Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga is putting up big sales numbers in the UK, even outpacing Bandai Namco's Elden Ring by some measurements. For its first week of physical game sales in the UK, the Skywalker Saga had the biggest launch in Lego game history, toppling the previous owner, Lego Indiana Jones (2008) by 8.4%. A specific unit sales number for The Skywalker Saga was not divulged.

For physical sales, The Skywalker Saga is now the second fastest-selling game so far in 2022 in the UK, only behind Pokemon Legends Arceus. It sold better than Elden Ring and Horizon Forbidden West (and all other physical games in the UK) over its first week in the UK for boxed copies.

In terms of platform breakdown, PS5 made up 31% of The Skywalker Saga's boxed game sales, with Switch accounting for 26%. Xbox (23%) and PS4 (20%) rounded out the group.

All of this data comes from GfK, as rounded up and compiled by GI.biz. Again, this only counts physical sales during the first week after launch. Lego Marvel Super Heroes is the best-selling Lego game of all time in the UK for physical units, followed by Lego Batman and Lego Indiana Jones.

The dreambrew concept looks like fun Datamining can uncover all sorts of secrets, including this Elden Ring cut mechanic that...

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Good news for fans who are itching to watch The Batman again or for the first time, the newest film featuring the Caped Crusader is set to hit HBO Max for streaming on Monday, April 18. For those who would prefer to catch the movie on HBO, you can look forward to it airing on Saturday, April 23 at 8 AM ET, as reported by Deadline.

The official Twitter account for the movie tweeted this out not long ago further confirming it. The Tweet reads:

Vengeance is coming. In just one week, stream #TheBatman on HBO Max and own it on Digital. http://thebatman.com

Today multiple add-on aircraft have been released for Microsoft Flight Simulator, while another is coming soon.

We start with SimWorks Studios, which has released its rendition of the Van’s Aircraft RV-14.

It’s currently available for €14.99 on the developer’s own store with the following features:

Surprise, another cheater has been exposed in Call of Duty. Vanguard's second-highest ranked competitor in Ranked Play mode has accidentally exposed themselves cheating on stream.

Ranked Play is Call of Duty: Vanguard's competitive mode that follows the Call of Duty Pro League's ruleset to let players see how they would stack up against the pros. Unfortunately, Vanguard still has a cheating problem, and some players are outshining the pros with hacks.

Vanguard's second-highest Ranked Play leaderboard spot is currently held by a player known as "Pplehx," who has been exposed for cheating their way to the top of the pack. A clip of the player's recent stream has surfaced online, which shows Pplehx's stream bug out and appears to reveal wallhacks.

The video shows Pplehx in a match of Hardpoint on Tuscan. After dying in the church, Pplehx is spectating his teammate when the stream reveals wallhacks, which is a commonly-used cheat that allows the user to see enemy player locations through walls. The clip from their stream clearly shows members of the enemy team are highlighted in red with wallhacks to provide their exact location.

Gotta go fast

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Noted Souls YouTuber Lance McDonald has uncovered some, hm, intoxicating content that was cut from Elden Ring’s final build fairly late into development from the looks of it. By working with another YouTuber named Sekiro Dubi, the two restored a surprisingly extensive mechanic FromSoftware removed that had you…

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Ms. Pac-Man is a gaming icon alongside Pac-Man himself, but that hasn't stopped Bandai-Namco from replacing the character in a recent Pac-Land re-release, likely due to an ongoing rights issue.

As spotted by Twitter user Nickisonlinenet, the newly released Arcade Archives port of Pac-Land replaces Ms. Pac-Man (and Jr. Pac-Man) with new characters, Pac-Mom and Baby Pac-Man respectively. Gone is Ms. Pac-Man's iconic red bow and boots, instead replaced by a character wearing heels and a pink hat. Presumably, this new Pac-Mom character will also appear in the upcoming Pac-Man Museum +, a collection of 14 Pac-Man games which features Pac-Land but notably does not include Ms. Pac-Man, one of the franchise's most popular spin-offs.

It looks great next to other handhelds too Portable gaming is constantly evolving. We have mobile devices making a big...

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The United States’ version of the prestigious Spiel des Jahres

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Several Nintendo Switch exclusives are getting big price cuts at Amazon today, with Breath of the Wild, Super Mario Odyssey, Fire Emblem: Three Houses, and more all on sale for $40 or less. Switch exclusives don't often see promotions like this, so be sure to swing by and check out the discounts while you can.

Capcom Fighting Collection was announced at the end of February alongside Street Fighter 6, and now, a new trailer has been released to reveal a few pre-order bonuses that’ll be coming with the collection.

Capcom Fighting Collection is set to launch on June 24 for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, and Nintendo Switch. Pre-ordering the game will provide players with 18 special music tracks as well as additional artwork for the titles in the collection.

If you’re looking to put down some money early, you can do so at these links for Xbox, Switch, and Steam. The pre-order page for PlayStation doesn’t seem to be up yet at the time of writing.

Square Enix has officially announced Kingdom Hearts IV, which is a notable event unto itself. But it's also yet another example of the 2021 Nvidia GeForce Now leak proving to be accurate. That's because Kingdom Hearts IV was among the dozens of titles listed in the GeForce Now database that leaked in 2021. The fact that Kingdom Hearts IV is a real game doesn't mean all the leaked games are genuine and will be announced or released, but it's an intriguing development all the same.

With the leak fresh in our minds following Kingdom Hearts IV's announcement, it's a fitting time to look back at the games in the leak.

Mounting Evidence

Starting off, though, there are no guarantees that the titles included in the leak are the real deal, as it's always possible the database was out of date or that it contained placeholder entries, among other possibilities.

That said, the leak has already proven to be accurate time and again. In terms of unannounced games in the leak that proved to be real, Kingdom Hearts IV is joined by God of War for PC and the GTA remasters through the GTA The The Trilogy - The Definitive Edition. The leak also mentioned Street Fighter 6 and Crysis 4, both of which have subsequently been revealed officially.

Right now the site is pretty barebones, but that will change Following the dramatic weekend reveal of the new trailer,...

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After a nine-month hiatus that put the Chinese games industry on edge, China’s culture regulators have finally started issuing new approvals for domestic games so they can be published within the country.

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Earlier this week, one of the most highly anticipated animes of the year, Spy x Family, released its first subbed episode. The show was received to much acclaim, prompting many dubbed fans to wonder when they’ll get to enjoy the fun new series.

Thankfully, they didn’t have to wait too long, as Crunchyroll revealed earlier today that the English SimulDub of SPY x FAMILY is set to premiere on Saturday, Apr. 16, 2022, at 5:30 pm ET / 2:30 pm PT on the platform and will continue to debut new dub episodes weekly at the same day and time. Alongside the release date, the cast was also revealed, which you can see for yourself below:

• Alex Organ (Fairy Tail) – English voice of Loid Forger aka Agent Twilight
• Natalie Van Sistine (Attack on Titan) – English voice of Yor Forger
• Megan Shipman (Akebi’s Sailor Uniform) – English voice of Anya Forger

Crunchyroll’s Twitch channel will also offer Spy x Family SimulDub fans a treat this Friday, Apr. 15 at 1:00 pm PT, as it’ll be airing the first episode early via a special watch party.

For anyone that is interested in a little background on Spy x Family, you can check out the official description, courtesy of Viz Media:

Master spy Twilight is the best at what he does when it comes to going undercover on dangerous missions in the name of a better world. But when he receives the ultimate impossible assignment—get married and have a kid—he may finally be in over his head!

The New York Times have launched an official "companion" for Wordle, which judges your daily answer against an adversary even more cruel, petty, and unforgiving than the family WhatsApp group: mathematics. If you want, WordleBot can analyse your guesses and figure out how optimally you played at each step. Backed up by numbers, it'll explain your good plays and, if you're me, make you feel a bit daft for some of the bad plays.

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Considering the popularity of the Pokemon franchise in Japan, it isn’t surprising that it’s associated with many social and promotional initiatives.

Today Japan Post Insurance announced that the popular Lucario has been named the official support pokemon of Radio Calisthenics.

If you’re wondering what that is, it’s a popular method of warm-up exercise born in Japan all the way back in 1928 and traditionally executed with music guidance from radio broadcast, hence the name.

The initiative aims to encourage children to exercise and support their physical fitness development that may have been weakened by the pandemic.

Among other things, Lucario will be present at the award ceremony of the 9th National Elementary School Radio Calisthenics Contest, which will prompt schools to send videos of their exercises between June 1 and August 12, 2022.

A video has been released, which you can check out below, and a Radio Calisthenics attendance card featuring Lucario and other pokemon will be distributed to elementary schools in Japan. 10 million copies of this card will be printed and distributed through post offices in June, prompting children to collect stamps by attending Radio Calisthenics sessions.

Paramount Pictures is in the green bill zone. The studio’s latest tentpole, Sonic the Hedgehog 2, had an absolutely massive weekend, bringing in $71 million at the domestic box office for a total international cume of $141 million. It’s the biggest opening ever for a movie based on a video game.

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Since we began DF Direct Weekly just over a year ago, there has always been one scenario we've been quietly dreading. If we're making a show based around the latest gaming and technology news, what if there is no gaming and technology news? Thankfully something always emerges but last week was our closest brush yet to a content-free show.

Perhaps I'm over-exaggerating. After all, the arrival of Unreal Engine 5 and the release of The Matrix Awakens city sample for PC users is a big deal, along with the wealth of information 'dropped' in Epic's State of Unreal presentation last week. And yes, we've got plenty to say about that - especially with the news that the next Tomb Raider game will ship on UE5, likely meaning the end of the excellent Foundation Engine used in the the latest series entries and of course, Marvel's Avengers.

Possibly the most interesting news was the leak of a ray tracing enabled version of Minecraft for Xbox Series consoles. Path-traced features made their way into an insider built, but the code was quickly withdrawn. We have to wonder, why? When we first saw Xbox Series X way back in March 2020, Minecraft was the title used to showcase the hardware's RT capabilities. Over two years on, we're still waiting for the upgrade.

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Some of Intel’s 12th Gen Alder Lake processors are among the best gaming CPUs you can buy, but certain owners have noticed a seemingly worrisome trend: their LGA 1700 motherboard socket puts so much pressure on the chip that its IHS (integrated heat spreader, the big grey bit on top) starts to bend. This isn’t so much a concern for the CPU’s structural integrity as it is a cooling issue, as a non-flat IHS will struggle to transfer heat to the CPU cooler plate as effectivity.

In a statement to Tom’s Hardware, however, an Intel spokesperson has essentially said it’s not as bad as it sounds. The statement does acknowledge the warping (or “deflection”, to use Intel’s more engineer-y term), but says there’s no evidence thus far to suggest it drives load temperatures up to unsafe levels.

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It seems like it’s borrowing some classic musou aesthetics If you want some new Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes screens,...

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“Power your Dreams” has been the catchphrase of the Xbox Series X|S since its reveal, and today Microsoft released a bunch of new videos on that theme.

The videos feature English footballers Jude Bellingham, Ellen White, Conor Coady, Ella Toone, Tyrone Mings, and Demi Stokes as they weigh in on the topic.

You can watch them below.

Platform: PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Stadia, PC
Publisher: CD Projekt
Developer: CD Projekt Red
Release: December 10, 2020 (PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PC, Stadia), February 15, 2022 (PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S)
Rating: Mature

One month ago, Elden Ring speedrunners broke the 30-minute mark for finishing FromSoftware's vast open-world adventure. That was impressive. Now, thanks to fancy glitches and honed techniques, runs are below 9 minutes. Ridiculous. Come see.

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New figures show that player numbers for DICE's Battlefield 2042 keep on falling, with less than 1000 concurrent users playing via Steam this morning.

A thread on ResetEra revealed that as few as 979 players were shown to be taking part in the game on Steam earlier today, with a peak of 2411 players in the last 24 hours. In comparison, 2018’s Battlefield 5 had a peak of 20,913 players over the same 24-hour period.

These numbers are pretty dire for such a relatively new game, especially one in such a longstanding series, but at this point aren't a surprise. After all, in November, Vikki reported that Battlefield 2042 was one of Steam's worst-reviewed games of all time, with one user stating the game's “issues are endless”.

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‘Kid-friendly’ project holds $32 billion valuation Epic Games has announced that it has raised $2 billion USD in capital from...

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Despite looking cute and cuddly, Animal Crossing fans will never forget the blossoming relationship of Animal Crossings Isabelle with the Doomguy from DOOM last year. Despite being polar opposites, the internet fell in love with the pair, resulting in a bunch of hilarious content as a result.

Due to this odd pairing, it’s important to remember that just because you’re cute and cuddly doesn’t mean you can’t try out interesting new things. That is exactly what Youtuber Wooden Turtle must have thought when they created the following Isabelle and Elden Ring animation.

As you can see in the video above, Isabelle goes outside of her comfort zone and gives Elden Ring a try – and on Nintendo Switch no less; she must know some people. Despite trying her best against the sword-wielding crab boss, Isabelle is quickly defeated.

In an entirely related reaction, Isabelle then throws her controller at the TV in frustration, choosing to quit the game and play Super Smash Bros. Ultimate instead. This video is just one of the many parodies that creator Wooden Turtle has made over the past year, so be sure to check out the rest of their channel.

If you’ve ever played The Witcher series, you know how much Geralt and the other Witchers rely on their powerful senses in order to get their jobs done and survive. Yet, despite possessing a keen sense of smell, hearing, and sight, even the most skilled players can miss something that is right in front of their noses sometimes.

That is exactly what Viva La Dirt League have parodied in their upcoming video, Witcher Logic. You can check out a trailer for the parody right down below.

In the video above, we see Geralt and Dandelion taking bounties and exploring, doing their best to solve the cases they’ve been assigned. Unfortunately, it seems The White Wolf’s radar is on the fritz, as he’s literally tripping over dead bodies and still not able to see them.

Today, David Hellman (Braid), Nick Suttner (Carto), and Nicolás Recabarren (Ethereal) announced they are opening up a brand new indie development studio, Furniture & Mattress. Thanks to the support of publisher Astra Fund, the team will be creating an unannounced title that explores their
shared love of adventure and exploration, clever puzzles, and weird humor.

Co-founders David Hellman and Nick Suttner discussed the new studio, as well as their ideologies regarding game development and their future a bit more in-depth below:

“When you’re working on a puzzle, sometimes you need to make a big mess before putting
things back together,” said Hellman. “You have to push through some chaos
before finding the right order. Drawing can be like that, and so can a lot of things in life, on a
personal scale and a big societal scale too. Those are some of the things we’re exploring in our
game mechanics and story.”

“We’ve all been making games in some capacity for a long time, so it was important to us to do
it in a healthy way – biting off something of the right scope, paying ourselves properly, and
sharing in the creative vision of the game,” said Suttner. “It was also critical to
find great partners to work with for the things we can’t do ourselves, like Astra Fund and
Popagenda. We want to give this game its best chance at success.”

From the very first chat we had with Astra, we felt pretty cosmically aligned with their mission
and values. Their support is allowing us to maintain our independence and
self-publish the game we want to make, and they’ve just been a total joy to work with.

Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga is off to a superb start in the UK, judging by boxed sales figures from its launch week provided by numbers company GSD.

TT Games' epic compilation of all nine films is the UK's second-biggest boxed launch of the year so far, behind Pokémon Legends Arceus.

This means The Skywalker Saga sold more physical copies in its launch week than Elden Ring and Gran Turismo 7, though it's worth putting all that in context.

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Sony has invested $1bn in Fortnite maker Epic Games. This latest investment follows on from the $200m Sony put towards Epic last April.

"As a creative entertainment company, we are thrilled to invest in Epic to deepen our relationship in the metaverse field, a space where creators and users share their time," Kenichiro Yoshida, Chairman, President and CEO of Sony Group Corporation, said today.

"We are also confident that Epic's expertise, including their powerful game engine, combined with Sony's technologies, will accelerate our various efforts such as the development of new digital fan experiences in sports and our virtual production initiatives.”

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