August 2023

Atlus announced a 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim sales milestone. Over one million copies sold worldwide since its initial launch. It revealed the achievement on its official website, thanking players for supporting the game for these past four years.

13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim initially released on the PlayStation 4. It was later ported to the Nintendo Switch. The title was nominated for various awards, such as Best Narrative at The Game Awards 2020.

A new original illustration by Yukiko Hirai has been created in celebration of reaching this milestone. Harai was the illustrator and character designer for the game. Playable protagonists Juro Kurabe and Shu Amiguchi are pictured in it as well as Fluffy, a sneaky talking cat players will encounter over the course of the game.
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To commemorate 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim sales one million units sold worldwide, the Nintendo Switch version of the game will be 50% off on the Nintendo eShop until September 26, 2023 in Japan.

The latest figure in Kotobukiya's Bishoujo Transformers line is Starscream, and she is now available to pre-order. The figure will cost ¥18,700 or $180, depending on which store you order from. Shipping is set for April 2024 for orders from Japan. It will ship between May and July 2024 worldwide if ordered from Sideshow.

Originally announced in July 2023, with a painted prototype shown off earlier in August 2023, the Bishoujo Transformers Starscream figure was sculpted by Tsubame with design work by Shunya Yamashita. She stands at 8.46" tall upon a stand shaped like the Decepticon logo. Her wings are reimagined as an over-the-shoulder gym bag with a Decepticon keychain. While the figure is not poseable, deluxe orders from the Kotobukiya store come with an additional faceplate with a pleading expression.

There's a video showing it from different angles.

Starfield is finally here after a long five-year wait, and it's great! I’m roughly 23 hours in, so I still have many galaxies ahead of me, but read Game Informer’s Starfield review for in-depth thoughts on the overall package. With years of build-up and anticipation, I, like many Bethesda Game Studios fans, let my imagination run wild with what this new open world RPG could be. Now that I’ve played a decent chunk of it, it’s quite different from the studios’ Elder Scrolls and Fallout series in some ways. Those two franchises are significantly more open world than Starfield. In fact, Starfield feels more like a great sci-fi theme park with exciting points of interests rather than an open world adventure. But players looking for a replica space-based Fallout or Elder Scrolls adventure might find disappointment amongst the stars.

Starfield has (almost) arrived, and we're playing the game from the very beginning! Watch this archived Twitch stream as we begin a new journey in Bethesda's massive sci-fi RPG and see what kind of sheningans we get into! Be sure to also check out our Starfield review as well as our list of spoiler-free beginner's tips. 

If you enjoy our livestreams but haven’t subscribed to our Twitch channel, know that doing so not only gives you notifications and access to special emotes. You’ll also be granted entry to the official Game Informer Discord channel, where our welcoming community members, moderators, and staff gather to talk games, entertainment, food, and organize hangouts! Be sure to also follow our second YouTube channel, Game Informer Shows, to watch other Replay episodes as well as Twitch archives such as Replay, GI Live, and more. 

Embracer Group have announced that they're closing down Volition, the Illinois, US-based developer best known today for Saints Row and Red Faction. The announcement - which coincided with the predictably uproarious lifting of Starfield's review embargo, though I'm sure the timing is purely accidental - comes as part of broader restructuring at Embracer Group following a multiple-year acquisition spree, which Alice0 reported on in June.

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The embargo on Starfield reviews and coverage is up and the internet is flooded with videos and opinions about Bethesda’s newest, soon-to-be-released RPG. And for those of you excited to play Starfield on Valve’s portable Steam Deck, there’s some bad news: It ain’t a great fit for the tiny PC.

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Reviews have started pouring in for Starfield, the highly anticipated and allegedly gargantuan space RPG from Bethesda, which comes out worldwide on September 6. And though the reviews are mostly positive, and reports suggest that this may be the least buggy Bethesda launch yet, one content creator has pointed out a…

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Starfield has been shouldering enormous expectations from both longtime fans of Bethesda’s open world RPGs and devoted Xbox players desperate for a hit exclusive. Now, initial reactions to the sprawling sci-fi shooter are finally here, and the early reviews are mixed. Some critics are championing Starfield as the…

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Starfield has at least partially fulfilled its galaxy-sized ambition, some initial reviews suggest, but its shipbuilding is holding it back.

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Nier: Automata, a fatalistic video game about attractive androids fighting to save a doomed humanity, is a franchise that’ll never say no to making a guest appearance in another video game regardless of how nonsensical the crossover might be. In the six years since its release, the sci-fi roleplaying game has…

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Armored Core VI: Fires of Rubicon launched on August 25, and folks have been loving it. If you haven’t yet taken it for a spin, know that satisfying, explosive combat, gorgeous visuals, and the thrill of building your very own mech to go out and earn some money for corporations is yours to have. But can you take it on…

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Larian Studios recently announced it would be altering some aspects of Baldur’s Gate 3’s ending in order to flesh out parts that some fans (rightfully) argued felt a bit undercooked compared to everything that preceded them. The first of these updates came out today, August 31, as part of the game’s second big patch,…

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After years of hype and teasing, Starfield…isn’t out yet. But the embargo on reviews is up and with it, the first technical review of the game is here. The big takeaway is that Starfield seems to be running solidly on both the Xbox Series X and the smaller, less powerful Series S. This is a bit shocking considering…

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Gearbox's Borderlands series is readying for a busy few months; a six-game digital-only Borderlands bundle is coming to PlayStation, Xbox, and PC tomorrow, 1st September, and Borderlands 3 will be making its Switch debut on 6th October.

Starting with the Borderlands Collection: Pandora's Box, as the bundle is officially known, it packages up every game in the series so far, excluding last year's Tina Tina's Wonderlands spin-off - so, Borderlands 1, 2, The Pre-Sequel, 3, Tales from the Borderlands, and New Tales from the Borderlands - and then crams in every bit of accompanying DLC.

It's a significant amount of Borderlands, then, and the bundle comes with a correspondingly sizeable price tag, weighing in at $149.99 USD (or your local equivalent). The happier news, though, is that publisher 2K is offering a range of discounts, starting with a far more affordable $59.99 limited-time launch price. Additionally, 2K has announced a number of upgrade paths for existing Borderlands players, making the cost of entry more manageable still.

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Premium Collectibles Studio announced its next statue will be a $4,000 bust of Chun-Li from Street Fighter. The edition size for this piece is 50. They are expected to ship out sometime between August and October 2024. Orders opened on both the official site and Big Bad Toy Store. However, the early-order period at Premium Collectibles Studio brings the price down to $3,599.

This is a 1:1 scale figure. While it is made of polystone, it also features a silicone head and arms. She's wearing a fabric costume. Also, there is synthetic rooted hair on her head. Each one comes with a Certificate of Authenticity. Also, there is a one in 50 chance of one person getting a 1oz Gold Premium Collectible Studios coin and $300 loyalty points.

Here's a closer look at the Street Fighter Chun-Li bust from various angles.
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There's also an image showing more exact measurements for this Chun-Li statue. She's almost three feet tall and two feet wide.
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The Street Fighter Chun-Li bust from Premium Collectibles Studio will release between August and October 2024. Street Fighter 6 is immediately available on the PS4, PS5, Xbox Series X, and PC,

Microsoft and Funko partnered to produce a Funko Pop figure of Vasco, a robot companion Starfield. The figure is available to pre-order from Microsoft's Xbox Gear Shop for $17.99. It is expected to ship in February 2024.

Vasco is a companion you can meet and recruit in Starfield, with a utilitarian design intended to survive in the various biomes you'll discover. The vinyl figure stands at just over four inches tall and emphasizes the bot's squat body and prominent optics with cartoony proportions.

The Vasco Funko Pop is exclusive to the Xbox Gear Shop, and as such comes with the free sticker exclusive to that storefront. The store page also notes that the figure will only be produced in limited quantities, though it is unknown if it could receive a rerun in the future.

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CFK has announced the release date for Koumajou Remilia 2: Stranger's Requiem. It will release the game for the Nintendo Switch and PC on December 14, 2023.

Koumajou Remilia is a series of side-scrolling action games with Touhou Project characters that draw inspiration from Castlevania. But while the first game Scarlet Symphony starred the Touhou series protagonist Reimu, this direct sequel will shift the focus to Sakuya. The chief maid of Scarlet Devil Mansion will go on a journey to find Remilia and other fellow inhabitants who have gone missing. She will also encounter the Yakumo clan during the process.

As with the prequel, Koumajou Remilia 2 will also feature full Japanese voice acting. Most of the voice actresses from the prequel will reprise their character roles, such as Miyuki Sawashiro as Sakuya and Eri Kitamura as Remilia. Stranger's Requiem will also feature more characters with the following voice actresses:

• Flandre: Hisako Kanemoto
• Yukari: Aya Endo
• Ran: Yu Kobayashi
• Chen: Ryoko Shintani
• Yuyuko: Hekiru Shiina
• Youmu: Ryo Hirohashi
• Komachi: Haruka Tomatsu

CFK has published a new Japanese trailer for Koumajou Remilia 2, and it is available to watch right below.

The Pokemon Company International announced the Pokemon and Hatsune Miku Project Voltage on its official Japanese social media account. An official website for the project is open. 18 new songs by 18 different Vocaloid producers will be sequentially released from September 29, 2023. Additionally, there will be music videos featuring new designs of Miku as a Pokemon trainer alongside 18 different Pokemon partners released for each one.

Each song will feature samples from the Pokemon series. We can expect to hear memorable background music and sound effects from the franchise incorporated into the new tracks. The new songs will be released on the participating Vocaloid producers’ official YouTube channels over the course of the next few months following the initial launch. The participating Vocaloid producers are scheduled to be revealed on September 28, 2023.

Between September 4-28, 2023, one new illustration will be revealed every day on social media. The overall concept is “what if Hatsune Miku was a ___-type Pokemon trainer?” The 18 new designs for Pokemon Trainer Miku alongside her 18 different partner Pokemon will be illustrated by a total of six different artists. The participating illustrators will be announced simultaneously with the release of each illustration and design.

A key aspect of Armored Core VI is earning cash to unlock new guns and mech parts. Once you complete a mission you can replay it as much as you want for extra pay, and players have now found one of the fastest money farms in the entire game: brutally murdering a rookie test pilot in under a minute, dozens of times in…

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Bethesda’s head of publishing Pete Hines posted a boilerplate excuse note on Twitter for any Starfield fan who, ahead of the game’s official release on September 6, is rapidly starting to feel a little bit…feverish.

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Pokémon Go publisher Niantic has aroused fans’ suspicions after a promotional image showed some telltale signs of potentially being AI artwork, rather than something made by an actual human artist.

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The Case Of The Golden Idol is a fabulous, point-and-click detective game, and one of our favourite games of 2022. It's got a brand new expansion which adds three new cases out today, which is good news if you've already played the rest of it.

If you haven't played any of it, there's now a new demo that lets you play the first three cases in your browser for free.

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Dota 2 summer update is out now, and among its many additions are several designed to make "Dota a better place to play, together." It includes a "dislike" button that lets you filter out people you'd rather not play with in future, a new reporting system, real-time review of toxic chat, and more.

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Baldur's Gate 3's second major patch is here, as teased earlier this week. It expands Karlach's character epilogue, as the first of several such expansions that Larian have planned, as well as improving performance fixing hundreds more bugs.

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Developer Cygames announced that as of August 31, 2023, its horse girl mobile game Uma Musume: Pretty Derby surpassed 19 million downloads cumulatively on the Japanese App Store, Google Play and PC. People will be given 1,500 jewels to celebrate. A celebratory visual of Tokai Teio, Special Week, and Mejiro McQueen appeared in honor of the milestone as well. [Thanks, Game Watch!]

Here's the official announcement heralding the milestone. It noted that the 1,500 jewels will be distributed to all players who have at minimum completed the tutorial. These jewels can be used in the gacha or other areas in the game to speed up progress. 1,500 jewels is enough for one ten-pull in its gacha.

ゲーム「ウマ娘 プリティーダービー」が1900万ダウンロードを突破！

1900万ダウンロード突破を記念して、トレーナーの皆様に「ジュエル1500個」をプレゼントにお贈りいたしました！
今後ともゲーム「ウマ娘 プリティーダービー」を宜しくお願いします！#ウマ娘 #ゲームウマ娘 pic.twitter.com/YaPB7LwR0u

— ウマ娘プロジェクト公式アカウント (@uma_musu) August 31, 2023

Eric "Concerned Ape" Barone announced a The Official Stardew Valley Cookbook is in development. It will debut in Spring 2024. Ryan Novak is the author, with Concerned Ape also working on it. No price was set.

Here's the official announcement for the cookbook. While we don't know how much it will cost, we do have an idea of its length. 50 recipes from Stardew Valley will be included in the book. The only three confirmed are the pink cake, salad, and strange bun.

I would like to announce the upcoming Stardew Valley Cookbook! It'll be out next spring, and includes 50 recipes from the game... such as pink cake, salad, and the strange bun. Cover illustration by @kee_fry pic.twitter.com/ydEtGzqo6G

— ConcernedApe (@ConcernedApe) August 31, 2023

A Stardew Valley pink cake needs an egg, a melon, sugar, and wheat flower if you are making a virtual one. The salad is made with a dandelion, a leek, and some vinegar. In the game, you use periwinkle, void mayonnaise, and wheat flour to make a strange bun.

The next mainline 2D Mario game, Super Mario Bros. Wonder, looks fantastic, shaking up the franchise’s formula with new powers, worlds, and enemies. In particular, one new power that turns Mario into an elephant became quite popular online. However, at first Mario’s creator Shigeru Miyamoto, wasn’t a fan of the odd…

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In this week's episode of The Game Informer Show, Alex Van Aken and Wesley LeBlanc share stories from their recent trip to Ubisoft in Bordeaux, France, as part of our new Assassin's Creed Mirage cover story. During the discussion, the two disclose exclusive gameplay-specific details and share their early thoughts after going hands-on with the upcoming stealth game. Later in the show, Kyle, Marcus, and Wesley give listeners their early Starfield review reactions; and chat about our Sea of Stars review and how developer Sabotage nailed the pixel art role-playing game experience.

Watch The Podcast's Video Version:

Follow us on social media: Alex Van Aken (@itsVanAken), Marcus Stewart (@MarcusStewart7), Kyle Hilliard (@KyleMHilliard), Wesley LeBlanc (@LeBlancWes)

The SteelSeries Arctis Nova Pro is down to £169 with this deal at Amazon UK - a great price for one of the best wired gaming headsets for PC and PS4/PS5, which debuted at £249 and normally costs around £200. I've been using one of these headsets with my PS5-based racing setup for months, and I've found it comfortable, good-sounding and very convenient to use thanks to the included second-gen GameDAC.

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Grim Dawn launched back in 2016 and scratched the hack-and-slash itch for Diablo 2 fans disillusioned by that series' third entry. Its last expansion was back in 2019 - but now it's getting another, called Fangs of Asterkarn. It's aiming for a 2024 release.

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Here's a strong pitch:

Want a 2TB NVMe SSD for less than £60? You've got exactly that with this Amazon UK deal, courtesy of Lexar. The NM610 isn't the fastest drive around, with a PCIe 3.0 interface and sequential speeds that top out at 3300MB/s, but it delivers a huge amount of storage space for very little money - while being around six times faster than SATA SSDs.

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Sanrio will be releasing a new line of Cardcaptor Sakura socks online and in-stores across Japan on September 9, 2023. The new sock line feature seven pairs of different socks with Sakura posed in various outfits from the series alongside different Sanrio characters including Hello Kitty, Cinnamonroll, Pompompurin, Kuromi, and My Melody. One additional pair also features Kero in a flower hat with Corocorokuririn.

The socks will be limited and there is a limit of one item per person for each design. Pre-orders will open online at the Avail store and in retail stores on September 9 at 12:00 PM Japan Time. Currently there are no prices listed for the upcoming line of socks on the Avail store, but listings will be available at the time of the pre-order launch.