UK retailer GAME has been heavily criticised for a Twitter post seen to make light of domestic violence.

The post, tagged "#ValentinesDay", was apparently designed to highlight GAME's range of mobile phones.

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Despite Friday's wonky launch, Lost Ark become the second-most-played game on Steam ever over the weekend. The free-to-play action-RPG hit 1.32 million peak concurrent players on Saturday, narrowly pushing it past the all-time peaks of Counter-Strike: Global Offensive and Dota 2. Well, 1.32m were in-game, but they might not have been playing. Server problems continued after launch with long queues for some. Publishers Amazon say they're working on it, including planning to create a whole new extra European server region.

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Thunderful's alien infested space caper The Gunk will be coming to PC and Steam, while a new photo mode has been added to Xbox.

Following its success on Xbox Games pass, publisher Thunderful is expanding The Gunk's reach even further. While no exact date has been given yet, it has been announced that the game will be making its way to "Steam and other PC platforms" this Spring.

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Square Enix announced a FFXIV Oceania DC Celebration sale, which has select items, such as Phials of Fantasia, select cosmetic outfits, and a handful of mounts, available to purchase at a discount for a limited time. These items will remain on sale at a discounted price until March 11, 2022. Additionally, Square Enix added items from the Valentione's Day 2021 event to the Final Fantasy XIV Online Store.

Outside of Phials of Fantasia, the FFXIV Oceania DC Celebration sale will allow for players to obtain the Cruise Chaser and Lunar Whale mounts at a discount. Both mounts are account wide. The Cruise Chaser mount allows for two people to ride the raid boss mount. The Lunar Whale, on the other hand, allows for up to eight people to ride the mount. The item was previously available at the Final Fantasy XIV 2021 Fan Festival event.

The two Valentione's Day 2021 items that players can now buy include the Lovely Moogle Cap and the Deluxe Stuffed Kupka Kupp. These items were available to obtain through an in-game event. Like previous Valentione's Day event items, these items have become available through the Final Fantasy XIV Online Store roughly a year after the event.

Final Fantasy XIV is available for PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, and PC.

Founded in 2012, miHoYo more recently became world-famous with games Genshin Impact and Honkai Impact 3rd. But now, the game studio is getting an international rebrand as it expands its cross-media universe.

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The studio behind 10 Second Ninja X have today announced a brand-new first-person stealth RPG called Abermore, a game in which you take on the role of a legendary thief and have 18 days to plan the heist of the century. It's coming to PC on March 29th, and judging by the mix of magic powers and shadow slinking I've seen from its trailer, it could be the ideal chaser for those craving another Arkane-esque immersive sim in their lives.

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The executive producer of CrossfireX has issued an apology for the state the game is currently in.

Sooro Boo, or Mr Boo as he's known, published a developer update listing improvements to the game following launch issues, including players being unable to access its campaign content on Game Pass.

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A new mod for God of War is currently in the works to allow users to play as Atreus, rather than his hulking warrior father Kratos.

The mod in question comes from Speclizer, who is famous for their boundary breaking videos of games such as The Last of Us Part 2. Their latest video, however, shows young Atreus being an even more adept fighter than usual, as he takes on Baldur, the fire troll Brenna Doudi and more. You check it out for yourself below.

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Genshin Impact and Honkai Impact developer miHoYo announced the creation of a new brand, HoYoVerse. An official statement detailed the creation of HoYoVerse as well as what the company aims to achieve with its new brand. This includes the creation of an "immersive, virtual world" experience through its titles like Genshin Impact and other entertainment services. The statement also mentioned the N0va Desktop application, which contains live wallpapers for miHoYo titles.

Co-Founder and CEO of HoYoVerse Haoyu Cai revealed that the company would like to create a "vast and content-driven virtual world that integrates games, anime, and other diverse types of entertainment" for players to immerse themselves in. That said, the company has yet to fully detail any other avenues it intends to pursue. Cai also mentioned that the company will continue to focus on innovation to "ensure that sufficient content is created to meet the expectations of players worldwide."

Additionally, the statement revealed that HoYoVerse will expand its content production and publishing through offices in Montreal, Los Angeles, Singapore, Tokyo, and Seoul. The statement ended by saying HoYoVerse is dedicated to providing players with high quality content.

Since its release, Genshin Impact has proven to be a financial success for the company. In September 2021, it was reported that the Genshin Impact version 2.1 update made over $151 million for miHoYo.

Frankly I feel a bit odd writing a post that amounts to “14-year-old rendering tech works better than 20-year-old rendering tech”, but Lost Ark – 2022’s biggest surprise hit so far – has only recently come around to the benefits of DirectX 11. While it’s the default rendering option in the western version that launched last week, the original South Korean version went years with just DirectX 9 to its name, and the press build that I used for performance testing (and Ed is using for his review-in progress) remains locked to DX9. Despite the fact that, as I’ve confirmed from testing the release build as well, DX11 provides a tidy performance gain over its predecessor.

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Earlier today, developer Soleil and publisher 110 Industries dropped a freshly-cut Valentine’s Day trailer for their upcoming high-octane third-person action title, Wanted: Dead.

Blending the slick moment-to-moment gameplay of Bayonetta with the limb-slicing mechanics from Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance, Wanted: Dead promises to be a John Wick-esque experience that’s as equally stylish as it is satisfyingly moreish.

Feel free to check out the full action-packed video down below:

Accompanied by a modern cover of America’s soft-rock classic Inspector Mills, the new footage showcases the gory, over-the-top brutality of Wanted: Dead in all its blood-soaked glory.

A secret room has been discovered in Pokémon Legends: Arceus that may hint at possible DLC.

The room was discovered by DeepGameResearch. YouTuber Blaines has then discussed the secret in a video on his channel.

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A fresh discussion of blockchain technology has been given a mixed reception by Ubisoft employees.

The statement by Ubisoft, posted on an internal forum, was designed to "answer key questions about blockchain and communicate as clearly as possible," a Bloomberg [paywall] report has stated.

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Capcom opened up a new countdown website, which may be teasing an announcement for later this month. The countdown is set to end in six days, at 2 PM JST on February 21, 2022 (12 AM EST / 5 AM CEST).

The official Capcom Twitter account posted a tweet linking to the website just minutes after the countdown passed the six-day mark. The tweet only included two emojis of an hourglass and a pair of eyes. While there are no further details about what the announcement will entail, there are a few notable possibilities.

https://twitter.com/capcom_official/status/1493103594807394305?s=20&t=G_sTYG_5I6pOWm5G2Pa-1A

Fans were quick to point out similarities between the countdown timer's font and the font used in the Resident Evil Village title. In January 2022, Capcom revealed that it was planning to release new DLC for Village sometime in 2022. Seeing as Capcom announced it was working on DLC for the latest mainline title in June 2021, an official DLC reveal coming next week is not out of the realm of possibility.

The common connection for many universes in movies and TV is corporate. So, what joins the Marvel Cinematic Universe is, well, Marvel. Of course, there are exceptions. The latest of which is the newly announced Shin Japan Heroes Universe.

This upcoming collab will bring Godzilla, Ultraman, Kamen Rider, and robot anime …

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Capcom has set up a mysterious new page that shows nothing but countdown timer.

This countdown will end on Sunday, 20th February at 10pm PT / 1am ET (So, 6am on Monday 21st February for those in GMT time zones). This will coincide with the season finale of Capcom's Street Fighter Pro tour, which starts on February 17th.

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Kotobukiya is extending the reach of its Bishoujo series of character goods to Cybertron. The company is developing a new pair of additions to the line, based on none other than the Transformers franchise. The first two Transformers characters to join the Bishoujo line will be Cybertronian Civil War leaders Optimus Prime and Megatron.

Concept art for Bishoujo Optimus Prime and Bishoujo Megatron was shown off by the official Kotobukiya Twitter account. The company also released a video showing off the sculpt model for the Optimus Prime figure. You can view it below.

https://youtu.be/dXSoBYo5uXw

As with other entries in the line, the Bishoujo Transformers statues will see the "Generation 1" incarnations of Optimus Prime and Megatron redesigned as female characters in the style of artist Shunya Yamashita. Bishoujo Optimus Prime wears a red jacket emblazoned with the Autobot logo and sports a pair of goggles that replicate the eye shape and distinctive forehead of the Autobot leader. She also wears blue boots with wheels and carries a wheeled toolbox that resembles Optimus' trailer. The pendant worn around her neck resembles a smaller version of the Matrix of Leadership, a powerful artifact carried by the leader of the Autobots.

Meanwhile, Bishoujo Megatron has a more militaristic outfit, with a black garrison hat and lila military coat. Her tie bears the Decepticon logo and she carries a large gun on her shoulder. The gun resembles the cannon that the original Megatron has mounted to his arm in humanoid mode.

Sifu players are struggling to get past the game's second level.

Sloclap's kung-fu action game launched last week and has already become notorious for its high difficulty level.

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Popular MMO Lost Ark, which has now launched in the West courtesy of Amazon, has announced a plan to alleviate its struggling servers.

Lost Ark has shot to the top of Steam's most-played charts and now holds the service's second-largest concurrent player peak, of 1.23 million players.

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Square Enix will release a tote bag for Kingdom Hearts 3, featuring plushes of Sora and King Mickey on it. Pre-orders are already open. The bag costs 11,000 JPY at the Japanese store and $99.99 at the North American one. It has a release window of June 2022 for Japan and October 2022 for North America. [Thanks, Famitsu!]

For those who think the two plushes are too big or worry about them getting dirty, you can remove them from the Kingdom Hearts 3 tote bag. You can also swap them around if you have a certain preference. In addition, the loops used to hang the dolls can double as a place for you to hang items such as water bottles.

The outside of the bag has a variety of familiar Kingdom Hearts symbols, and there is a faint heart pattern on the inside. Here are some more pictures of the tote bag:

[gallery columns="5" ids="916187,916186,916185,916184,916183" link="file"]

You might like Japan. But if you are Tommy Lee Jones, you totally *heart* it. Who loves Japan? Why, Tommy Lee Jones, that’s who!

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The double-edged sword of gaming I have news that is potentially amazing/horrifying and will leave you breathless/miserable — Capcom has...

The post Capcom countdown clock points to February 21 reveal appeared first on Destructoid.

Kotobukiya announced that it will release three figures of characters from Fate/Grand Order. Figures of Leonardo da Vinci (Rider) and Astolfo (Saber) are still in development. It also showed off an unpainted prototype of its Altria Pendragon (Ruler) figure. While da Vinci and Astolfo will appear in their first ascensions, the Altria figure uses her second.

The Altria figure from Kotobukiya will have a removable hat, jacket, and skirt. The “skirt” in reference is tied around her waist and she is wearing her swimsuit underneath. While her first and third ascensions place her in a bunny suit outfit, Altria in a swimsuit and without the decorative cloth is what she looks like in her final ascension. Kotobukiya did not announce a release window for this figure.

https://twitter.com/kotobukiya_en/status/1492689734665129985?s=12

Hello! With Elden Rings almost upon us, we're making this week Souls Week on Eurogamer. Over the next few days we'll be picking over From Software's astonishing games - and the astonishing games they have inspired.

To kick things off we're lucky to have this lovely piece from Jason Killingsworth, who is the founder and creative director of publisher Tune & Fairweather. He co-authored (with Keza MacDonald) the book You Died, which examines the masterful design of Dark Souls and explores the vibrant community of players surrounding it.

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UPDATE 14/2/22: Lost Ark's dominance on Steam continued over the course of this past weekend, with a player peak of 1.32 million people. This makes it Steam's second-biggest concurrently played game ever, behind PUBG.

These numbers have caused some issues, however. The Amazon-published free-to-play MMO has placed users in queues to alleviate server strain - something developer Smilegate has now apologised for and revealed a plan to ease.

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Access granted It’s been five years since Horizon Zero Dawn? It doesn’t feel like it! But within the context of the Horizon...

The post Review: Horizon Forbidden West appeared first on Destructoid.

Guerrilla Games’ Horizon: Forbidden West is the sort of game that is easy to anticipate. It’s big! It’s full of interesting stuff to do! Many were sold on the promise of the PlayStation 5 at launch by the prospect of sinking days and weeks into a new Horizon. Thankfully, Forbidden West delivers on that promise in many ways.

Horizon: Forbidden West is at its best in the open world. Movement in wide areas feels natural and fun, and you can find a lot of uses for mounts and tools to get around. Gliding and climbing in these more flexible segments just feels good. The map is well-populated, as you'll encounter interesting and varied opportunities at a solid pace. We never felt like we were hitting too many combat encounters in a row, and we didn't find enough "old world ruins" at once to feel worn down by the puzzle solving.

Its combat is well-suited for creative problem-solving, too, which helps. Forbidden West continues to build out options for weaponry, offering tweaks aplenty to the base formula of bow and staff fighting. There are advantages to engaging with these systems, of course! Enemies have certain weaknesses, and even the base effects of elements like acid lead to different tactics. We did feel a bit held back at times by the clunky nature of the weapon wheel, though. Especially when we ran out of arrows, as it would often take a few attempts until the stick was responsive and we could select the right ammo to replenish.

Let's get one thing out of the way first: If you've enjoyed Horizon: Zero Dawn and are already looking forward to the sequel, there's likely only a very small chance you won't enjoy Forbidden West. Guerrilla Games made sure of that by giving you a game that is functionally identical to a lot of Zero Dawn. You will take on herds of machines so you can harvest them for parts. You will shoot animals for their hides. You will climb Tallnecks and rappel down. You will take out countless camps of near-identical human opponents.

And, if you're anything like me, you will also take a lot of pictures - of swirling red sandstorms, snow-tipped mountains and views of sprawling forests. In truth, I can't calm down about the way Forbidden West looks. Someone made this, and you can walk around in it!

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Horizon Forbidden West on PS5

2017’s Horizon Zero Dawn ushered in a new era for Sony’s first-party studio, Guerrilla Games. Casting aside the linear corridors and orange-eyed Helghast of the Killzone series, the new IP introduced us to an amicable protagonist in Aloy, and a sprawling open-world teeming with animal-like machines roaming the Earth just begging to be slain, with Aloy stripping their components off like a complex and rather vicious puzzle. It was an excellent foundation, providing a tantalizing ending that set up its sequel. That sequel is here now in the form of Horizon Forbidden West, and just as any sequel should be, it’s bigger and better in almost every way over its predecessor.

Following on from where things left off in Zero Dawn, Forbidden West opens with Aloy trying to understand what’s causing an unstoppable blight — a red-colored moss that poisons the world and the natural creatures that inhabit it — and violent storms that are destroying the world. New machines have also begun to appear, prompting Aloy to embark on another epic adventure, this time into the Tenakth territory of the Forbidden West, No Man’s Land which borders it, and the Sundom of Meridian that players explored in the first game. There’s also the case of that pesky Sylens, quite possibly my favorite member of the ensemble cast, a character that retains his air of mystery in the sequel as he did in the first title.

For a game about exploring the unknown, Horizon Forbidden West sure plays it safe.

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Click here to watch embedded media

Reviewed on: PlayStation 5
Also on: PlayStation 4
Publisher: PlayStation Studios
Developer: Guerrilla Games
Release: February 18, 2022
Rating: Teen

Horizon Zero Dawn was just the introduction to Guerrilla Games’ fascinating world and the unlikely hero who would do everything in her power to save it. The sequel, Horizon Forbidden West, takes everything to an exciting new level with its novel mechanics and riveting lore. Guerrilla Games improves on the last game’s shortcomings and isn’t afraid to borrow popular features from other big-name series, like Uncharted, Mass Effect, and Assassin’s Creed. The result is a game that’s not only fun to play, but full of surprises and wonder. Zero Dawn was a great proof of concept, but Forbidden West shows Guerrilla Games still has plenty of thought-provoking and compelling places to take Aloy’s adventures.