a collaboration between Sega veterans Yuji Naka and Naoto Ohshima. The game looks like a fittingly fantastical platformer from the duo, as players venture through the strange and surreal Wonderworld. Using different costumes, you can acquire different powers to help explore the stages and dig to the heart of each of the game’s tales. “As you journey through this land between fantasy and reality, you must find a way to bring balance to others and yourself,” reads the official description.
Yup, that seems like the sort of odd, wonderful setup that the creators behind games like Nights Into Dreams would create. This is the first game from Square Enix’s new studio Balan Company, and the talent alone makes it seem like a game to keep an eye on; it’s already on Polygon’s list of most anticipated games for 2021.
Add on the fact that it’s coming to just about every system under the sun, and it’s easy to see yourself getting lost in Wonderworld. If you want to read more about Yuji Naka’s history in game development, including a look back at the years of Phantasy Star Online, check out Polygon’s interview with him from last year.
Monster Hunter Rise
Monster Hunter Rise (Switch) – March 26
Monster Hunter is hitting Nintendo handhelds with not one but two games this year. The first of the pair is Monster Hunter Rise, which looks to bring the classic style of Monster Hunter onto Nintendo Switch.
Announced last September, Monster Hunter Rise has many of the familiar trappings of a classic Monster Hunter. There are plenty of big monsters to hunt, like Aknosom, Magnamalo, Great Izuchi, and Tetranadon. Palicos, your lovable feline companions, are back as well to help take down those pesky monsters.
New to Monster Hunter Rise is a little bit of verticality. Players can maneuver up walls and use a grappling hook, powered by a tiny little Wirebug, adding a bit more Z-axis to battles against massive monsters.
There’s also a new companion, the Palamute. It acts much like the Palico helpers, assisting the player in combat, but is a little more combat-focused than its cat counterpart. Palico helpers, meanwhile, fill more of a support role by healing and buffing the player, as well as placing traps. You can choose to take one of each on your excursions, or double down on either Palico pals or Palamute pups. Most importantly, you can pet the Palamute, and also ride them around to move faster, even sharpening your weapon with a whetstone while riding. They truly are a hunter’s best friend.
Much like the very popular Monster Hunter: World, Monster Hunter Rise will also do away with map “zones,” creating one contiguous area to chase monsters around in. This is fairly impressive, considering the processing power needed to make that happen.
Though Nintendo Switch players have already had Monster Hunter Generations Ultimate to fill their Monster Hunter needs, the launch of a brand-new Monster Hunter game on the Nintendo Switch is pretty exciting. There’s even one beyond it, as Capcom is currently aiming for a summer 2021 launch for Monster Hunter Stories 2: Wings of Ruin, building upon the Stories spinoff on the Nintendo handheld.
It Takes Two(PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X) – March 26
Indie studio Hazelight is diving back into the co-op genre this year. Starting with 2012’s one-controller, two-character journey Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons, and on through the co-op adventure A Way Out, the studio is once again appealing to the two-player crowd with the appropriately named It Takes Two.
You might recognize Hazelight co-founder Josef Fares from his “fuck the Oscars!” speech at The Game Awards. When he’s not telling off the Academy Awards, Fares and his team make pretty well-regarded co-op games. A Way Out was a somewhat-flawed but heartfelt experience about two convicts escaping prison and the bond that forms between them. Before that, Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons offered an emotional journey of two brothers, which was designed to let a single player control two characters at the same time.
It Takes Two seems to follow after A Way Out, as it will once again have two players work together to complete tasks and journey forth. Each character is a doll-like representation of the main character’s parents, who are apparently at odds with each other. It plays a lot on imagination and the mind’s eye, but given the early glimpses of its subject matter, will probably get as heart-wrenching as A Way Out and Brothers. Fares has, appropriately, said it will “blow your fucking mind away.”
The other bit of good news is that, just like A Way Out, It Takes Two will also offer a “Friend’s Pass” system that will let people play together using just one copy of the game, even on separate consoles. Whoever owns It Takes Two can simply invite the other party, and they’ll be able to download and play the game without having to purchase a second copy.
While Hazelight’s co-founder might be well known for his brash persona, the studio’s games have become well regarded for their use of unique game mechanics to tell stories, whether splitting your brain in half to control two brothers at once or finding touching sentimentality in a game of Connect Four between pals.
Disco Elysium: The Final Cut
Disco Elysium: The Final Cut(PC, PS4, PS5, Stadia) – March
2019 was a year of surprises, and one of the biggest was an RPG about being an absolute disaster of a detective. Disco Elysium was a breakout star, and in 2021, it’s getting a big update that looks to round out the introspective narrative while also bringing it to even more players.
Disco Elysium: The Final Cut will also bring the detective adventure to PlayStation consoles. Not only does this mean controller support, with 4K resolution and 60 fps action on PS5, but there’s a reason for folks who already played through this tale to pick it up a second time: new content.
For those unfamiliar, Disco Elysium starts in medias res: You are a man waking up in a hotel room after the bender to end all benders. As you slowly piece together fragments of your memory and your existence, you start to recall what led to your slippery slope downward. You’re a detective, here in the town of Martinaise to solve a murder. As you drop points into a character sheet populated by the various facets of your mind — keen Logic, discerning Perception, the novel Esprit De Corps, and more — each piece of you becomes something akin to a party member. When you see footprints in the mud, your Visual Calculus might help you decipher the exact number of people who made them, if you’ve invested enough points; and similarly, a whiff of tobacco might set your Electrochemistry ablaze.
Alongside your newly assigned partner, you explore the town and talk to its citizens, undertaking small quests to solve the greater problem, while also trying to discover why your character tried to dive deep into oblivion. It’s a funny, heavy, thoughtful story that feels like a spiritual successor to the likes of Planescape: Torment.
One of The Final Cut’s features is a host of new quests, which include new citizens, an extra area to explore, and new sights. Developer ZA/UM hints that these will play into your character’s political compass as well, so look forward to becoming an even more politically mindful investigator.
Full voice acting might be one of the biggest new features in The Final Cut, with every character getting their own spoken voice lines. Disco Elysium is a pretty text-heavy game, so this is a major addition.
Of course, the base game that elicited a lot of praise in 2019 is still there, enhanced by the new features and content. ZA/UM’s story ended up being a late-in-the-year critical hit, doing especially well at the The Game Awards 2019, where it took home four awards.
With rumors of a possible TV adaptation circling, it’s certainly worth considering a replay. And for those who already own the game on PC, The Final Cut will be a free upgrade, allowing you to pick up back in Martinaise right where you left off or start a whole new journey. How could you not want to spend more time hanging out with the world’s best partner, Kim Kitsuragi?
MOSCOW (AP) — Russia said Friday it was expelling diplomats from Sweden, Poland and Germany, accusing them of attending a rally in support of opposition leader Alexei Navalny, as international tensions grew over the jailing of the Kremlin’s most prominent foe.
The announcement came as the European Union’s foreign affairs chief Josep Borrell told Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov that the treatment of Navalny represents “a low point” in relations between Brussels and Moscow.
The Russian Foreign Ministry accused Swedish and Polish diplomats in St. Petersburg and a German diplomat in Moscow of taking part in what it called “unlawful” rallies on Jan. 23. Tens of thousands of people across Russia took to the streets that day to protest Navalny’s arrest.
The diplomats were declared “persona non grata” and were required to leave Russia “shortly,” a ministry statement said.
European officials strongly denounced the move.
Germany said its diplomat was fulfilling his duty by following the developments, and it warned Moscow that its action won’t go unanswered, summoning the Russian ambassador.
“We consider this expulsion unjustified and think it is another facet of the things that can be seen in Russia at the moment that are pretty far from the rule of law,” German Chancellor Angela Merkel said in Berlin after a videoconference with French President Emmanuel Macron. Macron expressed solidarity with Germany, Poland and Sweden and condemned “in the stronger terms” the expulsions and what happened to Navalny “from the beginning to the end.”
Sweden said it “considers this entirely unjustified, which we have also conveyed to the Russian side,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Mats Samuelsson said in a statement to The Associated Press. Stockholm “strongly rejects Russian claims that the diplomat took part in a demonstration in Russia” and “reserves the right to take appropriate measures in response,” he said.
Poland also warned Moscow the move will further worsen relations.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken condemned the expulsion, tweeting: “This arbitrary and unjustified act is Russia’s latest departure from its international obligations.” British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab also said on Twitter that expelling diplomats “for simply doing their jobs is a crude attempt to distract from Russia’s targeting of opposition leaders, protesters and journalists.”
Speaking at the start of his talks with Lavrov, Borrell said “our relations are under a severe strain, and the Navalny case is a low point in our relations.”
Afterward, Borell said he had relayed his concerns over Navalny’s jailing and the arrests of thousands of who had rallied on his behalf. The EU official said he also communicated the bloc’s support for Navalny’s release and for an investigation of the August poisoning but added that there were no proposals of additional sanctions against Russia from the EU at this point.
Merkel said that “we reserve the right to continue the sanctions” but noted the Navalny situation shouldn’t affect the Nord Stream 2 pipeline under construction to deliver more Russian natural gas to Germany.
Lavrov again accused European officials of refusing to share evidence of the poisoning. The Kremlin has said it won’t listen to Western criticism of Navalny’s sentencing and police action against his supporters.
Navalny, 44, an anti-corruption investigator and Russian President Vladimir Putin’s most prominent critic, was arrested Jan. 17 upon returning from Germany, where he spent five months recovering from a nerve-agent poisoning that he blames on the Kremlin. Russian authorities have rejected the accusation.
On Tuesday, a Moscow court ruled that while in Germany, Navalny violated probation terms of his suspended sentence from a 2014 money-laundering conviction and ordered him to serve two years and eight months in prison. The ruling prompted international outrage.
In the mass protests across Russia’s 11 time zones for two weekends in a row, many people chanted slogans against Putin in the largest show of discontent in years. Thousands were detained. Several of Navalny’s close allies face criminal charges and are under house arrest, and many of his associates were handed short jail terms.
Top Navalny strategist Leonid Volkov argued Thursday that trying to maintain rallies every weekend would only lead to many more arrests and wear out the participants and said that protests should pause until spring after reaching a peak.
Instead, he urged supporters to focus on challenging Kremlin-backed candidates in September’s parliamentary elections and securing new Western sanctions against Russia to press for Navalny’s release. He said Navalny’s team would try to ensure that “every world leader would discuss nothing but Navalny’s release with Putin.”
On Friday, however, another Navalny ally, Vladimir Milov, expressed disappointment with Borrell’s visit to Moscow. He called it a “disastrously weak visit” and said Lavrov “used him as a decoration to lecture Europe on ‘international law.’”
“Maybe he’ll bring back some Sputink V vaccines as a reward,” Milov tweeted, referencing Borrell’s praise of Russia’s domestically developed coronavirus vaccine.
Navalny, meanwhile, was back in court Friday for yet another trial — this time on a charge of defaming a World War II veteran featured in a pro-Kremlin video that Navalny denounced on social media last year.
A criminal probe was opened after Navalny slammed people featured in a video promoting constitutional amendments last year that allowed an extension to Putin’s rule. Navalny called the people in the video “corrupt stooges,” “people without conscience” and “traitors.”
Russian authorities maintained that Navalny’s comments “denigrate (the) honor and dignity” of Ignat Artemenko, the veteran featured in the video.
If convicted, Navalny faces a fine or community service. He has denied the charge and refused to enter a plea on Friday, calling the trial a “PR process” aimed at disparaging him.
“The Kremlin needs headlines (saying that) Navalny slandered a veteran,” he said.
Artemenko, 94, took part in the hearing via teleconference, saying he was distressed by Navalny’s comments and demanding a public apology.
Navalny accused Artemenko’s family of exploiting the frail man for their own gain, alleging the case was fabricated and the evidence falsified.
“The judge should burn in hell, and you’re selling your grandfather out,” Navalny said, as Artemenko’s grandson testified.
The hearing was eventually adjourned until Feb. 12.
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Associated Press writers Geir Moulson in Berlin, Jan M. Olsen in Copenhagen, Sylvie Corbet in Paris, Matthew Lee in Washington and Jill Lawless in London contributed.
U.S. stock futures rose slightly in overnight trading on Tuesday, after a strong market rally as the Reddit trading mania continued to unwind.
Dow futures rose 60 points. S&P 500 futures gained 0.4% and Nasdaq 100 futures rose 0.4%.
Strong earnings from Amazon and Alphabet helped futures. Amazon reported earnings nearly double Wall Street estimates; however, the stock move was tempered by news that Jeff Bezos would step down as CEO.
Shares of Alphabet gained 6% in after hours trading after the technology giant reported 23% revenue growth and topped estimates for earnings.
Stocks rallied for the second day on Tuesday, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average gaining more than 475 points for its best day since November. Investors returned to buying equities after the Reddit-fueled action that shook markets last week. The Dow is up 2.35% this week.
The S&P 500 climbed 1.4% and the Nasdaq Composite jumped more than 1.5%.
After a meteoric, albeit seemingly synthetic rise in GameStop last week caused by a short squeeze, shares have cratered more than 70% this week. Other Reddit trades have also come back down to Earth amid trading restrictions from major brokers.
“The best way to describe today’s stock market action is ‘reversing the Reddit revolution,” Jim Paulsen, chief investment strategist at the Leuthold Group, told CNBC. “What went up with GameStop, came down with GameStop.”
“From mid-day Jan. 28 to the end of Jan. 29, cyclicals including technology got pounded while defensive sectors outpaced. Over the last two days, and particularly today, this was reversed,” added Paulsen.
Investors are also monitoring negotiations in Washington surrounding another stimulus package. President Joe Biden met with the 10 Republican senators on Monday to discuss an alternative, smaller aid proposal to his $1.9 trillion package.
Earnings season continues on Wednesday with AbbVie, Biogen, Boston Scientific, GlaxoSmithKline and Humana reporting before the opening bell.
Chipmaker Qualcomm, eBay, PayPal and Yum China report earnings after the market closes on Wednesday.
Private payroll data from January is released at 8:15 a.m. on Wednesday from ADP. Economists polled by Dow Jones are expecting private sector jobs grew by 50,000 in January, compared to the loss of 123,000 in December.
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The move comes as questions persist over the country’s readiness to host the Olympics, which are scheduled to be held in Tokyo this summer from July 23 to August 8.
Eleven of Japan’s 47 prefectures are currently under a state of emergency that orders companies to facilitate work from home where possible, and requires restaurants to close by 8 p.m. Sports and entertainment events in Japan are also required to limit the number of attendees.
Suga told Japan’s Parliament Tuesday that he plans to extend the state of emergency — which is set to expire Sunday — until March 7 for 10 of the prefectures. The state of emergency is set to be lifted for one prefecture, he said.
That decision still needs to be finalized by the government’s coronavirus task force, and Suga is expected to hold a press conference Tuesday night over the state of emergency rules.
Japan’s Health Ministry on Monday reported 1,792 new coronavirus cases and 72 additional deaths, bringing the country’s total cases to more than 392,000 and more than 5,800 dead. Almost 50,000 Covid-19 patients are in need of hospital-level medical care as of Monday.
Around one third of confirmed cases are in the capital Tokyo, which on Monday reported fewer than 500 new case for the first time since December 28.
As the country struggles with its current spike, partly brought on by freezing winter temperatures, it is also grappling with mixed messages and coronavirus fatigue, having been among the earliest hit by the pandemic.
Unlike a number of other countries which have introduced lockdowns and social distancing measures, Japan lacks much in the way of legal powers to force compliance with the government’s orders.
Suga has been criticized for what has been perceived as his reluctance to take action to combat the spread of the virus. Kenji Shibuya, director of the Institute for Population Health at King’s College London said in January that Japan’s response is “too slow and confusing.”
“On one hand they encouraged domestic travel and eating out, on the other they just asked people to take caution,” Shibuya said. “The government is basically asking people voluntarily to behave properly, but does not do more than that.”
All over the world the rate of ice melt is accelerating with climate change, on land and in water, in the northern hemisphere and the southern hemisphere.
Since 1994, satellite imagery has revealed over 28 trillion tonnes of ice have melted in Greenland and Antarctica, as well as the Arctic and Southern Oceans.
Together, the loss amounts to a 100-metre thick sheet of ice roughly the size of the United Kingdom. Meltwater from Arctic sea ice and the Antarctic ice sheet make up half of that mass.
“The ice sheets are now following the worst-case climate warming scenarios set out by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change,” says Thomas Slater who studies land and ice altimetry at the University of Leeds.
“Sea-level rise on this scale will have very serious impacts on coastal communities this century.”
It’s exactly what scientists have been warning us about for decades, and the reality is finally upon us with no signs of slowing down.
Over the course of the 23-year-long study period, researchers saw close to a 60 percent increase in the rate of global ice loss.
(Planetary Visions/ESA/NASA)
Above: According to the European Space Agency (ESA), “one trillion tonnes of ice can be thought of as a cube of ice measuring 10x10x10 kilometres”. In this illustration, that ice cube, which the ESA says would be taller than Mount Everest, towers over New York City.
Just last year, floating ice cover in the Arctic Ocean hit its lowest extent since 1979 when satellite recordings began, and Antarctica experienced a melt event unlike anything experts had seen before.
The loss of Earth’s ice is clearly speeding up and with horrifying results. As atmospheric temperatures continue to rise and ocean temperatures follow, melting sea ice and mountain glaciers across the globe are succumbing to climate change.
Satellite observations reveal glaciers are some of the hardest hit by climate change, especially those in Greenland, Alaska, and the southern Andes. Despite the fact that glaciers make up only 1 percent of Earth’s total ice volume, researchers found they contributed almost a quarter of all global ice loss.
Between 1994 and 2017, satellite observations reveal 6.1 trillion tonnes of ice melted from mountain glaciers, 3.8 trillion tonnes were lost from the Greenland ice sheet, and 2.5 trillion tonnes disappeared from the Antarctic ice sheet.
Overall, that’s 35 millimetres (1.4 inches) of sea level rise, and while southern ice has proved more resilient, it too is beginning to crumble.
Since 2012, the rate of ice loss in Antarctica has tripled when compared to the previous two decades, and this is mostly due to widespread glacier melt and thinning ice shelves.
Rising atmospheric temperatures have also begun to take their toll on floating ice, causing the oldest and thickest slabs to break up. While this type of melt doesn’t directly contribute to sea level rise that doesn’t mean it isn’t a threat.
“One of the key roles of Arctic sea ice is to reflect solar radiation back into space which helps keep the Arctic cool,” explains Isobel Lawrence, who specialises in remote sensing of sea ice at the University of Leeds.
“As the sea ice shrinks, more solar energy is being absorbed by the oceans and atmosphere, causing the Arctic to warm faster than anywhere else on the planet. Not only is this speeding up sea ice melt, it’s also exacerbating the melting of glaciers and ice sheets which causes sea levels to rise.”
For every centimetre of sea level rise, experts predict a million people are in danger of being displaced. What’s more, mountain glaciers are a critical source of freshwater for many local communities.
As the data rolls in, what scientists feared most is looking all the more likely.
If things continue in the same vein, some think there’s a chance the Arctic could be virtually free of ice by 2035.
Other studies show Greenland’s melting ice has already passed the point of no return.
Down south, more than half the ice shelves holding up the Antarctic ice sheet are on the brink of buckling.
Everywhere we look, the cryosphere is facing catastrophe.
@pilot You should give it a shot. Buy Rise and make a genuine effort to learn the mechanics. It’s the best video game series of all time imo (and in the opinion of many, many others). Everyone loves monster hunter, they just have to play long enough to realize it 😉 (for real though, it’s a game that demands you learn how to play properly before you really start having a lot of fun but once you do, oh my gosh, it’ll make every other game feel boring by comparison).
I happened to get into the series by chance. Was a more casual gamer, 1st party Nintendo games only, bought MH3U on Wii U to try, gave up after the first hour because I wasn’t hunting big monsters yet and it seemed boring. Coworker kept going on and on about just wanting to play some MH. Bought a Wii U specifically to play MH3U. So I decided I would hunt online with him once or twice. And that was it. 600 hours later and I had found my new favorite video game of all time. We’re talking 48 hour binges staying up all night playing, call ins to work, etc. It’s an addiction like nothing else (barring actual drugs).
30 hours into the demo already. That’s more than many full price games. And there’s only two quests lol. That’s how fun the game is. It never gets old. But I don’t recommend you play the demo because it’ll just turn you off because it doesn’t give you time to properly learn all the mechanics. Best thing to do is just buy the game and start from the beginning and get eased in.