Players can equip Link with a new armor set that resembles the Ancient Guardians through the Expansion Pass DLC.

The post Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity Expansion Pass Costume Revealed appeared first on Siliconera.

In case you weren't aware, Dante has a part of the Shin Megami Tensei III Nocturne DNA for a long while. It spawned an entire cottage industry of "Featuring [x] from the [x] series!" and was one of the most prolific gaming crossovers of all time.

I got to chat with Kazuyuki Yamai, director of the new HD Remaster, to see how it all went down, nearly two decades later.

Blizzard have still yet to tell us when Overwatch 2 is coming out, but last night they at least shared a load of what they've been working on for the game's PvP multiplayer. We got a fresh look at the hectic new mode Push, and saw a few matches on new maps like New York and Toronto. Perhaps the most surprising bit of info the devs revealed, however, is that teams in Overwatch 2 will have five players, rather than six, dropping a tank from each side. As a tank main, I have thoughts.

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The Titanfall games seem to be experiencing problems with DDoS attacks - again - and Respawn has announced it's investigating the latest wave.

Over the past few days players have taken to social media to report more DDoS attacks on both Titanfall and Titanfall 2, resulting in both regular players and content creators being booted from servers (or unable to connect at all). This time the attacks seem particularly severe, as Titanfall 2 streamers have said they are being "blacklisted" by the hacker so that their games are automatically hit when they join, making their main accounts unusable.

As explained in a video by Titanfall 2 streamer Astraeus, there's a suggestion this isn't a regular DDoS attack where a hacker overloads a server with requests, but that the perpetrator has found a way to manipulate the game's code and disconnect players using this method. Nobody seems sure how the hacker is doing it, but the end result is that legitimate players are being disconnected from servers.

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Raven Software has done a great job in recent weeks with Call of Duty: Warzone patch notes. It's detailed changes and explained its thinking behind them. But one change it failed to mention that arrived as part of this week's mid-season three update was a lighting makeover for Rebirth Island.

Rebirth Island, the smaller, and dare I say it more fun of the two maps available to play in Activision's battle royale, is brighter now, with a soft blue, '80s-inspired colour palette. It's certainly nicer to look at, and there's good visibility, as you can see in the footage I captured below:

Players discovered this change for themselves and have reacted positively. Now, there are calls for Raven to give Verdansk '84 the same treatment.

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Those who participate in the demo will receive special cosmetics.

The post Scarlet Nexus Demo Available for Xbox One and Xbox Series X appeared first on Siliconera.

The ship that carried Commander Shepard and their crew through the Mass Effect trilogy is coming to another game. No Man's Sky players have unlocked the reward for a mysterious expedition: the Normandy SR-1.

Travelers in No Man's Sky can encounter the Normandy as part of the second expedition and have the opportunity to add it permanently to their fleet. The ship's description has some fun little references too, like how it "needs aquarium."

Players have until May 31 to undertake the Beachhead expedition for themselves. So if you want to add the Normandy to your fleet, better get moving!

Expeditions were added a little while ago to bring seasonal content to No Man's Sky, offering rewards for players who ventured and completed tasks together. Honestly, if more ships like the Normandy are going to end up being the rewards, I think it might be time for me to start playing No Man's Sky again.

It may have launched a little rough, but No Man's Sky has been steadily building up over the years, with additions like the massive Origins update bringing it closer to, maybe even beyond, its original vision. With the Normandy in the game, it'll be pretty exciting to see what else Hello Games has in store for future expeditions. 

Dicebreaker Recommends is a series of monthly board game, RPG and other tabletop recommendations from our friends at our sibling site, Dicebreaker.

Whether it's on-screen or on the tabletop, the subgenre of horror games based in, on and around the Cthulhu mythos is more crowded than the bottom of the Gardner Farm well.

The pantheon of Old Ones created by horror writer and horrible person HP Lovecraft is likely most familiar to pen-and-paper roleplayers through Call of Cthulhu, the RPG originally published in 1981 that is to tabletop horror what Dungeons & Dragons is to fantasy. (In Japan, the game's recent resurgence has even seen it replace D&D as the go-to example for tabletop roleplaying as a whole.)

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Baki The Grappler is a manga (and anime, pictured) about dudes beating the crap out of each other in an underground material arts tournament. In 2019, sociologist Junko Kaneda wrote a book about viewing it through a Boys’ Love lens. It’s now being adapted into a live-action TV series in Japan.

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Devolver Digital have announced Phantom Abyss, a first-person platformer where you'll run through treacherous temples in bold attempts to claim their treasure. And to aid you, you'll see the phantoms of other players who've gone before you and met their demise. As someone who liked racing against ghosts of other players in Gran Turismo, I'm already on board with this game that replaces cars with humans, and the race track with a terribly dangerous lair filled with traps. Oh, and you've only got one shot at each temple! Yeah, sorry about that.

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It's 2021, and Gears of War 3 has been released for PlayStation 3. Really. Sort of.

Last year, a long-lost prototype of the Xbox console exclusive running on PS3 came to light, courtesy of self-proclaimed former hacker PixelButts. Eight hours of footage was released showing the build being played, with only a couple of bugs. This footage is still available to view - Epic hasn't attempted to take it down:

Now, to celebrate 10 years since the build was created, PixelButts has released it onto the internet via archive.org. You can go download it yourself right now, though you'll need a PS3 devkit to run it on.

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Make sure you display him near a poster of Jennifer Lawrence.

The post Yuji Itadori Pop Up Parade Figure Comes With Sukuna’s Head appeared first on Siliconera.

We've known that Destiny 2 would be reintroducing the classic Vault of Glass raid for some time, but now it's actually happening.

As highlighted in Bungie's new blog, the Vault of Glass will unlock on May 22 (that's a Saturday) at 10AM PT, at which point the race for world first will begin, and the streaming-fests will be flowing. As is customary the developers is doing a "world first title," and a 24 hour "contest mode."

Oh, and there's a real-life freaking ring reward if you finish the raid before May 25 at 9:59AM PT, which you have until June 30, 2021 to redeem. If you finish it before June 1 at 9:59AM PT, you can claim this raid jacket. Note that you have to purchase both, the code just rewards you the privilege of buying them. The ring is $124.99 and the jacket is $149.99. No one said this post-Activision era would be cheap!

There's a Peppa Pig game in the works!

My Friend Peppa Pig is due out 22nd October on PlayStation and Xbox consoles, Nintendo Switch and PC via Steam.

The trailer, below, confirms the game has the real voice of Peppa. Publisher Bandai Namco is not messing about.

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Destiny 2's first official taste of crossplay arrives next week, following its recent accidental switch-on then switch-off-again.

From 25th to 27th May, Bungie will deploy a unique Vanguard Strikes crossplay beta playlist to test what works and find out what doesn't.

Anyone on PlayStation, Steam, Xbox and even Stadia can take part. Play three Strikes in the playlist and you'll get a special emblem for your trouble.

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The figure is the newest in a global series of Hatsune Miku collaborations.

The post New Hatsune Miku And My Little Pony Collaboration Figure Revealed appeared first on Siliconera.

Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity has been out for half a year now, and we already want more content. That's how these things go! People tear through the Warriors games as a whole in an insatiable fashion. But eventually Koei Tecmo and Nintendo did announce that there was more coming: like there was any doubt.

So here's a recap: on May 28, folks who buy the expansion pass will get a new weapon and costume for Link. Then afterward in June, we'll get an "expanded roster," as well as more weapons, Royal Ancient Lab challenges, and "more challenging enemies."

Things sure got real on this week’s episode of Pocket Monster, the latest Pokémon TV anime series.

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Hello! Welcome back to our regular feature where we write a little bit about some of the games we've found ourselves playing over the last few days. This time: Halo, an adventure that can only be enjoyed once, and an adventure that can thankfully be enjoyed twice.

If you fancy catching up on some of the older editions of What we've been playing, here's our archive.

Overwatch 2 PvP is 5v5, Blizzard has said.

The developer released a video, below, detailing changes coming to PvP in the upcoming shooter.

Chief among them is the switch from 6v6 to 5v5. In the standard PvP game modes of Overwatch 2, each team contains one tank, two damage and two support characters. This makes for a significant shift, Blizzard said, in terms of map design and the dynamics between roles.

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In the wake of yesterday's Nintendo Direct, the company has announced the release of a full HD remake of Zelda: Skyward Sword for Nintendo Switch, the earliest ever game in the Zelda timeline and one of a very small number of games where you can sit on a shoebill bird.

Skyward Sword originally came out in 2011 on the first Wii, and Nintendo seems to have gone to the effort of translating the motion controls to the Switch's Joy-Cons, meaning you can swing them about the room and have Link wave the Master Sword in the same way. And, presumably, when you bash your knuckles on a coffee table, Link will also spend ten minutes walking in circles making pained breathing noises.

But there's still time before that, so until then you can always check out our story on the reveal of Skyward Sword, or take a look at the full Nintendo Direct here!

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Outsmart the Apex Arzuros and reward yourself with some Cunning Specs!

The post Monster Hunter Rise Event Quest Will Let Players Wear Glasses appeared first on Siliconera.

Sonic the Hedgehog came out in early 2020 and managed to sneak in a pretty good box office showing: and was apparently enough of a hit on home video to strike up a deal for a sequel. Thankfully the same creative team is returning, so there's a chance it'll be just as authentic as the first.

With some new plot details leaked via the US copyright catalog, I think the chances of that air of authenticity is even higher.

Mild synopsis spoilers below:

It's often said that GoldenEye is the best film tie-in game out there. In truth, it's actually a very close second place to the Die Hard Trilogy. I guess it's an unfair fight. There's only one of GoldenEye but, as the name suggests, there are three Die Hard games all rolled up into one glorious package! In the days when games were frightfully expensive and discounts were basically non-existent, how could any PlayStation 1 or Sega Saturn owner resist this?!

I played Die Hard Trilogy long before I ever watched any of the films, which just meant I learned to love the games on their own merits before growing up a bit and discovering just how clever they were.

There was the original Die Hard game. A third-person shooter, you negotiated a series of floors within Nakatomi Plaza, attempting to rescue hostages while also shooting every bad guy possible. It was somewhat repetitive (a common theme throughout the games) but in an enjoyable way. There were plenty of different guns to collect along and you'd soon end up having favourites. Obviously, the best was anything automatic that fired plenty of bullets. After all, there were loads of enemies to contend with. I'm fairly confident that John McClane, in the Die Hard Trilogy, killed more bad guys than he ever did in the film versions.

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Another week, another Eurogamer News Cast! Join Eurogamer reporter Emma Kent, news editor Tom Phillips and me in the video below for an action-packed show of thrills, spills and the odd mug check.

We start with our usual catch-up on what we've been playing, and there's plenty of Mass Effect Legendary Edition talk (sorry, Emma). After that, we move on to the week's big talking point: Nintendo.

Do we give Nintendo's bad business practices a free pass? It's a topic we discuss, sparked by the revelation the Zelda and Loftwing amiibo figurine for Skyward Sword HD remaster lets you zip between the game's airborne overworld and Hyrule's surface, wherever you are - a handy feature not available in the original game. The amiibo costs $25.

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Pok Pok is a playroom for kids, on your iPad or iPhone. The project has been incubated at the creative studio Snowman (who made games like Skate City), and it's now live on the App Store. Buy the app and you get six interactive toys for kids to play with. They're all open-ended with no right or wrong way to play, and they're intended to foster creative thinking. New toys will be added over time, I gather, but there are no ads, no in-app purchases, and not even any text in the app besides the name Pok Pok.

My seven-year-old is slightly out of the age range that is going to get the most from Pok Pok, I suspect, but over the last few weeks she has tapped away at it quite happily. One of the six toys is a town - very much the kind of printed mat town that you can lay out on the floor of the living room. Except because this is a digital toy you can move town people around, put them in cars, check inside buildings and generally investigate every element.

Alongside the town are other standards like a lovely drawing app, which allows you to save pictures and also has a glorious Etch a-Sketch-like swipe bar to remove all scribblings. There's a sort of busy book of animations arranged by type - sports, outdoor things, ocean life - which feels like a starter encyclopedia. The art style is simple but rather timeless. I'm fascinated that it hasn't settled on a sort of '50s vibe that a lot of kids toys do when they're trying to look unadorned. It's very hard to place Pok Pok in a specific moment, which I suspect is the point.

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After a lengthy period of hyped and hushed development, THQ Nordic's epic open-world adventure Biomutant is almost upon us. The environmentally friendly journey of an ever-adaptive mammalian warrior will finally launch, May 25, on PS4, PC, and Xbox One.

While no next-gen edition exists, developer Experiment 101 has released two new gameplay videos, showcasing the PS4 and Xbox One editions performing on their PS5 and Xbox Series X counterparts. As expected, both editions look great, with PS5 running in native 1080p at 60 frames-per-second (upscaling to 4K with Dynamic Resolution), while Xbox Series X pulls of native 4K at 60 frames-per-second, bringing the luscious and dangerous world of Biomutant to life.

Sega has announced that it will be holding a Japanese live stream next week to announce the details of its previously teased "Virtua Fighter x eSports Project" The stream will be held on May 27 on the publisher's newly launched Virtua Fighter YouTube channel. Squee!

While no details have been released as to the stream's content, it's a snug bet to assume that Sega is getting set to officially announce Virtua Fighter eSports/Virtua Fighter 5: Ultimate Showdown, which was recently leaked via the Korean Ratings Board, as well as the PlayStation Store database. This is believed to be an updated edition of the series' last entry: 2010's Virtua Fighter 5: Final Showdown.

Given the emphasis on the word "eSports", one can also assume that Sega has plans to push the 3D fighter hard onto the competitive scene, so perhaps expect the formation of some sort of league, ala Capcom's Pro Tour. The stream begins at 20:00 JST, which is an eye-searing 04:00 PT / 07:00 ET, but rest assured we will bring you all of the details once they are revealed.

I'm very excited to see what Sega has in store for this great fighting franchise. It might not be a true sequel, but it's a start, and it if gets people playing again — online and at events — I'll take it.

Partner content by NetEase

NetEase is one of China’s biggest developers and publishers and is responsible for such games as Knives Out and Onmyoji. The company recently held its NetEase Connect 2021 event and it shared with the world what new games fans can expect from the company in 2021, including EVE Echoes, Frostpunk: Rise of City, and Naraka: Bladepoint.

IGN Japan was on hand to get the drop on every NetEase game coming to your phone, PC, and tablet this year, and we’ve gathered each and every one featured at NetEase Connect 2021 below:

Infinite Lagrange

Infinite Lagrange is a sci-fi space strategy mobile game. Immerse yourself in high-fidelity graphics while building an intergalactic space transportation network, forming alliances, and travelling between star systems. Through mining, building, trade, and negotiations players can amass a fleet of starships that suits their playstyle—from piracy to exploring the frontiers of space. The ability to customize and upgrade each ship allows players to create endless combinations and deployment strategies.

Infinite Lagrange

It’s coming maybe 5-10 years too late for peak Peppamania, and more than a few voice actors seem to have changed since my kids were into this show, but in 2021 we’re finally getting a proper Peppa Pig video game.

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Euro 2020, the planet’s biggest football tournament outside the World Cup itself, was supposed to take place last year. It was instead postponed to this Summer for obvious reasons, and to celebrate, Konami’s official PES version of the tournament will begin by featuring...woefully inaccurate and/or out-of-date rosters.

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Infinite Lagrange

Starbucks opened on campus today. This made my morning. pic.twitter.com/lDDiVpaGBm

Starbucks opened on campus today. This made my morning. pic.twitter.com/lDDiVpaGBm

• 00:00:00 Welcome! Mario Golf discussion
• 00:12:00 The Skyward Sword amiibo controversy
• 00:28:35 More news!
• 00:46:40 Games out this week
• 00:55:00 What we're playing
• 01:06:30 Question Block!

NVC is available on your preferred platform!

A build of Gears of War 3 that was developed by Epic as a way to test Unreal Engine 3 on the PlayStation 3 has been released online, letting anyone with a debug PS3 play the Xbox exclusive on Sony’s home console.

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Arguably the best raid to ever make it into either Destiny game is back this weekend with Destiny 2: Season of the Splicer. Bungie already detailed how it is handling World's First, which you can catch up on right here, since it's not technically a new game, but the latest blog post from the team shares new rewards and a few other updates players should know about. 

It all kicks off on May 22 at 10 a.m. Pacific. Guardians will once more take to Venus to take on the Vault of Glass, but as usual for World's First, there will be a Contest Mode active. There are also some pretty sweet rewards on the line. First things first though, there are a few things you need to know. According to Bungie: