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This morning, Sony announced through the official PlayStation Blog that the company will soon be launching a new loyalty program called PlayStation Stars.

As part of this free loyalty program, members will earn points by completing various activities, such as checking in with games monthly, winning tournaments, earning trophies, and more.

These loyalty points will be able to be redeemed in a catalog, which may include rewards such as PSN wallet funds or even select PlayStation Store products.

The company also announced that through the PlayStation Stars loyalty program, a new reward called “digital collectibles” will be launched. These collectibles will be digital representations of all things that PlayStation fans love, from figurines of iconic characters to devices from Sony’s history. Sony promises that there will always be new and rare collectibles to work towards.

Sony hopes that this new loyalty program will make fans excited for the future of PlayStation, mainly by celebrating gaming and bringing players together. The company also assures fans that the program will continue to grow and expand as time goes on.

The PlayStation Stars loyalty program will launch later this year and will roll out in regional phases.

You can learn more about PlayStation Stars by reading the official blog right here.

In other recent PlayStation news, the new tiers of PlayStation Plus have gone live in North America as of last month, and you can read all about that as well as the available games through this service right here.

Sony has announced PlayStation Stars, a new customer loyalty programme which will launch later this year.

Access is open to all PlayStation owners, with additional benefits for PlayStation Plus subscribers.

If you're familiar with the Xbox's Microsoft Rewards scheme - well, this is a rough equivalent, with a couple of intriguing differences.

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Another Resident Evil adaptation is here, this time in the form of a live-action Netflix series. Given that Resident Evil adaptations don’t tend to be well-received, how good is the latest attempt to adapt the games?

When I saw that there was another Resident Evil project, I was beyond cautious, especially after seeing last year’s Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City, which was not good at all. We have been given live-action movies previously, mainly in the form of the Milla Jovovich action-horror movies, and while I actually liked the first Resident Evil movie, I did not enjoy any of the other films at all. So, it’s fair to say that my expectations were pretty much at rock bottom for this new show.

Maybe it was because of this, but I did enjoy this adaptation quite a bit. The best way to describe Resident Evil (2022) is that it feels like a strange mixture of the Resident Evil games, the Resident Evil film series, with a tiny bit of The Last of Us thrown in.

Outriders: Worldslayer on PS5

Back in April 2021, developers People Can Fly unleashed their vision of a looter-shooter in an admittedly crowded genre, but Outriders was a breath of fresh air that did plenty right, especially when it came to empowering the player with powerful weapons and fun supernatural powers. Now that the Outriders: Worldslayer expansion is upon us, the same core pillars remain, for better and for worse.

Cary Kwok has been handling public relations since 1999, focusing specifically on video games since 2006. A lot has changed in that time.

"Doing PR almost 20 years ago was still very focused on core gamers," she tells GamesIndustry.biz. "It was working games enthusiast media to make sure that the game was front and centre, making sure we had great Metacritic scores. Being able to speak to the core was very important. But fast forward to 2022, there are still a lot of people who wouldn't self identify as gamers but are playing video games. The audience has dramatically changed."

For the first 11 years of her time in this sector, Kwok worked for Golin representing Nintendo through the transformative Wii era, before joining Rogers & Cowan PMK to spend five years handling Activision Blizzard's lifestyle PR. In October, she left this team to join BerlinRosen to guide its first steps into the games industry.

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It appears that Dino Crisis, Ridge Racer 2 and Soul Calibur: Broken Destiny are heading to PlayStation Plus Premium.

The PS1 and PSP games were strangely only mentioned on the Italian PlayStation Blog as part of the list of titles coming to the subscription service this month (thanks, Push Square).

But the games have now been removed from the post, suggesting that it was listed by accident.

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Coin Crew Games’ school for escapers features co-op puzzles in unique environments

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Following leaked footage of an early build, modders have now made EA's unreleased Skate game playable.

Despite the developers of the remake requesting players don't download the leaked build, modders have adapted it for multiplayer and are hosting their own servers.

The build already has a multiplayer capability, which modders have enabled.

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Félix Lengyel, who streams under the name of xQc, has become one of the biggest streamers in the world. The occasionally controversial streamer is not exactly known for his delicacy, and it is for this reason that he seemed to attract the attention of Andrew Tate. After referring to Tate, a noted influencer and former kickboxer, as insecure, the two would go head to head on a stream hosted by GTA V streamer Adin Ross.

Fireworks were pretty much guaranteed, and it didn’t take long for Tate, a self-confessed and proud misogynist, and chauvinist, to get under xQc’s skin. Things got especially heated as Tate claimed that he would never let a “female” that he was with go to a club alone, something that didn’t sit right with xQc.

The successful Canadian streamer repeatedly called out Tate for his backward mentality and the irresponsibility of his message while also taking the time to make fun of him. One target that xQc honed in on was Tate’s bald head, claiming the former kickboxer’s hairline resembled the famous McDonald’s golden arches.

After the stream had ended, xQc went out of his way to explain that while he feels that Andrew Tate should be allowed to think whatever he likes, that he should be careful when using his platform to deliver an irresponsible message strictly to try and gain fame.

Whatever your stance on giving Andrew Tate a platform and getting his brand in front of yet more people, it was good to see someone with xQc’s status and stature in the streaming community take on some of the worst aspects of his messaging.

Nintendo has announced it will purchase Dynamo Pictures, the Tokyo-based visual production company behind a series of animated Pikmin short films.

The acquisition was detailed today, alongside plans to rebrand the company Nintendo Pictures Co Ltd.

Once fully part of Nintendo, the studio will "focus on development of visual content utilising Nintendo IP", documentation of the deal stated.

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The Develop:Star Awards took place last night, an annual celebration of outstanding game development in the last 12 months.

Horizon Forbidden West from Guerilla took home two accolades, one for Best Game and one for Best Visual Art.

Sumo Digital also picked up multiple awards throughout the night -- the UK firm won Recruitment Star and Best Studio.

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Capcom's Resident Evil 2 Remake has now sold over 10m copies since its release in 2019.

Capcom shared the news on Twitter with a parody image of an endgame ranking beside a typewriter - it received an SSS of course.

The news follows the recent update to the game for PS5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC, adding 4k support, ray-tracing, and improved framerates.

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Last night, Red Dead Online fans came together to mourn the "death" of Rockstar's online service via a community-run "funeral" in-game.

Tributes to the online component of Red Dead Redemption 2 poured in all over social media.

https://twitter.com/luckyluki10/status/1547201956426485761

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Golden Apple Archipelago, the summer exclusive summer event area, has returned once again to Genshin Impact. The region was initially introduced in the 1.6 version as a part of the Midsummer Island Adventure event. In the latest update, Golden Apple Archipelago has been entirely revamped with new looks, challenges, and world quests. Here’s a guide to unlocking Golden Apple Archipelago in Genshin Impact 2.8 version.

Genshin Golden Apple Archipelago – How To Unlock

To unlock the Golden Apple Archipelago area in the 2.8 update, you will need to complete Summertime Odyssey: I quest. The quest will be available once the Summertime Odyssey event commences on July 15, 2022.

Apart from this, one must meet the following criteria in order to access the Golden Apple Archipelago area:

Valve’s first portable gaming console, Steam Deck, debuted in the market in February 2022. However, the device doesn’t natively support Genshin Impact even after several months of its launch. But, it doesn’t mean that you can’t play the popular gatcha game on Steam Deck. There are several workarounds to run Genshin Impact on Steam Deck, and here’s a comprehensive guide for the same.

Playing Genshin Impact on Steam Deck

In order to play Genshin Impact on Steam Deck, you will need to install Windows first on your handheld console. Start with creating a bootable Pendrive of Windows 10 and then follow these steps.

Capcom’s survival horror granddaddy of a series Resident Evil is hitting the small screen today, with the arrival of Netflix’s live-action TV adaptation. It’s not spoiling anything to say that Albert Wesker is back, but this time he’s bringing his family along for those bioweapon hijinks he’s known for. It wouldn’t be Resi without some zombie dogs jumping through windows either, as you’ll see in the trailer below.

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Bayonetta 3 is coming in late October 2022, finally ending the years-long wait endured by fans of the Umbra Witch. Nintendo's set to take advantage, of course, by offering a Bayonetta 3 limited edition package filled with goodies. Formally known as the "Trinity Masquerade Edition" of the game, the Bayonetta 3 limited edition package will be sold at select retailers and the My Nintendo Store.

Check out a preview of the pack below.

https://twitter.com/NintendoAmerica/status/1547270745780273153

The Bayonetta 3 Trinity Masquerade Edition comes with the game in a standard-size Switch cartridge case. It also includes a 200-page art book and three special game case art inserts. Each art insert corresponds to one of the Bayonetta series titles, and the three combine to form a single panoramic work. A large box decorated with the Bayonetta 3 box art holds the goods.

You might be wondering why Nintendo would include box art for Bayonetta 1 in the package when the Switch version of Bayonetta was a digital-only release. Wonder no more, for Nintendo has also confirmed that there will be a separate physical release of Bayonetta on September 30, 2022.

https://twitter.com/NintendoAmerica/status/1547270761924157440

With the popularity of streaming services now so universally ubiquitous, a growing slate of original films funded by companies like Netflix, Apple, and Amazon are slowly becoming just as culturally significant and lucrative as the traditional cinematic experience we all know and love. Indeed, one original movie released way back in 2018 made waves and broke records — and the specific record still remains unbroken to this day.

That’s right, the film in question is Netflix’s Bird Box, which has the third most hours viewed in its first 28 days on the streaming platform with an eye-catching 282,020,000 hours (H/T, Top10Netflix). Even after almost four years, and a global pandemic, Bird Box still holds on to this extraordinary achievement. Pretty impressive, no?

Directed by Susanne Bier, Bird Box is a post-apocalyptic thriller that centers on an invisible extraterrestrial threat that cause their victims to commit suicide in violent ways. The trick to it all, however, is that you’re only truly doomed if you’re one of the unlucky few who lay your eyes on said entities. Cue: lots of blindfolds, closed eyes, and characters groping their way through the darkness.

While Bird Box remains one of the most watched films on Netflix, critics were also pretty impressed with the suspense-driven horror pic. Over on Rotten Tomatoes, Bird Box boasts a solid 64% critical approval rating and a 57% audience score, which is actually fairly respectable for a horror film. Why? Well, it’s fair to say that the horror genre largely tends to skew lower on average than other “more serious” genres.

The upcoming new mystery from FMV maestro Sam Barlow, Immortality, has seen its release date pushed back to August 30th. The game was previously scheduled to launch on July 26th. While you’re waiting for that extra month to pass you can always refresh your memory by watching the trailer below.

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Japan-based publisher 3Goo announced that it will release The Rumble Fish fighting game series globally for home consoles in Winter 2022. This includes The Rumble Fish and its sequel, The Rumble Fish 2. Notably, this is the first time 2005's arcade release of The Rumble Fish 2 will receive a home console port. Alongside the announcement, 3Goo also uploaded the story trailer for the game via YouTube. [Thanks, Famitsu!]

The Rumble Fish is a 2D arcade fighting game that originally debuted in 2004. Known for its sleek character models that utilized Smooth Model Animation, the series has never been released outside of Japan. While Sega later ported the first game to the PlayStation 2 in 2005, the series hasn't seen much activity since. Dimps, the game's developer, acquired the rights to the game back in 2012.

It's still unclear which platforms The Rumble Fish will be available on, as well as whether it will appear on PCs. As of writing, 3Goo has not stated whether there will be updates to the game's net code or if it will have online multiplayer support. However, 3Goo has uploaded a 3-minute-long story trailer featuring the game's protagonist Zen, Greed, and other characters.

You can check out The Rumble Fish story trailer below:

https://youtu.be/JeB-HMEpUNk

Don't expect to see an Aztec setting for Assassin's Creed in the near future - despite a high-profile rumour to the contrary.

Yesterday, a claim the next Assassin's Creed game would be set in the Aztec era gained traction online, sourced from a Twitter user who had previously leaked details of fellow Ubisoft series Far Cry.

Now, Bloomberg reporter Jason Schreier has debunked the Aztec claim - while also corroborating Eurogamer's reporting earlier this year that Baghdad would be featured in the franchise's next title.

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The Sega Genesis Mini 2 is heading to North America this October.

The mini retro console was revealed to Japan last month, with a release date of 27th October. That's now confirmed for North America too.

There's no confirmed release date yet for Sega fans in other countries - presumably the name will be changed to Mega Drive Mini 2 as well.

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The Sims 4 has been improving every single year since it released and it’s only ever improved by the efforts of the modding community. Thankfully, a dedicated community of modders has risen from the alleyways of The Sims 4 to change the game up in exciting ways. With this post, we’ll go over all the best woohoo mods, sex mods, sexy mods, nude mods, and adult mods in The Sims 4. These are the best of the best!

Warning Adult 18+ Content Follows

No Censor

Take out that tile mosaic blur from your naked Sims using this mod. It works for day to day use as well as when your Sims get naked for their business. You might want to check this mod out first and foremost before the rest on this list.

It’s pretty staggering to think that GTA Online will be celebrating its ninth anniversary later this year. In that time, it’s jumped across three console generations and been bolstered by nearly 40 updates. As such, it’s a very different experience to when it launched, back when the term ‘games as a service’ was still a relatively new idea and Skrillex reigned supreme. Fundamentally, though, GTA Online is still the same game you will have played all those years ago. The shooting is clunky, the characters still control like small shipping frigates, and there’s a general toxicity to its online community that harkens back to the dark days of Modern Warfare 2 lobbies (my mother is a saint, I’ll have you know).

GTA Online in 2022 is a particularly strange thing then, and it’s also much unlike anything else in gaming. Its foundations are old, ancient even, but with the sheer barrage of constant updates from Rockstar, it manages to straddle new and dated ideas simultaneously, to predictably mixed results. The sheer breadth of things to do is where it thrives, however. Whether you want to run drugs around the city, roleplay as a business executive, or simply tune-up your cars and take them along to meets, there really is always something to keep you busy.

Perhaps the most pressing question surrounding GTA Online is how friendly it is to new players. There’s good news on this front, in that Rockstar recently streamlined the onboarding process, with a set of flashy new menus serving as a gentle guiding hand, shepherding the player through the opening hours.

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After a week off from its annual vacation, Riot Games returned to work this week and issued Valorant with a new update that went live yesterday. Called Patch 5.01, it’s a pretty major one, rebalancing the utility of three of the game’s Agents, including a highly anticipated rework of neglected Agent Phoenix. But while that particular adjustment is a welcome one, it seems the development team might have still been in holiday mode when they gave the green light to the changes made to KAYO’s molly, or Fragment Grenade as nobody calls it.

The ability has had its diameter of damage slightly reduced but, crucially, now applies damage without needing a line of sight. Put simply, it goes through walls.

Riot Games said in its patch notes that it “wanted to reduce some pain” and help players “access more parts of the kit that haven’t felt as accessible.” After reviewing the listed changes and now having experienced it in-game myself, I am decoding this to the team essentially wanting to reduce the skill-ceiling of KAYO’s molly by making it less reliant on lineups. Either that or this is all a massive mistake that the team never intended to occur because what I’m seeing in-game is a bit of a disaster, and I’m not the only one who’s noticed:

I’m convinced riot employees don’t play their own game pic.twitter.com/33nS40hCe4

— career (@careertwitch) July 13, 2022

A new player in the gacha market, Dislyte was the subject of controversy within its first few weeks of launch. The game was pretty hostile towards rerolling, it had a ludicrous pity system for its first proper event, and most importantly, the endgame content was just boring.

After spending a couple months with the game, I quickly found myself slowing down and getting less excited to log in to play. The endgame content consists of little else aside from grinding for Relics to perfect your character builds, and even that was soul-crushing, as you were subject to the whims of RNG. With the new Desolate Lands mode, however, we’re finally starting to see a much-needed shakeup in Dislyte’s endgame.

While it’s not the proper co-op raid mode that most players might have been hoping for, Desolate Lands does two important things: first, it gives players more control in Relic farming, and secondly, it’s a challenging bit of PvE content that actually requires strategy and smart team-building.

The three bosses in Desolate Lands drop Boost Stones, which can be used to improve the quality of specific sub-stats on your Relics. What this means is that once you’ve finally farmed the perfect Relic with all the main and sub-stats you want, you no longer have to hope and pray that the correct sub-stats get enhanced as you’re upgrading them. The Boost Stones let you pick the sub-stats you want to enhance, cutting out a rather significant chunk of RNG from the upgrading process.

When people think of Nintendo’s exclusive franchises, the first that come to mind are always Mario, The Legend of Zelda, Metroid, Pokemon, Smash Bros. and so, so many others. The big N has a stellar library of exclusives, and while he might not be as iconic as his counterparts, the adorable pink blob Kirby has always managed to release some fantastic games. So, here, we’re going to be running through the top 10 best Kirby games of all-time, updated for 2022 to include the rather fantastic Kirby and the Forgotten Land!

10. Kirby Air Ride

While every other game on this top ten list are traditional platforming Kirby games, let’s use this spot to give a shout-out to one of the best spin-off games on the top 10 best Kirby games of all-time.

Cloudpunk, a 2020 indie game that puts players in the driver's seat of a cyberpunk delivery van, is coming to next-gen consoles for the first time. An overhauled version of the game is coming to the PS5 on August 19, with a physical edition also available starting August 26.

Players who already own Cloudpunk on the PS4 will be able to upgrade for free, giving access to a number of graphical and performance improvements, with Cockpit Mode also available for the very first time on consoles.

The other improvements bundled in the PS5 version include 4K, 60fps gameplay, increased draw distance and render distance, improvements to bloom and lighting, and full integration for the PS5's DualSense controller.

GameSpot's review of Cloudpunk on the PC rated it 7/10, with reviewer David Wildgoose calling the game "a neon-doused celebration of cyberpunk style that occasionally obscures the story it wants to tell." Wildgoose praised the game's gorgeous visuals and archetypal cyberpunk atmosphere, but said the game's writing was uneven, with some of its attempts at humor falling flat.

After making a name for himself in the high fantasy epic Lord of the Rings, Orlando Bloom looks at home in his latest gig--playing an archer named Orlando the Nightshard in an ad for mobile game Kings of Avalon. Orlando will also stick around as an in-game character who will be available for free to new players.

The ad shows Orlando the Nightshard on the battlefield, trying his best to call for help from the player controlling the game--revealed to be Orlando Bloom himself, in the modern world.

King of Avalon is a medieval strategy game for mobile that's loosely based on Arthurian lore, seeing the player control a dragon lord with the potential to claim Excalibur and become the titular King of Avalon. The introduction of Orlando Bloom's character will also kick start a new storyline for the mobile game, with a new icy enemy called the Unmelted attacking the continent of Avalon.

The game sees players controlling battles, upgrading defences, and summoning heroes through a gacha-like system, however King of Avalon is just one of many free-to-play mobile games that's been called out for running ads that don't accurately reflect the gameplay.

After five years in early access and another four in full release on PC, space colony simulator RimWorld is finally coming to console on July 29 with RimWorld Console Edition. Developer Ludeon Studios has released a new trailer for the release, condensing some of the game's complex AI-driven scenarios into a simple explainer for new players.

RimWorld sees players managing a colony an inhospitable rimworld, with colonists working hard to build shelters, gather resources, and research new technologies. Colonies will face threats from the natural world, as well as bands of raiders who will lay siege to players' carefully constructed settlements.

RimWorld's in-depth system gives players plenty of options to handle each scenario--for example, injured raiders can be captured, converted to the player's colony, or even harvested for their organs. Each option will have its own repurcussions, drastically changing the course of each game.

While the gameplay will be unchanged from the PC version, the console editions required a dramatic rework of RimWorld's UI, originally designed for a mouse and keyboard setup. The control scheme has been rebuilt from the ground up, with the console edition making use of input modifiers and context sensitive menus to make the most of controllers' limited inputs.

For players who have been fighting the good fight in both The Division and The Division 2, Ubisoft will soon bring the action shooter RPG experience to mobile devices with the upcoming The Division Resurgence. However, a mobile version of the game does bring up some questions, including whether The Division Resurgence will feature an open world. For those curious, read on for the answer.

Is The Division Resurgence Open World?

In short, the answer is yes, The Division Resurgence will feature an open world, but more specifically, it will be an urban playground in New York City. That makes perfect sense as well, as the game is meant to flesh out events happening in the mainline games, which began with the first wave in the Big Apple.

Within the confines of the city, a new gameplay walkthrough has revealed that players can get up to story missions involving PvE, check out world activities, and engage in PvP play in the Dark Zone. The game’s other mechanics, like the cover system, the various skills and gadgets, and weapon customization, will also be part of this mobile spinoff.

As of now, there is still no release date set for The Division Resurgence. However, interested players can sign up for the closed alpha if you want to check things out ahead of time on both iOS and Android.

If you’re just starting out in the game, we’ve prepared a Nier Reincarnation reroll guide, along with some general recommendations for units and weapons you should try to aim for while rerolling.

Nier Reincarnation is a mobile gacha game from Square Enix and Applibot, and it’s a pretty exciting game for Nier fans, especially when you consider that series director Yoko Taro and composer Keiichi Okabe are involved with the project. Just like any other gacha game on the market, there are plenty of weapons and characters you can get through the pull system.

How to Reroll in Nier Reincarnation

First off, this process will be slightly different depending on the kind of device you’re using. Android users will have a slightly easier time while rerolling as they can simply select the Clear Data option from their settings to reset the app, while iOS users will need to delete the app completely and reinstall it to reroll.

One other thing to take note of is that the SEA version of the game has just been released. However, unlike the Global or JP versions of Nier Reincarnation, it doesn’t seem like it’s actually possible to reroll in the SEA client.

Upon starting the game, you’re essentially immediately forced to sign in with an Apple, Google, or Komoe account. There doesn’t seem to be a way to delete your account either, so players will be stuck with whatever they roll the first time around.

With that out of the way, here’s how you can reroll if you’re playing the Global version:

Today Square Enix released two new trailers of the upcoming Star Ocean JRPG Star Ocean: The Divine Force.

The first trailer introduces Laeticia Aucerius, the first princess of the Kingdom of Osidius on the fourth planet of the Aster system.

The second trailer showcases Captain Raymond Lawrence of the transport ship Ydas.

Laeticia and Raymond are the two characters you can select at the beginning of the game. Depending on the character you choose as your main hero or heroine, the point of view of the storytelling will change, alongside several other elements that will be a bit different.

The videos focus on cutscenes, also providing glimpses of other characters that we’ll meet across our adventure. We can also clearly see that the overarching Star Ocean theme of “sci-fi meets fantasy” is definitely worn on this game’s sleeve.

You can enjoy both trailers below.