As the calendar flips from October to November, and you pop that sexy calculator costume back in the cupboard for another year, Sony arrives with a fresh batch of PlayStation Now titles, which this month include Mafia: Definitive Edition, Celeste, and Final Fantasy 9.

Last year's Mafia: Definitive Edition is, of course, the fancied up version of Illusion Softworks' fondly remembered open-world mobster game from 2002. This new version certainly looks the part, reimagining the 1930s city of Lost Heaven for modern hardware, but Eurogamer's Chris Tapsell didn't feel the the tweaks to its ageing gameplay were quite so successful.

Read more

Update, 11/01/21: The upcoming Bloodborne PSX demake now has a release date and you don't have to wait too much longer to play it. 

Bloodborne PSX coder b0tster (on Twitter) announced yesterday that it would be releasing on January 31, 2022. She included a new trailer showcasing some familiar Yharnam haunts and enemies in it, too. You can check that out below: 

It's important to note that it's still unclear how people will be able to play this game. There's almost no way this comes to PlayStation, so PC is the likely destination. It’s also unclear if players have to pay for it. Actually, selling this demake (rather than just releasing it for free) may invite Sony and/or FromSoftware to come in with the copyright infringement hammer. Although, b0tster has been developing Bloodborne PSX since 2017 and it's still around, so perhaps Sony won't be going after it. 

The original story continues below...

Original Story

It’s worth a look for the art alone Nintendo is an absolute character factory. Their games have been raising fans...

The post The Japanese classic Zelda site is a treasure trove of old art appeared first on Destructoid.

Today Activision Blizzard released a brand new trailer of the upcoming FPS Call of Duty: Vanguard.

This time around, the video is dedicated to promoting the PC version and its features.

Of course, 4K support is included alongside ultra-wide resolution. Both Nvidia’s DLSS and AMD’s FidelityFX Super Resolution are also supported.

You can check out the trailer below, with the claim that all the footage was recorded on PC.

Call of Duty: Vanguard is coming to PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, and PC on Nov. 5.

Senator Josh Hawley, Republican of Missouri, took the stage at the National Conservatism Conference yesterday to decry the war on men. In a long and meandering speech, he sounded the alarm about falling marriage rates and college attendance, and argued that more and more men are dropping out of the workforce and…

Read more...

It’s the day after Halloween, so we’ve all got some candy hangovers as we all head back to work. And what better way to help you get over those Monday Blues than with some amazing gaming memes.

Whether it’s Hades, Halo, or Yakuza-based content, these gaming memes will surely help you beat the Monday blues. So sit back, relax, and enjoy all of the hilarious gaming memes we found from across the internet last week.

And definitely be sure to let us know which ones were your favorites in the comments below. Also, don’t hesitate to leave any other great memes that we may have missed down there to help make us all laugh.

Microsoft has released a new advertisement for the upcoming racing game Forza Horizon 5 featuring Ted Lasso star Cristo Fernandez and singer Karol G.

Called "The Getaway Driver," the video features Fernandez escaping a boring life of driving people around and embracing a life of white-knuckle fast driving in Mexico. And then Karol G shows up and challenges Fernandez to a race. The video is pretty slick, and it does a good job at selling the fantasy of Forza Horizon 5's open-world racing ambitions. Check it out below.

Forza Horizon 5 launches on November 9, though the more expensive editions of the game unlock on November 5. For more, check out GameSpot's Forza Horizon 5 unlock time guide to find out precisely when the racing game unlocks depending on each version.

To say it's been a turbulent few months at Blizzard would be an understatement. Leadership changes, in-game protests, employee walkouts, and campaigns calling on players to cancel their World of Warcraft subscriptions have caused Blizzard to go from one of the most beloved names in the video game industry to one associated with deeply troubling sexual harassment and discrimination allegations outlined in multiple lawsuits and investigations.

Changes both big and small have come to Blizzard and its flagship title as a result. The World of Warcraft team put out multiple statements laying out their plans to make Azeroth a more welcoming and inclusive place, and while some of those changes are already live, many of them are set to happen with the release of the upcoming patch 9.1.5 for World of Warcraft's latest expansion, Shadowlands.

As the first patch to be released in the wake of the ongoing fallout from the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing's initial lawsuit against Activision Blizzard, it's clear based on a recent interview that World of Warcraft game director Ion Hazzikostas intends for patch 9.1.5 to be a major turning point for both the development team and for Blizzard's MMORPG. Whether it's looking to create a more open, safe work environment or attempting to cast off nearly two decades' worth of assumptions about what World of Warcraft can be, Hazzikostas described patch 9.1.5 as the start of a "new perspective" for the game going forward.

After a year of being sequestered to PlayStation platforms, PC and Xbox players can finally try out a new Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War's Zombies mode starting tomorrow. The mode, titled Onslaught, has players fight against waves of the undead in a desperate, difficult attempt to survive.

Unlike Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War's main Zombies mode, Onslaught places players on one of the game's multiplayer maps rather than one specially designed for zombie-fighting. Players won't be able to run around as much as they want either, as they spawn next to a Dark Aether Orb that serves as their safe zone. Moving outside of the zone deals players constant damage.

In regular Zombies fashion, players have to survive waves of the undead, as well as periodic special waves where elite zombies spawn.

The game mode initially launched in October 2020, but starting at 9 PM PT on November 2 / 12 AM ET on November 3, players on PC and Xbox will be able to give Onslaught a try.

Looking towards the future of Call of Duty, the franchise could get a lot gorier. Before Call of Duty Vanguard has even released, a sweeping amount of information on Call of Duty 2022 has reportedly leaked out. According to the leaked information, the game will include a morality system akin to Red Dead Redemption 2's as well as extremely graphic depictions of gore. Enemies will lose their limbs and apply pressure to wounds to stop bleeding, and when shot, may insult the player, beg for their mother, or convulse.

$1.3 billion deal under scrutiny The Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) is to investigate the purchase...

The post US security panel to investigate Tencent acquisition of Sumo Digital appeared first on Destructoid.

Dedenne will be one of the Pokemon GO Festival of Lights additions, and there will even be avatar clothing items inspired by it.

The post Dedenne Will Join Pokemon GO During the Festival of Lights appeared first on Siliconera.

Revealed just last week, Stardew Valley developer Eric Barone has already provided a nice little update about his next game, Haunted Chocolatier. According to a new blog post, the upcoming action-RPG has a “greater focus on combat” in comparison to his previous hit.

Read more...

The release of Forza Horizon 5 is just around the corner, and Microsoft is preparing with a dedicated live-action trailer.

The trailer focuses on the game’s likely most relevant aspect, the ability to drive anywhere you like, on top of featuring the flavor of this installment’s location, Mexico.

You can watch it below, and see if it inspires you.

Forza Horizon 5 will release on Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, and PC on Nov. 9.

UFO Gaming is a decentralized social gaming platform that is bridging the gap between blockchain and traditional mobile and PC games. It uses a Game-Fi consisting of multiple Play-to-Earn (P2E) games, with each one allowing gamers to join their friends, create clans, own and trade virtual land, and earn NFTs and cryptocurrency by completing quests. Normally, only pro-gamers and popular streamers could profit from their passion, but UFO Gaming and its crypto-powered version of P2E will allow anyone to make a profit by playing video games.

This is reflected in the UFO Gaming 10k Cup, as anyone was able to join and compete for the prize money, giving the community a chance to play against popular Twitch streamers and pro gamers alike.

You can’t make me!

Continue reading…

Finally, after first appearing in August, the Lego version of Luigi is getting his own sets. But poor blocky Luigi, it seems Nintendo and Lego want to torture him, because the new sets are all based on Luigi’s Mansion. Don’t they know Luigi (and his Lego variant) is afraid of ghosts! Luckily Professor E. Gadd is here…

Read more...

Another week, another DF Direct Weekly and our show kicks off with the re-reveal of Halo Infinite's campaign - the source of much controversy upon its initial showing last year. From my perspective, it's a solid showing with clear improvements in many areas of the visual presentation, plus a lot more thought put into the edit. However, questions persist: we're still only seeing just one environment when the initial engine reveal promised so much more. Also, it's not yet clear what Halo has to gain from its metamorphosis into a full open world beyond upgrade paths and resource management - but with just over a month before release, answers should be forthcoming in short order.

Beyond that, the team discuss last week's full-throated reveal of the Intel 12th Gen Core architecture, which is perhaps so radical, Intel might have perhaps considered dropping the Core brand altogether and coming up with something new to hammer home the scale of the achievement here. Running on a new fabrication node and combining more powerful performance processing cores with smaller efficiency cores, single thread performance looks state of the art, while multi-core capabilities seem to be up there with AMD's brilliant Ryzen 9 5950X - the CPU that I chose myself for my own workstation. Power efficiency? Well you can ramp up the processor to max power for best performance, but there are still remarkable perf per watt gains against prior Intel chips at lower power points.

Read more

Yharnam goes back in time The developers behind the fan-made PlayStation demake of Bloodborne have set a release date. The demake of Bloodborne,...

The post Bloodborne PS1 demake sets a release date for next January appeared first on Destructoid.

Housemarque finally took some pity on players of its difficult sci-fi shooter Returnal last week, and added a suspend feature in update 2.0. Now players have found a way to turn it into a full-on save scumming exploit.

Read more...

Meghna Jayanth, the award-winning writer and narrative designer of games like 80 Days, Sunless Sea, Horizon: Zero Dawn and Sable, has confirmed she'll be working on the new game by Falcon Age developer Outer Loop.

She told me this during Episode 2 of The New Eurogamer podcast, which was made available to everyone today.

Read more

Third-party developer FlyTampa recently released Athens International Airport Eleftherios Venizelos (LGAV) for Microsoft Flight Simulator.

It’s available on Orbx Direct for $18, which means that you can use the handy Orbx Central client to install it and keep it updated.

Thanks to its position at the center of the Mediterranean, Athens airport is an extremely interesting addition for simmers who enjoy flying not only in Greece but also all over Europe.

If you’d like an extensive look at the scenery, you can watch an ILS approach and landing on runway 03R in the first video below, and a full flyover in a variety of lighting and weather conditions in the second video.

Functionally, all the published approaches, SIDs, and STARS are implemented correctly in accordance with the charts, and the PAPI lights on all runways are functional and well-calibrated to guide you on visual approaches.

Ground services mostly work as they should, but there is no option for the refueling truck available, which still appears to be a common oversight.

Looking to the skies to save me Sega and Microsoft announced that they have entered a “strategic alliance” that will...

The post Sega partners with Microsoft for Azure cloud gaming initiative appeared first on Destructoid.

Unpacking is a soothing puzzle game with incredibly detailed sprites that also offers a peek into a person's life as they grow up.

The post Review: Unpacking is a Calming Peek Into Someone’s Life appeared first on Siliconera.

As part of Genshin Impact’s ongoing Labyrinth Warriors event, developer miHoYo has launched a limited-time web game called “Yummy! Barbeque Under the Stars.” In this cooking minigame which can be played via your internet browser, players earn in-game items and primogems (premium currency) for their culinary skills.…

Read more...

A long time ago (last year) in a galaxy far, far away (Hollywood), Disney execs confirmed a never-ending slew of Star Wars shows, including multiple spin-offs of The Mandalorian (stop reading now if you’re averse to spoilers for season two of that show). Today, Disney released the trailer for the first of those, The…

Read more...

Weird West is the upcoming isometric twin-stick shooter from Wolfeye Studios, a relatively new developer headed by former Prey and Dishonored co-creators. It doesn’t take long to feel their immersive sim handprints. In fact, once you’re through the basics of Weird West’s twin-stick shooter action, the same combat scenario experience in games like Dishonored makes an appearance, and it’s a delight. 

Concerned Ape's latest Haunted Chocolatier update went over how combat will work, bringing up how shields will work and help against enemies.

The post Shields Will Play a Part in Haunted Chocolatier Combat appeared first on Siliconera.

Last week, the personalities of Animal Crossing: New Horizon’s (seemingly) final eight villagers were revealed via Pocket Camp. Their Pocket Camp iterations also include their favorite sayings, catchphrases, and broad descriptions of the characters—which has given me enough information to perform a vibe check.

Read more...

The Yiga clan is perfect comic relief Zelda: Breath of the Wild and Age of Calamity lean hard into the comic...

The post Clowning on obvious Yiga clan members in Zelda: Breath of the Wild never gets old appeared first on Destructoid.

The Dark Pictures Anthology series of horror games by Supermassive Games now has three games under its belt and by all accounts, more are on the way. Now that there are a few games to work with, let’s dive into sorting through them all and coming up with a ranking of the best games in The Dark Pictures Anthology series.

3. Little Hope

Best Dark Pictures Anthology Games

Little Hope is the second game in The Dark Pictures Anthology, but it lands last on our list of the best games in the series. Not only did it not take any steps forward really from Man of Medan, but it actually regressed in most ways as well.

It seems that Tetris: The Grand Master is coming to consoles. Just not yet.

Tetris: The Grand Master is a series of tricky Tetris games made for arcades by Japanese developer Arika, popular since 1998.

Read more

Earlier today, the official Pokémon Go website announced that Dedenne, the adorable electric and fairy-type Pokémon, will be the next monster in the mobile game. Dedenne will be available during the Festival of Lights, the Diwali-inspired event, on November 5 at 10 a.m. through November 14 at 8 p.m. local time.

Read more...

343 Industries has revealed a brand-new multiplayer map for Halo Infinite. Called "Streets," the map takes place on the streets of New Mombasa. It is a smaller-sized map made with 4v4 matches in mind. As you can see in the overview trailer below, Streets is an asymmetrical map with no specific bases. Instead, players will spawn at different points throughout the match.

Additionally, the map features environmental elements like palm trees to help limit sightlines so snipers won't have such an easy time. Lead multiplayer designer Cayle George says in the video that Strongholds and Oddball are two of the modes that play the best on Streets. Because it's an asymmetrical map, Capture the Flag won't be officially supported, but players can create it themselves in Custom Games. Check out the video below to see the map in action.

Streets joins the maps Bazaar, Recharge, Live Fire, Behemoth, and Fragmentation that were featured in the Halo Infinite beta tests earlier this year. Microsoft has not announced how many maps Halo Infinite will have in total, but the game's multiplayer leans heavily into the live service category, so fans can presumably expect more to be added over time.

Mr. Driller Drill Land will launch for PlayStation and Xbox this Thursday, 4th November.

This is the same remake which Bandai Namco launched for Nintendo Switch and PC back in 2020, which in turn was a souped up version of the series' 2002 Japan-only entry for GameCube.

Read more

The Japanese version of Idola Phantasy Star Saga will shut down in January 2022. Boltrend didn't note how this will affect the global version.

The post Idola Phantasy Star Saga Will Shut Down in January in Japan appeared first on Siliconera.