Major ‘Stardew Valley’ update coming next month for PC

NCT leader Taeyong will be enlisting for two years of mandatory military service next month, SM Entertainment has confirmed.The singer’s label made the announcement today (March 18) in a statement to South Korean news outlet Newsen. “NCT’s Taeyong is enlisting in the navy as an active duty soldier on April 15,” SM Entertainment said, as translated by Soompi. “There will be no official events held on the day he enters the recruit training centre, and we ask for your understanding as his enlistment will be held privately to prevent safety incidents due to congestion on site,” the label added.

Kate Middleton could potentially address her mysterious disappearance from the public eye next month. “They are at their most open when out interacting with members of the public and I can see a world in which the princess might discuss her recovery out on engagements,” a royal insider told The Times of London on Saturday. “If she was going to do it, that’s how she would do it.”The insider also stated that the couple “will want to be clear and more open but they’ll do it when they feel ready.” The friend also added that they “would expect that to be her instinct and it will be her call.

British media are showing no signs of letting up on scrutiny of the Prince and Princess of Wales, a week after a family photo released to mark Mother’s Day in the UK sparked a backlash and frenzied speculation about the state of Kate Middleton’s health, the happiness of their marriage and anything else anyone could think of.

Jem Aswad Executive Editor, Music East Village Radio, the influential streetfront online radio station that broadcast from 2003-2016 and Mark Ronson hosted an influential show for several years, has announced it is planning to relaunch next month. The station, formerly located in a tiny studio behind a glass window at the front of a restaurant on First Avenue in New York’s East Village, opened directly onto the sidewalk, offering an almost surreal intimacy between passersby and the DJs.

Sony Interactive Entertainment and PlayStation worldwide Shawn Layden has spoken about the importance of platform-exclusive games.The discussion around platform-exclusives has heated up in recent months after Microsoft confirmed a number of Xbox-exclusives would be made available on “rival” consoles. Both Grounded and Pentiment are due to come to Nintendo Switch while Hi-Fi Rush and Sea Of Thieves are coming to the PS5.Speaking on the What’s Up PlayStation podcast, Layden said (via VGC): “Exclusivity will always be important, it helps focus and highlight the features of your platform. What can you do here technically that you can’t do someplace else.“But, as your platform becomes established as the market recognises where you sit in that pantheon of gaming options, I think the necessity of exclusivity becomes a little bit less,” he added.Earlier this month, Layden described exclusivity as a studio’s “Achilles’ heel” due to increasing production costs.

The Scottish Government's new controversial hate crime law will finally come into force next month.

Millions of people claiming their State Pension can look forward to an inflation-busting boost next month when payments rise by 8.5 per cent from April 8, 2024. Under the wages growth measure of the Triple Lock policy, those on the full New State Pension can expect an annual increase of £902, while those on the full Basic State Pension will see an uplift of £692.

Social Security Scotland has confirmed that thousands of people claiming Carer’s Allowance will receive one-off payments for £288.60 in June and December this year. Carer’s Allowance Supplement is an automatic payment made twice each year by the Scottish Government to recognise the important contribution made by unpaid carers.

Financial experts from Spencer Churchill are warning that up to 900,000 low-income retirees may face an unexpected tax bill at the end of the next financial year due to income from their State Pension. Pensioners may have to start setting money aside to pay income tax bills as the personal allowance will remain frozen at £12,570 during the 2024/25 financial year.

Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) figures indicate that fraud and error in the benefit system is falling after the UK Government restated its determination to drive levels down further and protect taxpayers’ money. The latest national statistics show that in the 2022/23 financial year, fraud and error rates fell to 3.6 per cent (£8.3 billion) from 4.0 per cent (£8.7 billion).

Royal Mail is set to increase the price of their first and second class stamps yet again next month. This news marks the fourth time prices have increased in two years for the cost of a first class stamp, as 10p will be added onto the total - taking it from £1.25 to £1.35.

Super Mario Maker before Nintendo shuts down the servers.Super Mario Maker was released in 2015 for the Wii U and allowed fans to upload player-made levels to an online hub, as long as they could actually be completed. In 2020, Nintendo confirmed it would be winding down support for the game, with the online hub closing on April 8.The group known as ‘The 0%ers’ started their task of completing every level of Super Mario Maker in 2017, with more than 40,000 fan-created stages to beat.Now with just over a month to go, ‘The 0%ers’ have 347 levels to go and have launched a dedicated website to track their progress.

Toys For Bob, the developer of Crash Bandicoot 4 and the remastered Spyro collection, has confirmed it’s going independent.Toys For Bob was founded in 1989 before being acquired by Activision in 2005, where they worked on Skylanders. As well as heading up a number of sequels, Toys For Bob also developed Crash Bandicoot 4 and was behind 2018’s Spyro Reignited Trilogy.As part of the recent wave of layoffs at Activision Blizzard, Toys For Bob lost 89 members of staff and saw the closure of their Californian offices.In a new blog post though, Toys For Bob has confirmed it has broken away from Activision.

Animal Crossing fans have recreated the viral ‘Willy Wonka Experience’ that’s taken the Internet by storm for all the wrong reasons.Earlier this week, footage of an immersive experience inspired by Roald Dahl’s Charlie And The Chocolate Factory went viral for how shockingly bleak it was.The Glaswegian event was advertised using AI-art but the reality was far from a world of “pure imagination and wonder”, with photos showing a practically empty warehouse with nothing but a rainbow arch, a mysterious masked figure hiding behind a mirror, a sad-looking table of lemonade and a lone Oompa-Loompa.There was reportedly no actual chocolate at the event either, with children receiving jelly beans instead but even they had to be rationed.This photo from the Willy wonka experience is single handedly the photo of the year. I know it’s only February but close the vote there’s no topping this.

Landlords must listen to complaints and treat tenants with fairness and respect under new standards aimed at better regulating the sector in the wake of the death of past failings - including the death of Awaab Ishak in Rochdale.

Nintendo has confirmed the release of Pokémon Legends Z-A, which is due 2025.The announcement came yesterday as part of the annual Pokémon Day celebrations and despite The Pokémon Company confirming it had several “exciting” plans, it still took fans by surprise for a number of reasons.Not only had Game Freak been hinting at a remake of Pokémon Black & White following the success of Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl in 2021 but Nintendo had never confirmed that Legends: Arceus was anything more than a standalone title.However, Pokémon Legends Z-A is due for release some time in 2025 and will take players back to the Parisian-inspired central city of Pokémon X & Pokémon Y.“A new adventure awaits within Lumiose City, where an urban redevelopment plan is under way to shape the city into a place that belongs to both people and Pokémon,” said the official description, with the trailer also hinting at the return of fan-favourite feature mega-evolutions, which haven’t been used since 2014’s Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire.While Arceus took players back in time to a very early version of the Sinnoh region, known as Hisui, the futuristic look of Lumiose City has fans speculating that Z-A will see them time travelling into the near future.The Pokémon set to feature in Z-A have yet to revealed, but the trailer leans heavily on generation six with Aegislash, Litleo, Pyroar, Klefki, Talonflame, Furfrou, Gogoat, Fletchling, Sylveon, Espurr, Flabébé and Hawlucha all showcased, alongside a lot of Pikachu action.

Adele has postponed a number of shows in Las Vegas following a recent illness.The Someone Like You singer, 35, revealed recently that she had been placed on vocal rest after falling ill. She has now announced that she has been advised by doctors to postpone her shows next month. Sharing a statement to Instagram, she wrote: "Sadly I have to take a beat and pause my Vegas residency.

Chung Ha will make her long-awaited return to music next month, her label has confirmed.Today (February 27), Chung Ha’s label More Vision confirmed to Korea JoongAng Daily that the singer will return with new music this March. It will be her first release since her 2022 studio album ‘Bare & Rare’, which featured the single ‘Sparkling’.The singer has also since released a brand-new logo on her YouTube channel.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Timothée Chalamet’s magical, musical candyman is coming to Max. “Wonka” will make its streaming debut exclusively on Max on Friday, March 8, Warner Bros.

Hi-Fi Rush has been officially announced for release on PlayStation 5 next month, alongside several other formerly Xbox console exclusive titles.The title will launch on March 19 on PlayStation 5, with physical versions for the platform available exclusively through Limited Run Games. While a Switch release for Hi-Fi Rush has been rumoured, there is currently no official notice on if those rumours were actually true.Alongside Hi-Fi Rush, Xbox is also bringing three other previously exclusive games to new systems.