Daily Briefing: Wednesday 7th April (Patreon)

Resident Evil Re:Verse open beta preload begins today

Preloading for Capcom's new multiplayer beta is live now, meaning players can get themselves ready in advance. The Resident Evil Re:Verse open beta will run from April 8th to April 11th, so every second counts really, and players who downloaded the game's closed beta version in January won't need to download anything new at all.

• Re:Verse is being billed as part of Resident Evil's ongoing 25th Anniversary celebrations, with the full game being bundled alongside Resident Evil: Village in May. The game sees players controlling various Resident Evil characters across a sort of six-person deathmatch, and becoming classic series monsters when killed.

E3 2021 details industry partners, but stays quiet on actual features

After a few unflattering rumours last week, the Entertainment Software Association have released a few new details about this year's all-digital E3. Nintendo, Xbox, Capcom, Konami, Ubisoft, Take-Two Interactive, Warner Bros. Games, and Koch Media are all on board - and the event will run from June 12th to June 15th following four media days.

• E3 hadn't been having the best time of things even before the pandemic axed last year's show, so the inclusion of a few big-name partners is certainly encouraging - even if Sony are once again conspicuously absent. Also absent were any details of the on-demand game demos the ESA had reportedly pitched to publishers. Y'know, the things that would make an all-digital E3 actually fun?

Pac-Man 99 is headed to Nintendo Switch

Nintendo only officially unveiled the new battle royale today, but it's already available in some territories. Pac-Man 99 puts you and 99 other players into a lobby and tasks you with being the last hungry yellow circle left standing and, like Tetris 99, is exclusive to Nintendo Switch Online online subscribers.

• The whole setup is very similar to Tetris 99, really. Each player has their own game screen but the goal is to be as disruptive to your fellow players as possible - everything from collecting power pellets and defeating ghosts will make life a lot more difficult for your competitors. Tetris 99 is as addictive a game as any, but could Pac-Man 99 be even more so?

Diablo II: Resurrected's single-player alpha starts this weekend

While sign-ups for Diablo II: Resurrected's closed alpha technical test have been open for quite some time now, Blizzard had previously stayed quiet on when exactly tests would be taking place. It turns out that the first single-player alpha will begin this Friday at 7am PDT / 10am EDT / 3pm BST and run until April 12th.

• Blizzard have confirmed that the alpha test will allow players to play through the game's first two acts as one of three classes: the sorceress, the barbarian, or the amazon. Blizzard have also said that, while players will many Resurrected benefits will be on show, the improved cinematics aren't finished yet. Sign-ups are still open on the game's website, and there will be at least one more alpha after this one.