At the January 2024 State of Play, a Death Stranding 2 trailer appeared and featured tons of crazy stuff! Higgs is back with an electric guitar that he also uses to attack with electricity and slashes! There’s a metal ninja that makes BB sounds! Fragile’s got a second pair of hands around her neck! But there are other possibly neat or maybe important things you might have missed too. 

Fragile smokes cigarettes that give off BTs (Beached Things)

Right after exploring Scottish peaks and glens in A Highland Song, indie studio Inkle are now sending us into an ever-shifting labyrinth full of art in a free new game. Made for Google's Arts & Culture initiative, The Forever Vault is an adventure game where you search the labyrinth's many attics, mines, gardens, server rooms, rooftops, treehouses, wine cellars, and such for your missing pal not only by passing through doorways and stairways but by connecting ideas and concepts contained within artwork. Having played (and failed) one attempt to crack it, I'm keen for a return.

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There's life in the ol' Alan Wake 2 yet. Last year's multimedia horror extravaganza game has a new patch, and of note is that it includes chapter select but, interestingly, also the "much-requested option to tune down the horror flashes", according to the notes here. What is a horror flash, you ask? It's that thing where a horror game or film or TV show suddenly flashes up a semi-transparent image of like, a monster, or a screaming woman, or a big weird eye. A jump scare meets the Kuleshov effect.

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Kotobukiya is restocking its Metal Gear REX plastic model kit, and it has also opened a new pre-order batch. The kit originally appeared as early as 2019, and it has also received multiple restock batches since then. The next batch of the kit's stocks will appear in April 2024.

The package will come with around 401-600 parts. When completed, the 1/100 scale unit will stand at approximately 220mm (~8.66 inches) tall. The owner will also be able to open and close the cockpit and missile hatches.

The set will also include 1/100 scale figures of Liquid Snake, Solid Snake, and Gray Fox the Cyborg Ninja. The owner can place Liquid Snake's sitting figure inside Metal Gear REX's cockpit. Meanwhile, the Cyborg Ninja figure will have a lying-down variation to help recreate the event cutscene at Shadow Moses in Metal Gear Solid.

Not that Yakuza (or Like A Dragon as it's now called) hasn't felt comfortable in its skin over the years, but Like A Dragon: Infinite Wealth feels particularly confident. I think that's down to a lot of little improvements to its RPG systems that I mention in my review, but also two other things: a radio and trolleys.

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It can be tough figuring out how to manage everything Persona 3 Reload throws at you. Between school life, social life, and fighting demonic shadows during the Dark Hour, your time in Gekkoukan High School is hectic, to say the least. So whether you’re returning to Persona 3 or playing it for the first time via the…

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This story is part of our new Future of Gaming series, a three-site look at gaming’s most pioneering technologies, players, and makers.

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Tencent Holdings - the biggest videogame company in the world - are looking to buy Dungeons & Dragons off Hasbro, with Baldur's Gate 3 creators Larian serving as an intermediary. Or maybe not. The above claim surfaced yesterday, while everybody was going nuts about Hideo Kojima's latest shenanigans, and has swiftly been shot down by Hasbro subsidiary Wizards of the Coast, originator of all things D&D that haven't been created by D&D's vast and imaginative modding, fanshipping and spin-off-making communities. Curious.

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HoYoVerse has released a Myriad Celestia trailer for Black Swan, who will make her debut in Honkai: Star Rail Version 2.0. The trailer also features Robin, whom we saw in trailer for 2.0.

You can watch the trailer here:

The trailer shows how Black Swan uses her powers as a fortune teller, as well as how she can use dreams, or memories, as a medium for activating them. It also shows a lot of scenes in Penacony, which has a bright “never-sleeping” city vibe. Because it takes place in a dream, there are a lot of bizarre phenomena in this trailer, such as Black Swan emerging from a sign to pick up a drink. Other characters that make a cameo in this trailer include Acheron, Sunday, Robin, and Duke Inferno.

The announcement during last night’s State of Play that a new entry in the Silent Hill franchise was out now and available for free immediately brought to mind the legendary P.T. demo. Sadly, the intrigue Silent Hill: The Short Message stoked during its trailer never pays off after playing through the entirety of this…

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This week on the Eurogamer Newscast, we discuss yesterday's PlayStation State of Play and the latest game announcements.

Sony showed off what's to come this year, including looks at Stellar Blade, Judas, and Silent Hill, plus reveals of Sonic x Shadow Generations, Until Dawn and Metro Awakening.

Perhaps most exciting is the return of Hideo Kojima with not one but two games: we got a proper look at the forthcoming Death Stranding 2: On The Beach, as well as the announcement of a new action espionage game and movie that definitely won't be called Metal Gear Solid.

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After reviewing direct drive wheels and pedals from some of the biggest established players in sim racing - Fanatec, Thrustmaster and Logitech - I wanted to try something from a newer player in the space, Moza.

This Chinese firm is best known for its entry-level R5 Bundle, which brings a powerful 5.5nm direct drive wheelbase with a matching wheel and pedals to a quite affordable £459. For context, that's only £100 to £200 more than popular gear-driven and belt-driven racing wheels, like Logitech's G923 and Thrustmaster's T300, yet superior DD tech should translate into significantly faster and more detailed force feedback and a better driving experience overall.

Moza were happy to send out this PC-only bundle - with a couple of extra upgrades - and when Logitech got in touch to offer a £259 PlaySeat Challenge X folding racing cockpit, I had a complete racing setup for ~£700 with the potential to punch well above its weight.

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Cerevo, along with Atlus, is developing a 1/1 replica of the Evoker from Persona 3 Reload. You’ll be able to check out a prototype of it at Wonder Festival 2024 Winter.

This news came out during the Persona 3 Reload livestream that Atlus held on January 31, 2024. It was a special miniature event to commemorate the upcoming release of the game. According to the stream, the Evoker will be to scale and Cerevo developed it under the supervision of the Persona 3 Reload team from Atlus.

The Evoker model has several gimmicks. For one, it can transform into Theurgy Mode, and you can also make it give off light. It can also play the Persona summoning voice lines from all the SEES members, as well as play battle music. Cerevo is currently developing more functions, so the final product will likely have even more gimmicks. It will also come with a case, which will look like an attache case.

Imane "Pokimane" Anys announced earlier this week she was leaving Twitch and has taken to her podcast to explain why.

In short, her exclusivity deal with the Amazon-owned streaming platform came to an end and Pokimane decided not to renew the contract. "The end of an era," she posted on X, formerly Twitter. "Twitch has been my home for a decade...but it's time to say thank you for all the memories and love during my League, Fortnite, and Among Us days."

It means Twitch - a platform derided for its lack of diversity - has just lost one of its most popular and high profile female streamers and, on her podcast series Don't Tell Anyone, she detailed her concerns about the platform.

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Here at the Electronic Wireless Show podcast we like indie games (inasmuch as "indie" can ever really be a helpful term; as the "good" doctor Peterson would no doubt say, what do words even mean? It's bloody complicated!) and thus are using the news that Day Of The Devs is a non-profit (what does non-profit even mean? What does profit mean? It's bloody complicated!) as a flimsy excuse to talk about indie games. Plus: Steam Next Fest kicks off next week, and there were indie game demos a-plenty, so we talk about some favourites of those, too. Plus: we've been playing JRPGs! And I was wrong, it's episode 4. Please ignore every time I say it's episode 5. I told you my notes aren't to be trusted.

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In 2013, an unassuming Xbox Live Arcade game was released called Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons. Early looks made it seem like a pleasant environmental puzzle game about a pair of brothers going on an adventure, but actually playing the game showcased an impressive and specific point of view from its creator, Josef Fares. You can read Game Informer's review of the original Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons by following the link. The game was both heartwarming and heartbreaking, and to this day still features some of the best examples of gameplay as storytelling, and it's all done without any proper dialogue. After Brothers' release, Fares went on to found Hazelight, the studio behind A Way Out and It Takes Two.

Now, 10 years later, developer Avantgarden Games is preparing to release a remake of the game on February 28 on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC. Join Marcus Stewart and me as we take a look at the new version and reminisce about the original.

They say ammo scarcity is an artform in FPS games, but I'd argue no game makes a single sniper bullet work harder than the freshly announced Children Of The Sun. I mean, why waste them when you're a young telekinetic hellbent on getting your revenge on the cult that raised you and held you hostage for your entire life? One bullet goes a long way when you can alter the path of its trajectory with each fresh kill you land - as long as they're visible in your immediate eyeline, that is. There are no swoopy swerves going on here, and the thrill of each level is working out the best (and quite literal) angle of attack to take down every last target. I've been playing the first handful of levels of Children Of The Sun over the last week or so, and no word of a lie, this murderous mix of Hitman, Holedown and Sniper Elite has shot straight into my gooey, beating heart.

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Capcom announced the exact release date for Ed in Street Fighter 6. When it released a teaser trailer in January 2024, it noted that the Street Fighter V debutant would appear in February 2024. The company has since confirmed that Ed will be available on February 27, 2024.

To help players hype up Ed's release, Capcom has also released a new Fighting Pass titled "Ed Arrives!" This pass adds a photo frame featuring Ed and a Neo Shadaloo device wallpaper. It also comes with an avatar gear set, a new emote, three title bars, and five stickers that include a chibi artwork of Falke.

In addition, the pass features the 1991 beat 'em up arcade title Captain Commando as a playable classic game. It also brings in three BGMs from Street Fighter V: Ed's Theme, Falke's Theme, and Balrog's Theme. As a side note, the latter is alternatively titled M. Bison's Theme in the Japanese version, as that is what the boxer is known as in the country, owing to the name swaps made in the series' localization.

Remember fast-food kids meals with specially marketed pop culture toys? They just don’t make ‘em like they used to. In the 1990s, Taco Bell, KFC, Pizza Hut, McDonald’s, and Burger King often chose chaos with their tie-ins, like the Batman Forever glass mugs or the Hercules plates. Heck, even when big event films like…

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There's now a short demo available for the upcoming Switch remake of puzzle platformer Mario vs. Donkey Kong on the Nintendo eShop, ahead of its release later this month.

The demo lets you play through four levels from the first world - three in which Mario collects the toys, and one where you get to lead the Mini-Marios to a toy box.

Nintendo has also released a new overview trailer for the game to coincide with the demo.

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Maaya Sakamoto, the voice actress for Aigis, shared some of her thoughts about Persona ahead of the release of Persona 3 Reload. She talked about how she recorded her lines for the remake, as well as what she thinks about her character.

In the interview, she stated that she was worried that she wouldn’t be able to accurately portray Aigis again, since it’d been so many years since she originally voiced her. However, she was able to easily recapture the essence once recording actually started. She was also impressed anew at the story, and thinks that the reason it doesn’t feel outdated even after so many years is because the themes of Persona 3 Reload are so universal. She also states that she’s excited to meet everyone—both new and returning players—as Aigis once more.

At the beginning of the interview, Sakamoto also talked about how recording for the original Persona 3 went. She reminisces that back then, voice actors recorded their lines separately so she had to imagine everyone else’s performances as she gave hers. However, they all recorded together for the drama CD, which came out later, and remembers that they had a really fun time together.

Everything about the moviegoing experience is merchandisable, and long has been. But the rising trend of increasingly complex and elaborate collectible popcorn buckets might have finally reached the apex with Dune: Part Two, which invites you to place your hand in a very different kind of Gom Jabbar test.

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Surprise, miners. Deep Rock Galactic: Survivor, the Vampire Survivors-like spinoff that puts a bullet heaven twist on one of the PC's best co-op games, is launching into early access just a couple of weeks from now. It’ll be out on Steam from February 14th, incidentially gifting the possibility for all kinds of cheap Valentine’s Day slogan gags. You are my Rock and Stone? My Ommoran Heartstone belongs to you? Drill you be Mine? Hilarious. Also, there’s a trailer.

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The Elder Scrolls Online features seven different classes, with each class having its own theme and gameplay identity. However, some classes allow for a solo play better than others, and you may find this subjective list helpful as ESO rolls into 2024. So, today, we’re exploring The Elder Scrolls Online best solo classes tier list.

As I’m sure it is for many others, WWE is pure nostalgia for me. My era was the height of John Cena, Randy Orton, Batista, and the like in the mid to late-2000s. 

I played the wrestling games during those years, but have only paid irregular attention to the sport since. That hasn’t stopped me getting goosebumps at the likes of Edge returning at Royal Rumble in 2020, wishing I was still up to date with the week to week drama.

Platform: PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PC
Publisher: 2K Games
Developer: Visual Concepts
Release: March 8, 2024
Rating: Teen

WWE 2K has steadily climbed the ladder of quality over the past two entries. A strong comeback in 2K22 saw initiative but meaningful improvements in 2K23, and the series is arguably the strongest it's ever been. But a new year means another opportunity to retain the title for best wrestling sim or drop it to someone else. On the morning of the Royal Rumble last Saturday, I got to sample WWE 2K24’s notable new additions at a special preview event. That includes the new Showcase mode documenting 40 years of WrestleMania, the new Ambulance Match type, and additional features added to the moment-to-moment action. 

Sting announced a release date for the Nintendo Switch version of Riviera: The Promised Land Remaster. It will come out on February 29, 2024 for 2860 JPY ($19.50).

The remastered version will have several new features, as well as additional content from the original. Riviera: The Promised Land originally came out in 2002 as a fantasy RPG that you could play on the go. It used to be on devices like the GBA and the PSP. The remaster will boast upscaled graphics, a text log, variations in the pixel art, autosave, fast forward, a return function, and an EXP boost feature. The EXP boost will let you adjust how many more or less EXP you gain per battle, which can be a way to alter how difficult or easy the game is.

As for new functions and features, there will be new difficulty and play modes, hints on how to obtain items, and NG+. Clearing the game will unlock additional content as well. Sting will post more information in the future via its official Twitter (X) account.

Alan Wake II’s 1.15 update is now live on Xbox, PlayStation and PC. It fixes a ton of bugs, improves some visual issues, and also adds an option to make the game a little less scary. Importantly, it may also render the game more playable for those with certain sensitivities to flashing lights.

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Pocketpair released a new Palworld update on all platforms, and the patch notes reveal other players Pals now can’t be stolen and the save issue tied to capturing over 7,000 pals is in the process of being fixed. While one issue is completely repaired, more work needs to be done on the other.

Rather than some sort of Palworld take on Pokemon’s Team Rocket, the one bug simply had to do with a glitch people could exploit. If one person in multiplayer’s Pal was too weak, another person could catch it with a Pal Sphere. That first player would then completely lose access to the character. 

As for the save file fix, that isn’t completely repaired yet in Palworld. If someone is playing and hits that 7,000 Pals mark after downloading the update, it will be fine. They won’t experience the game crashing that others are. However, if someone experienced that issue before the patch, they’ll find they still can’t play and use that save data just yet.

If you have been wanting to play Alan Wake 2, but were put off by the game's semi-regular, flashing jump scares, I have good news.

As part of its recent update, Remedy has added a feature that will allow you to tone down those horror flashes (apparently a much-requested addition). Players can now opt for either a Low or Normal visual and audio intensity of horror flash, to curate the game better to their liking.

Along with this option to dial back on the scaries, the studio has also introduced a Chapter Select function. This will allow players to load up any mission they fancy as long as they have previously unlocked it. Yes, this means you can go back and replay Alan Wake 2's awesome musical moments again and again and again.

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The popular mobile game Threes! will release on Steam in just a few days, and one of its developers has revealed new features added to the PC version.

Asher Vollmer shared on X (née Twitter) that the Steam version includes Steam Deck compatibility (with touch controls), and full controller and keyboard support.

It'll also support cloud saves, add achievements, and new background music which plays if you choose to enable night mode.

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