Today Kotobukiya hosted its Collection Online 2022 Winter event and had a couple of exciting reveals for Muv-Luv fans.

First of all, the XFJ-01a Shiranui Second Phase 2 model kit is getting a reprint. in the final color scheme used by protagonist Yuya Bridges.

Much like Yui Takamura’s Type-00F Takemikazuchi and the Scarlet Twins’ Su-37UB Terminator, this is a very old plastic model kit that was released several years ago and has gone out of print since.

This is a non-scale model part of the Ver.1.5 that comes with higher quality and a ton of parts compared to the scale models of Muv-Luv TSF that Kotobukiya has made.

The release month and pricing have not been announced yet, but as a bonus, we also get a new official image of the prototype of the Type-97 Fubuki from the Muv-Luv Alternative anime.

The news comes just in time since the Muv-Luv Alternative: Total Eclipse visual novel (which is awesome, having played it in Japanese) is in the final stage of editing and should release on Steam in English soon.

Despite how good Pokémon Legends: Arceus is, some folks just can’t stop obsessing over its graphics. Fortunately for them, independent developers are already pumping out mods that make it so they don’t have to deal with the horror of seeing muddy textures, low-res models, or Pokémon that animate at less than 30 frames…

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Tell me why I had to be a Powerslave I’m somewhat surprised I’ve actually heard of PowerSlave. Best known for...

The post Review: PowerSlave Exhumed appeared first on Destructoid.

Amélie director Jean-Pierre Jeunet returns with a garish, confusing comic fable

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Developer SoClap has today announced that its martial-arts action game Sifu has enjoyed a positive commercial performance over its first week, with total sales exceeding 500,000 units. The news comes by way of a Tweet from the game’s official channel:

We’re humbled that more than half a million of you have embarked on your path of vengeance so far.
From everyone at @sloclap, THANK YOU#SifuGame #Sifu pic.twitter.com/1nLYjeCgiG

— SifuGame (@SifuGame) February 11, 2022

Sifu has received a mixed critical reception. Twinfinite reviewed the game and scored it 3.5/5, noting in our conclusion that while we appreciated the nature of its challenging design, it often feels unnecessarily punishing. Still, it’s a game that will certainly be enjoyed by an enthusiast audience. Features editor Andrew McMahon notes:

A Fortnite movie is coming. No, that's not an announcement, though there have been rumors of a Fortnite movie for some time now. But it's practically a foregone conclusion that one of the biggest names in entertainment, a brand with its hand in basically every intellectual property money pit right now, from Star Wars to Marvel and much more, is going to get a movie. It's merely a matter of time.

One could argue that a movie is an old-fashioned way of doing things. Fortnite already features some incredible cinematic live events that players can live through themselves, which ends up feeling quite like being in a Fortnite movie already. But I do think, even in this weird era for movie theaters, that a Fortnite movie would be massive. It's important to capitalize on the game's still sky-high popularity, lest Epic Games and partners risk launching it when the game is losing steam, like the Angry Birds Movie.

With so many crossovers and characters constantly coming to Fortnite, no doubt a Fortnite movie would be packed full of more collaborations than Ready Player One, but for this exercise, I'm going to focus just on Fortnite's homegrown heroes and largely pull from the most important characters in Fortnite lore, such as Jonesy, Doctor Slone, and Midas. Whether it's a live-action adaptation or an animated feature with a star-studded voice cast, here's who I envision as the stars of the inevitable Fortnite movie.

Get ready for the grind Call of Duty is one of the most competitive video games you can play — the...

The post Ranked Play is finally coming to Call of Duty: Vanguard appeared first on Destructoid.

Some helpful hints and colorful pages await With both EarthBound and EarthBound Beginnings on the Nintendo Switch Online library, subscribers could be hopping into...

The post The EarthBound player’s guide is available online, for those hopping in this weekend appeared first on Destructoid.

Love is a (class) battlefield

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I've written about a bunch of Final Fantasy's pixel remasters over the past year, and each time there are people in the comments saying that Final Fantasy VI is the best, they can't wait for Final Fantasy VI, why isn't Final Fantasy VI being remastered yet...

Well, here it comes. Final Fantasy VI is getting the pixel remaster treatment on February 23rd.

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Starbreeze Studios' masterful fantasy adventure Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons will - should you somehow have made the calamitous mistake of not playing it in the years since its release back in 2013 - be next week's freebie on the Epic Games Store.

Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons - the first game to be directed by Josef Fares, who has, of course, gone on to make A Way Out and last year's acclaimed It Takes Two - tells the darkly magical story of two siblings on a quest to find a cure for their father's mysterious affliction.

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In a reported meeting between Call of Duty developers and select content creators and influencers, the Warzone devs admitted that the free-to-play battle royale was in a bad state, telling those in attendance that they had “fucked up” and that the current state of the popular online shooter was “embarrassing.” The…

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Kristen Stewart’s Oscar-nominated turn as Princess Diana arrives to streaming, along with many more new movies

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On February 8, The Sims team revealed a first look at the next amorous addition to The Sims 4: My Wedding Stories. As the name implies, the upcoming game pack is centered entirely around love, romance, and the celebration of both through marriage--with special emphasis on showcasing the stories all too often forgotten by mainstream media; stories like Dom and Cam's.

Dom and Cam are the names of two new female characters in The Sims 4 who discover their feelings for one another are far stronger than friendship, a realization that arises shortly before one of the women is set to marry a man. After calling off the wedding, the two women get together, creating a union that spans across decades and overcomes all obstacles. Their touching story, accompanied by a Simlish version of Etta James "At Last," unfolds throughout the pack's trailer, setting the tone for the newest add-on and acting as a show of solidarity for the game's many LGBTQ+ players. However, just a day after the trailer dropped, The Sims team announced that some The Sims 4 players will not be able to join in on Dom and Cam's marital bliss.

On February 9, an open letter was shared on The Sims 4's official blog stating that, due to federal laws, The Sims 4: My Wedding Stories will not be sold in Russia. In the letter, The Sims team explained their choice, stating they are "steadfast in upholding that commitment by shining a light on and celebrating stories like Dom and Cam’s" and therefore have made the decision to "forgo the release of My Wedding Stories where our storytelling would be subject to changes because of federal laws."

The Sims team continued: "Regrettably, this means that members ofThe Sims community in Russia will not be able to purchase this game pack."

Rock and roll presumably still OK

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An independent retro video game translator known appropriately as RetroTranslator recently announced that his team’s work translating Konami’s seminal 1990s dating simulator Tokimeki Memorial into English is almost complete. But there’s a catch: It’s the less-than-perfect Super Famicom port that’s been translated, not…

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Nothing better than the clickity-clack of a mechanical keyboard As someone who spends a good portion of their day typing,...

The post I am entranced by the world of custom mechanical keyboards appeared first on Destructoid.

Each new Disgaea game is a new opportunity to finally get into the strange, brash and thousand-layers deep JRPG series. I've yet to manage it, but now Disgaea 6 is making its way to PC. Called Disgaea 6 Complete, it bundles last year's Switch and PS4 game together with its character and cosmetic DLC. You can find the announcement trailer below.

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What’s better than this?

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Triangle Strategy has a free demo that encompasses the first three chapters of the upcoming tactical HD-2D turn-based JRPG. Those three chapters take about four hours to complete, which sounds like a fairly decent chunk of the game if you're looking to check it out prior to deciding whether to buy it--and since your progress from the demo carries over, you don't have to worry about playing those four hours over again. But a huge portion of that four hours is scene after scene of story exposition. There's a potentially good game here with Triangle Strategy, but it takes way too long to set-up its fantastical world and get to its most promising feature.

In Triangle Strategy, you play as Serenoa Wolffort, a young man who has recently taken control of House Wolffort. Serenoa lives in the continent of Norzelia, a land that has entered a strained peace as its three countries--Glenbrook, Aesfrost, and Hyzante--agree to a truce in order to avoid all-out war. Glenbrook is most well-known for its military might and managing trade routes, while Aesfrost and Hyzante control the continent's most valuable resources, iron and salt, respectively.

Alongside becoming the new lord of House Wolffort, Serenoa must prepare for his arranged wedding with Frederica Aesfrost, a union designed to unite Glenbrook and Aesfrost, pressuring Hyzante to remain in the proposed alliance or risk becoming the weakest country. It is a fragile peace at best--the first few hours of Triangle Strategy constantly imply that the continent is a powder keg, and everyone is warily eyeing each other while holding lit matches.

Wordle is a puzzle game in which your vocabulary and ability to spell allow you to drill towards the solution. It's surprising how well the same design still works when the letters are replaced by numbers, and you're instead relying on your ability to add, subtract, multiply and divide.

That's what you're doing in Nerdle, which is Wordle for maths fans.

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SNK’s willingness to continually introduce new protagonists has built the series into something unique

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Internet language sensation Wordle is now owned by The New York Times and housed firmly on the Gray Lady’s servers. That’s meant a rickety migration for some players, but also changes to the game itself. Words like “sluts” have recently been banned from being used as guesses, and the paper of record has confirmed it…

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Third-party developers had quite a few reveals to share about add-on for Microsoft Flight Simulator today, on top of a relevant new release.

We start with the traditional weekly update from DC Designs which includes new screenshots of Concorde and even one of the upcoming freeware P-61B Black Widow.

After the epic work done by CodenameJack on the fuel system, it has then been my (ongoing) job to work through the whole thing on the engineer’s panel, making sure that all the annunciator lights and circuit MI’s work as they’re supposed to. Jack’s work is so accurate that I have been able to do this with reference to the real Concorde, and the same process is now being applied to the electrical and hydraulic panels. Concorde had three hydraulic systems for redundancy purposes, but I’m not sure if all three will be made operational at this stage ( although all controls will be available for that purpose ). Fuel transfer is now done in an identical manner to the real Concorde, balancing the center of gravity via the correct trim transfer tanks. So far, the model has more than 10,000 lines of code to handle all of this, with many more to come.

The Nintendo Switch holiday bundle has been sold out since before Christmas, but it randomly popped up at the Nintendo Store today. The $300 bundle comes with Mario Kart 8 Deluxe and three months of Nintendo Switch Online. That's a pretty darn good deal, especially since you can now play the SNES RPG classic Earthbound via Switch Online.

The Nintendo Store also briefly had the Dialga & Palkia Edition Switch Lite in stock, but it sold out very quickly.

Mario Kart 8 Deluxe is one of the best Nintendo Switch games, and even though it launched not long after the Switch console released in 2017, it can routinely be found on bestseller charts. It will likely get even more popular soon, as Nintendo is adding 48 more courses from series history as paid DLC by the end of 2023.

343 Industries rewarded players who reached the max rank in Halo 5: Guardians with a special batch of skins for Halo Infinite. Fast forward a few months later, and skins that are nearly identical to the rank 152 reward skins are now being given away for free, upsetting some longtime fans.

The new, free skins are rewards for watching the North American regional finals of the Halo Championship Series. Players who watch three hours of qualifying streams on Twitch will be rewarded with an Assault Rifle, Battle Rifle, and Sidekick skin. There's also a free victory pose up for grabs.

Free skins are great, but it's easy to see why Halo 5's most dedicated players would be upset. According to Halo content creator Mint Blitz (who made a video on the topic), earning rank 152 in Halo 5 takes thousands of hours. The fact that the free HCS skins take three hours of watching a stream to claim and look incredibly similar to the Halo 5 rank 152 rewards feels disrespectful to Halo 5's most dedicated players.

Both a new game and Warzone experience will be designed together Today, Activision Blizzard unveiled some changes coming for Call of Duty:...

The post Activision confirms the next Call of Duty will be a sequel to 2019’s Modern Warfare appeared first on Destructoid.

Platform: PC
Publisher: Subset Games
Developer: Subset Games
Release: February 27, 2018
Rating: Not rated

Nintendo Directs are among the most exciting times for Nintendo fans, and we were lucky enough to get the first one of 2022 this week. Brian is joined by Ben Reeves on this very news-heavy episode of All Things Nintendo. Join them as they talk about all the big announcements both in and out of the Direct.

If you'd like to follow the people from this episode on Twitter: Brian Shea (@brianpshea), Ben Reeves (@benjaminreeves)

You may know The New York Times for its reputation as the paper of record and the paper of recommending-you-put-peas-in-guac. But now the Gray Lady has joined the likes of EA, Bungie, 343 Industries, and other developers of live-service games as it rapidly tries to extinguish fires for its newly acquired puzzle game, …

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Information started to slip out this week about the next iteration of Call Of Duty. Now it's confirmed: Infinity Ward are making Modern Warfare 2 for release later this year alongside a "new Warzone experience." Modern Warfare 2 will be a sequel to 2019's Modern Warfare reboot, and both it and the new Warzone will run on a new engine.

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Platform: PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Switch, PC
Publisher: Techland
Developer: Techland
Release: February 4, 2022 (PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PC), TBA (Switch)
Rating: Mature

A simple word game and one very astute daughter might have just saved an 80-year-old woman's life.

As reported by CNN, 80-year-old woman Denyse Holt was alone in her Lincolnwood, Illinois home when a naked man broke in, dragged her through the home, and disconnected phone lines before barricading her in a bathroom. The man then forced Holt to remain in the room for 17 hours while he wandered throughout the home.

"I didn't think I was going to live," Holt told CNN affiliate WBBM.

Thankfully, Holt's daughter grew concerned about her mother's well-being when she noticed Holt was not reading her texts and had yet to send her usual Wordle update. Holt's daughter then reached out to the Lincolnwood Police Station to request a wellness check. Upon reaching Holt's home, the responding officers noticed a broken window.

The police officers ultimately discovered Holt in her basement bathroom, trapped but physically unharmed. They then found the suspect on the second floor of the home, armed with several knives. After taking the man into custody, the police reportedly transferred the man to a local hospital for medical treatment. According to the officers, it appeared as if the suspect was having a mental health crisis, as he had apparently requested help from Holt before locking her in the bathroom.

"The subject then awoke the victim armed with scissors and demanded the victim provide him assistance. The subject threatened the victim and collected all telephones/cell phones within the residence to disable the ability for the victim to communicate with anyone," the news release said. "The subject also placed the victim in the basement bathroom securing the door with a chair."

Following months of rumours, Activision - still reeling from shocking reports it fostered a company culture where sexual harassment, assault, and inappropriate behaviour were able to thrive - has confirmed this year's Call of Duty game will be a sequel to 2019's Modern Warfare.

Development will, according to an announcement buried at the bottom of Call of Duty's most recent community update, be handled by long-time Call of Duty studio Infinity Ward. The developer is also said to be working on a new Warzone "experience", both being designed together and both built from the "ground up" using a new engine.

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Call of Duty Season 2 doesn't officially release until February 14, but players are already getting hands-on with some of the new killstreaks and features coming to Vanguard, including the new Ball Turret Gunner killstreak.

As seen below in a video from Call of Duty content creator Prestige Is Key, Season 2's two new standard multiplayer maps Casablanca and Gondola can be played and explored in private matches. Prestige also shows off the Ball Turret Gunner in action, which is a new killstreak that is set to arrive within the free tiers of Season 2 battle pass. Activision recently detailed what players can expect from the new pass, and here are all the highlighted rewards.

Private matches even let players test out the two new weapons coming with the battle pass. Any players who don't want to jump into a match with bots can watch Prestige's gameplay with both the KG M40 assault rifle and the Whitley light machine gun.

Ubisoft employees continue to push back on the company’s plans to utilize blockchain technology for, among other things, the distribution of NFTs (non-fungible tokens), according to a new Bloomberg report.

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Earlier this week, Nintendo once again contributed to the internet losing its collective mind thanks to a brand-new trailer for Kirby and the Forgotten Land. The video showed off plenty of cool new features that everyone’s favorite pink ball of mush will have, including a Mouthful Mode that lets him swallow an item that is normally too big.

Those items include a vending machine, a traffic cone, a scissor lift, a giant ring, a light-bulb, an arch, a filled water-balloon, and much more. The one that has everyone losing it, though, is a car. Yes, Kirby can now swallow and become a car. So, naturally, the first thing fans wanted to see out of this was what it would look like if Car Kirby was in Mario Kart. Thanks to Youtuber RiazorMC, that wish has been fulfilled.

As you can see in the video above, titled Mario Kart 9 the Youtuber has transported Car Kirby into Mario Kart, showing what it would look like if it were on famous courses like Rainbow Road. It’s a truly amazing parody and really makes us all wish that it was in Mario Kart 8.