Kristen Hines has been named as the new chief diversity, equity and inclusion officer at embattled publisher Activision Blizzard.

Hines' appointment comes after a year of damaging headlines which have shone light on Activision Blizzard's company culture, including numerous allegations of misconduct and abuse.

Controversial Activision Blizzard boss Bobby Kotick - who remains in place, at least while the company's sale to Microsoft is finalised - welcomed Hines' hiring today.

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If you feel like you need to see even more of Master Chief's derriere after his naked TV debut last week, well I have good news - there is a mod that lets you play Halo Infinite in third person.

The PC mod in question comes from Opulent Halo (via PC Gamer). While the mod is actually a few months old now, many have been recently diving back into Halo Infinite to see how Master Chief (at least his video game form) looks from this new angle. Perhaps Paramount has whetted some appetites?

In a video showing off the mod in action, the creator wrote, "after my novice modding skills in Halo Infinite, I wondered what third person would look like... [spoiler alert] it's amazing".

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Elden Ring's worlds are beautiful and desolate. But what if the perspective was shifted?

That's exactly what YouTuber Flurdeh has done. Using camera tools by Frans Bouma, they've used a tilt shift lens and isometric view to create a video of the Lands Between from above (thanks PC Gamer).

Though not a full mod, it somewhat reimagines the game as a CRPG, Miyazaki's bleak world becoming adorable little dioramas with tiny model enemies shuffling around.

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Not content with completing Elden Ring in under 10 minutes, speedrunner Distortion2 has now finished the game using a butt stomp.

Technically it's an Ashe of War called Ground Slam but let’s be real: it's a butt stomp.

Spotted by PC Gamer, the streamer has a highlights video of the run up on YouTube that shows the butt slamming route to victory.

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Whodunnit? It’s taken its sweet time getting here, but Spike Chunsoft’s great punk-rock murder-mystery Danganronpa V3: Killing Harmony is finally...

The post Danganronpa V3: Killing Harmony Anniversary Edition hits mobile appeared first on Destructoid.

Publisher Nacon and developer Rogue Factor have lifted the curtain on their new action-adventure IP, Hell is Us.

In a joint press release, the companies gave a brief and somewhat haunting synopsis for the game. "The almost total self-sufficiency of the country hides a dark secret: the recent appearance of supernatural creatures resembling ancient headstones and monuments in the region,” the Hell is Us team explained. "The citizens call this phenomenon 'the Calamity'. Armed with weapons specially forged to fight these monsters, the protagonist must learn how to defeat them and use his equipment wisely."

To accompany this announcement, a new teaser for Hell is Us was also debuted. This trailer gives off strong Kojima vibes, and shows off the game's dystopian country, which is ravaged by civil war. In the words of Ed Nightingale, "It’s like Death Stranding with a sword". You can check out the trailer for yourself below.

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I can't tell you if Hell Is Us, the newly announced next game from developers Rogue Factor, is actually like the movie Annihilation, because they haven't really shown the game yet. But I can tell you that they're clearly trying to evoke Annihilation vibes, with the trailer channeling that blown-out synth sound and scattering humanlike inhuman mineral figures across the landscape. Annihilation is a good mood to channel. I hope the third-person explore-o-melee game does turn out a bit like that when it arrives in 2023.

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A new update for Halo: The Master Chief Collection has added "experimental" cross-platform co-op for both Halo 3 and Halo 3: ODST.

The feature will let anyone on PC, Xbox One or Xbox Series X/S play these games' campaigns co-operatively online together.

In patch notes, developer 343 Industries said the cross-play had been tested internally - though the company now needed "additional insight from real players with different networking setups". If you experience issues, you're encouraged to report them so 343 can improve the feature further.

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Nintendo will expand its Kyoto headquarters with a new 10,000 square metre building next door to its existing sites.

The Mario maker has already stumped up the $40m required to purchase the land, on which it will build a new 12-storey office which will expand its notoriously-secretive research and development work.

The new building (red in the diagram below) will sit next to other Nintendo buildings (in pink) and be open by the end of December 2027 (thanks, GamesIndustry.biz). Maybe we'll have Switch 3 by then?

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The Spring into Spring event in Pokémon Go celebrates both the arrival of spring and Easter.

Throughout this event, you can complete the Spring into Spring Collection Challenge and event exclusive field research tasks. There’s also a variety of bonuses for you to enjoy, including a reduced hatch distance on any egg placed into an incubator during the event.

There are also three new Flower Crown Pokémon to add to your costume Pokémon collection. Yay?

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An Ula’ula Adventure is a special research quest released as part of the Season of Alola in Pokémon Go.

If you complete this quest - along with A Melemele Adventure, An Akala Adventure and the Poni Island research quest - before Wednesday, 1st June, you’ll earn free access to an end-of-season event.

Below you’ll find all of the An Ula’ula Adventure quest steps and rewards in Pokémon Go.

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Tapu Bulu is a legendary Pokémon hailing from Gen 7 and debuted in Pokémon Go as part of the Season of Alola.

Tapu Bulu is one the Alola region’s guardian deities and both Tapu Koko and Tapu Lele have already appeared in five-star raids in Pokémon Go.

Before attempting to catch this Pokémon, it’s a good idea to know Tapu Bulu’s counters and weaknesses, so you have a better chance of adding this legendary to your Pokédex!

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I used to think I wanted to learn card tricks. These days I want to learn card flourishes. There's a difference. I get it now.

Card tricks are great of course. The magician takes a new deck and cuts an ace. They get you to pick a card and then it appears upside down in the pack, in your next hand, stuck in your pocket, tucked behind the clock on the mantlepiece.

All of this is brilliant. It's magic! But you need an audience. And, as the saying goes, you can only do it once really. Do it twice and the magic disappears and the audience starts to think about how much work is going into it.

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When one thinks of Red Candle Games, the Taiwanese developers, the horror genre comes to mind, especially with the critical reception of its previous projects: Devotion and Detention. However, just like how those games burst onto the scene, the studio has been hard at work creating their next big thing in the form of Nine Sols. An action-platformer at its heart, it appears the genre switch has not dented the quality coming from the studio.

From a visual standpoint, the game is brought to life excellently, with an illustrative style full of vibrant color and character. From the various characters, conversations, to the environments that houses the platforming and combat sections, the presentation of Nine Sols is beautiful both in motion and in stillness.

Publisher Nacon has announced Rogue Factor's newest title in the works is called Hell is Us, with former Eidos Montreal Art Director Jonathan Jacques-Belletête on the project as creative director. Jacques-Belletête has previously worked on games such as Deus Ex: Human Revolution and Mankind Divided and worked on concepts for Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy before transitioning over to Rogue Factor. The debut teaser trailer for Hell is Us can be seen below.

Hell is Us is described as an action-adventure set inside a country in the midst of a civil war where the main character will fight against creatures caused by a mysterious event the locals call "the Calamity." He'll have to use special weapons and equipment to take on these monsters that resemble monuments scattered across the nation in order to survive and learn more about his history in this land.

Click here to watch embedded media

Torrent, the magic horse-goat that lets you get around Elden Ring’s world at cruising speeds, is one of the highlights of the game, but that’s not to say they’re perfect.

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Square Enix just made the download of Final Fantasy XIV update 6.1 “Newfound Adventure” available to players.

The patch will download automatically when you launch the game, and on PC it weighs approximately 5.129 gigabytes.

It’s a pretty big download, so you may want to start early while you wait for the servers to go back up at 3:00 am PDT, 6:00 am EDT, 11:00 am BST, or noon CEST, depending on where you live.

The new update brings a lot of new content and features, including the beginning of a brand new storyline following the Endwalker expansion, a new dungeon, a new 24-player raid titled “Myths of the Realm:  Aglaia” an extra role questline for those who have completed all roles, the lottery to purchase housing plots in the new wards in Ishgard, and much more.

We’re also getting plenty of changes to various jobs, on top of a shift to make the gameplay more accessible to solo players.

Adventurer Plates will let us better display our character and introduce ourselves to fellow players.

If you haven’t read them yet, you can find the patch notes here. You can also read our report of the latest Letter from the Producer Live broadcast, including plenty more details.

Today Atlus released another trailer of the upcoming JRPG Soul Hackers 2, showing another element included in the game.

We get to see again the beverage vending machine near the Delamancha megastore, but this time it’s about another drink, organic hydrogen water. Looks like Ringo enjoys fancy stuff.

As usual, we also get the daily horoscope with a ranking of signs from the luckiest to the unluckiest. Scorpio is at the top, while Aries is at the bottom of the fortune ranking.

You can check out the original trailer, plenty of screenshots, a second gallery, more images, and a video explaining the gameplay.

Today Type-Moon announced the release window of the PS4 and Nintendo Switch version of the legendary visual novel Mahoutsukai no Yoru, which was announced a few months ago.

We learn that it’ll launch in December 2022, but the most relevant surprise is likely that it won’t just include Japanese text, but also English and Chinese (traditional and simplified).

This is rather massive news for western Type-Moon fans, that don’t usually get much in terms of support.

The extended language support is likely thanks to the fact that the release will be made in collaboration with Aniplex.

Mahoutsukai no Yoru, which translates as “The night of the witches” (elaborated in the official subtitle “Witch on the Holy Night”) is a visual novel released in 2012 by Type-Moon, known for creating the ultra-popular Fate series.

It was written by Kinoko Nasu, originally as an unreleased novel reportedly inspired by the first episode of Neon Genesis Evangelion.

This new release will include a full voice track (obviously in Japanese) and full HD visuals.

Speaking of the voice track, the main cast has been announced as follows:

• Aoko Aozaki: Haruka Tomatsu
• Soujuurou Shizuki: Yusuke Kobayashi
• Alice Kuonji: Kana Hanazawa
• Kojika Kumari: Chika Anzai
• Housuke Kinomi: Shohei Kajikawa
• Tobimaru Tsukiji: Toshinari Fukamachi

Below you can enjoy the key artwork.

The House of the Dead: Remake on Switch

History can weigh heavy on plenty of things, and that is no exception when it comes to gaming franchises. For The House of the Dead series, it all began about 20-odd years ago in the arcades as an on-rails shooter that featured zombies, monstrosities, and fun lightgun action. Since then, however, there have been subpar efforts at transitioning it into entertainment at home, and with The House of the Dead: Remake for the Nintendo Switch, there is still no light at the end of the tunnel.

As much fun as it is blasting zombies in the head and racking up a new high score, the game developed by MegaPixel Studio tends to get in the way of itself too much, and that can be frustrating for players straight from the off. Controls are not exactly tight, performance can be hit or miss, and the repetitive nature of the gameplay will not hold your attention for long.

From the earliest days of the Assassin’s Creed series, certain elements of the fanbase have been insufferable with their ideas—and demands—for new settings and time periods for the games to take place in.

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Today Spike Chunsoft announced new details and released new assets of its upcoming JRPG Made in Abyss: Binary Star Falling into Darkness.

We learn about two distinct game modes, one that will let players control Riko from the anime, and the other featuring a brand new story in the boots of an original cave rider.

You can read about both modes below.

HELLO ABYSS is a mode where players relive the story of the anime while learning the basic system and how to progress in the game. In this mode, players control main character Riko, an apprentice Cave Raider. Together with the human-like robot Reg, who can handle both combat and exploration, aim for the bottom of the colossal hole known as the Abyss. Event scenes in the game are fully-voiced by the anime cast.

In DEEP IN ABYSS, you control a new Cave Raider, an original character, to challenge the depths of the Abyss, and enjoy an original story supervised by series author, Akihito Tsukushi. This original character can be customized with different hairstyles and facial features. By completing missions and bringing back relics from the Abyss, players can increase their rank as a Cave Raider and challenge deeper levels of the Abyss. This mode is based on a single player exploration, so more careful preparation and action are required.

We also learn about new gameplay elements.

Exploring the Abyss requires a variety of tools, sufficient food, and more. Items can be crafted from a variety of materials obtained through exploration, and range from tools such as climbing axes and fishing rods to food, medicine, and clothing.

While Halo Infinite is a first-person game by design, that doesn’t mean, like so many other games designed to be played a certain way, we can’t play it another way if we want.

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Despite what you may be thinking, no, it’s not Ryan Reynolds. Though, that does sound like a great idea of having Ryan Reynolds play what is supposed to be a 12-year-old. Probably with a lot less swearing than his usual characters. No, Percy Jackson will actually be played by Walker Scobell who played the younger version of Ryan Reynolds’ character in The Adam Project.

Percy Jackson started as a books series written by Rick Riordan. The first book, The Lightning Thief, is turning 17 this year after releasing in 2005.

It is unknown how much the show will use the book, but Rick Riordan’s website gives this summary of the first book.

Twelve-year-old Percy Jackson is on the most dangerous quest of his life. With the help of a satyr and a daughter of Athena, Percy must journey across the United States to catch a thief who has stolen the original weapon of mass destruction — Zeus’ master bolt. Along the way, he must face a host of mythological enemies determined to stop him. Most of all, he must come to terms with a father he has never known, and an Oracle that has warned him of betrayal by a friend.

As you may remember, the series already took a shot at a film franchise with The Lightning Thief in 2010 and the Sea of Monsters in 2013, but the films never found their footing and the critical response was lacking.

It is currently not known when the Disney Plus series will enter production.

In other Netflix news, season three of The Witcher was confirmed to be in production recently.

Featured image source: Netflix.

Back in 2020, the world was introduced to the colorful and crazy world of Bugsnax, telling a tale of adventure and plenty of half-bug-half-snack creatures waiting to be consumed. A year later, developers Young Horses revealed an upcoming expansion called Bugsnax: The Isle of BIGsnax, and we will finally get the details on April 12.

Teased via Twitter, it appears that not only are we getting a closer look at the DLC, but there will also be the release date shared. That should get Bugsnax fans excited, especially as the DLC is set to deliver a chunk of significant content in the form of a new biome, new challenges and quests, and of course, even more Bugsnax to capture and eat.

With the growing popularity of the metaverse and non-fungible tokens (NFTs), it is perhaps not surprising to see that the gaming space is dipping its toes in. Whether that sits well with players is a whole other matter, with the less than ideal reception to both Ubisoft and Square Enix‘s plans being recent examples. Now, CCP Games has come out and stated that it has no plans to add NFTs or blockchain technology to their MMORPG, EVE Online, to reassure fans.

In a statement shared via the official site, CCP CEO Hilmar Veigar reiterated that the team has “no plans to add blockchain technology into EVE Online’s global server Tranquility for the foreseeable future.” Instead, the development will be focusing on “building exciting new opportunities on top of the robust foundation that has been laid over the past two decades.”

The LG 27GL850 was a legendary PC monitor, as it debuted LG Display's Nano IPS panel that combined TN-like motion clarity and IPS-like colours and viewing angles - a true jack-of-all-trades choice for gamers and content creators. LG followed this up with the popular 27GN850 and 27GP850, and now the latter is available in 'used - very good' condition for just £200 after a £50 Ebay discount code.

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The Corsair 7000D Airflow hasn't been reviewed here at RPS, but I've brought it up today for two reasons: because it's heavily discounted over at Amazon UK, and because it's a case I've been using to house my main PC for the past six months. I've become a big fan of it in that time - it's spacious, easy to build in, cool and clean - and the only real downside is the price.

The case debuted late last year for a princely £240, expensive even for a large form factor case, but now it's down to £175 - a more reasonable ask given its full tower size and laundry list of features, which I'll tell you about presently.

• Get the Corsair 7000D Airflow PC case for £175 (was £240)

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This motion-based Kirby and the Forgotten Land mini-game is harder than it looks One of the hardest bits of Kirby...

The post The final Tilt-and-Roll Kirby board will be my undoing appeared first on Destructoid.

Diamond Dynasty is the card-based mode in MLB The Show 22 where you collect cards and try to build the best baseball team possible. While this mode certainly favors players willing to spend a little money, there are ways to put together a top team by just playing the game. Here are a few tips to help build out your dream team in Diamond Dynasty.

How to find the best deals on the marketplace

One of the most important parts of Diamond Dynasty is the marketplace, where other players are selling their cards for stubs. While buying packs of cards is certainly cheaper, you know what you're getting through the marketplace. It's important to know how to find a good deal, because unless you're willing to break the bank, you probably aren't spending a few hundred thousand stubs to get a top-tier Mike Trout card. Instead, you will want to use the filters to narrow down the options.

Here, you can punch in the minimum and maximum player rating and cost, along with positions and other filters. Knowing how many stubs you're willing to spend, what position you need, and what a good bump in ratings is, you can set filters appropriately. The best way to maximize your stubs is to make sure you are getting a significant enough boost in rating. If your third basemen is an 80, it's probably not worth picking up another third basemen below an 85. Once you set your filters, look for lower cost players. You won't have a team filled with recognizable superstars, but you will have a solid team to continue playing Diamond Dynasty and earn more stubs.

The Cyberpunk team is still working on an expansion Cyberpunk 2077 has been enjoying a resurgence, thanks to its next-gen update and Patch...

The post Cyberpunk 2077 quest director reaffirms they’re still working on more for the game appeared first on Destructoid.