Balan Wonderworld is out, and the reception has been...interesting, to say the least.

While it's extremely clunky and has myriad design issues, I think most people will agree that the soundtrack rips. It feels like a true AAA score, with a full orchestra and bolstered by several collaborations, including the artist Marasy.

Thankfully, Square Enix put out a free "mini album" for the game that you can listen to for free. It consists of five tracks, all of which are on Spotify. You can also listen to a few beautiful piano tracks performed live by Marasy below.

I can't stress enough how great they are, and it's a shame that the game didn't turn out as well as it could have. The second track in particular wouldn't feel out of place in a Lupin the Third anime film, and reminds me heavily of some of the more memorable game scores in recent years, like Sega's Rhythm Thief.

However this game's legacy ends up, I bet a lot of people will be talking about the soundtrack for years to come. Expect our review of Balan Wonderworld from CJ very soon.

Balan Wonderworld Preshow [Spotify]

Thoren Bradley can be found in dozens of TikTok videos chopping wood in his backyard in rural Northern California, surrounded by evergreen woods with a swimming pool of sky overhead. The 29-year-old is colorfully tattooed with a well-groomed beard and gym-honed physique that frequently inspires viewers to leave…

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EVE has been torn apart by war between the game’s largest factions for close to nine months. The war is raging on every imaginable front: massive fleets wreaking untold destruction, economic powers exerting their influence over the game’s markets, players vying for karma on the EVE subreddit. Recently, two maestros on…

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The patch also gives the Bucky its biggest nerf yet

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Sure, Brothers and A Way Out director Josef Fares has made some good games. But he'll also be forever known for that moment at The Game Awards 2017 where he let the world know his opinions on the Academy Awards.

Now, Fares fans have found he snuck an audio clip of the moment into his new game It Takes Two, as part of a bizarre Easter egg. Here's a video captured by The Games Awards host Geoff Keighley, who presumably signed off on the audio being included:

When scanning the airwaves for clues on where to go next in The Pillow Fort chapter, turning your radar all the way around and tuning into a certain point will unlock the above audio clip.

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What was rumour has now been confirmed, with Sony announcing it's to close the PS3 and PSP stores on July 2nd, with the Vita store to close soon after on August 27th, taking with them a whole bevvy of games that were only available via digital download. It's bitterly disappointing news, and while Sony confirmed you'll be able to re-download games in your library for an undisclosed time after - because who needs details? - for many there's now a limited window to pick up some true gems. What follows isn't meant as a comprehensive list of what's going to be lost - it'd be too depressing, for one - but rather a guide to what's worth picking up before it disappears.

What a beautiful, challenging thing this is: a game about moving an octopus between one wall and the next, collecting stuff, avoiding stuff, and marveling at the sheer variety on offer as the levels fly by. With simple controls and a fiendish design, this would work so beautifully on the Switch, but that's a hope for another day. For now, remember the many hours it spent bringing gorgeous frustration to Sony devices.

CD

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When AMD launched their Ryzen 5000 series last year, it quickly became apparent that throwing more cores and threads at a game didn't necessarily result in significantly faster frame rates. Indeed, unless you regularly use your gaming PC for other intensive desktop tasks such as editing videos, running virtual machines or you're a full-time streamer, you're usually much better off opting for a mid-range CPU like AMD's Ryzen 5 5600X than spending loads of cash on something more upmarket like their Ryzen 9 5900X. The same can be said for Intel's new Core i9-11900K, their latest flagship CPU in their 11th Gen Rocket Lake family.

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After their 10th Gen Comet Lake CPUs got well and truly whomped by AMD's Ryzen 5000 series at the end of last year, Intel have come back fighting with the launch of their 11th Gen Rocket Lake CPUs. With proper PCIe 4.0 support across the board, memory overclocking available on more motherboard chipsets than ever before, as well as some welcome improvements to its instructions per clock performance, Rocket Lake finally feels like an Intel platform that's worth upgrading to - especially when the ongoing hardware shortages have put quite the premium on their Ryzen rivals. Indeed, with Ryzen 5 5600X prices currently hovering around the £350 / $375 mark, the £250 / $270 Intel Core i5-11600K certainly looks a heck of a lot more attractive by comparison for new PC builders at the moment.

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We're still a couple of months out from the launch of Arc System Works' guitar wailin' fighter Guilty Gear Strive, which is set to launch in early June on PS4, PS5, and PC. But PlayStation fans who pre-order either the Deluxe or Ultimate editions of the new sequel can knock a few extra days off of their calendar, thanks to an accompanying Early Access bonus.

Pre-ordering GG Strive in its Deluxe or Ultimate format will allow you to jump into the action a full three days ahead of the title's official June 11 release date. Additionally, ArcSys has announced that this Early Access period will be chock full of content, offering all 15 playable characters, (including I-No and Anji Mito), each fighter's respective story mode, and all online modes, so you can start labbing from the get-go. And with a fighter as complex as Guilty Gear, you're gonna need all the practice you can get. This Early Access period is strictly for the PlayStation editions of the game. Sorry, PC users.

It should also be noted that the Deluxe and Ultimate editions of GG Strive ain't cheap, weighing in at around $85 and $100 respectively, (Get used to those prices, kid), but they do offer additional bonuses such as exclusive character colors, a digital soundtrack, custom themes, and the GG Strive Season Pass, securing the first wave of post-launch characters - where are you, Baiken?

It's finally here - Intel's 11th-generation of desktop CPUs. Codenamed Rocket Lake S, these chips aim to re-take the gaming performance crown from AMD, whose recently released Ryzen 5000 processors showed incredible gen-on-gen gains. Intel is making similar claims, touting up to a 19 per cent improvement to single core speeds, but does 11th-gen deliver? To answer this, we've been testing the flagship Core i9 11900K (£559/$614) and mid-range Core i5 11600K (£269/$269) frantically for the past week, in a new suite of recent games that can trip up even flagship CPUs.

Call of Duty publisher Activision Blizzard will name Armin Zerza as its new chief financial officer following the retirement of Dennis Durkin. ...

CD Projekt published a series of informational slides on Twitter today, alongside a YouTube video, outlining its future plans for the company and its brands, including The Witcher and Cyberpunk.

At the outset, CD Projekt says it plans to expand its online presence and build out both The Witcher and Cyberpunk franchises through "core gaming extensions" (like mobile) and partnerships, including TV series and merchandise. The publisher also says it plans to move into parallel AAA game development starting in 2022. The company has also invested in Digital Scrapes, a Vancouver-based studio that will bolster its other studios.

pic.twitter.com/1AEja0sOI5

— CD PROJEKT IR (@CDPROJEKTRED_IR) March 30, 2021

"We are planning to build cross-functional teams to work on both IPs," said Pawl Zawodny, Head of Production and CTO at CD Projekt, in one slide. "These teams will blend disciplines and expertise, so we have closer communication and skill sharing going on from the beginning. Cross-functional teams allow different aspects of development to run in tandem without complication."

Those who have the early access version will be able to play online modes with Anji and I-No from the get-go.

The post Guilty Gear Strive Early Access Will Now Include All Launch Content appeared first on Siliconera.

At this point, I have a decent collection of Switch cases.

I display them the old fashioned way: by fanning out the original packaging in classic fashion. But every so often I get the itch to show them more elegantly, and I'm tempted by these new goodies from Retro Fighters.

Called the "Retro85 Mini NES cartridge Switch game cases" (mouthful!), they're billed as "individual Switch game card cases stylized as classic NES carts." A set comes with eight carts in all, which can display one game per cart; and a giant case within a case to hold all those cases (I heard you like cases).

I'm probably going to hold off on getting these as it's a bit of a novelty; but if I had a more extensive Switch library to show off, I'd definitely get them to publicly display as part of a collection. The gall of using a giant case to hold one tiny cart is tempting.

Retro Fighters Retro85 Mini NES Cartridge Switch Game Cases [Amazon]

The second part of a discussion on 'subverting player expectation,' focusing on the creation of a unique workbench event in The Last of Us Part II. ...

Gunnar Razer Gaming Glasses | $40 | Best Buy

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The Final Fantasy XIV Digital Fan Fest event will include live performances, and more information about future updates.

The post Final Fantasy XIV Digital Fan Fest to Include Live Performances appeared first on Siliconera.

For PS4 and Nintendo Switch owners who simply cannot get by without a spot of the old rip 'n' tear, Limited Run Games has announced a new physical release, collating three titles from id Software's game-changing shooter series, Doom.

Doom: The Classics Collection will be made available in three formats. The Standard Edition will include a boxed disc/cartridge containing original releases Doom, Doom II, and Doom 3 and will retail for around $40 USD. A Special Edition also adds numerous bonus items including art prints for all three titles, steelbook casing, a keychain, an 8GB USB device styled after a floppy disk, a metal replica of an in-game keycard, and a reprint of the 1996 Doom comic book. This edition will retail for around $80.

This new trailer provides a look at combat and a brief look into Rosaria's personality and attitude.

The post Genshin Impact Rosaria Demonstration Video and Voice Actress Revealed appeared first on Siliconera.

I've been playing Fortnite weekly for...a long time now, and generally, I favor the Switch.

Fortnite has been one of my go-to "wind down" games at night, and my wife and I play together portably basically wherever we want. A few missions here, some battle progress there, it's a good chill out experience. I just got another Victory Royale last night, actually!

But while it is fun for sure, the Switch port has been lagging behind since it launched. Muddy visuals and an unstable framerate are mostly to blame, but those are hopefully being addressed today with a rather massive update specifically for the Switch edition.

It's bringing up the resolution to 1170x660 in handheld form and 1560x880 in docked form, which is a 38% increase in pixels for the former, Epic Games says. It'll also grant Switch users 140MB of extra storage space (compression), and these changes will enable a "consistent framerate."

Here's the full rundown from Epic: "So what does this mean for Switch players? The update provides significantly improved resolution both in handheld and docked modes, resulting in images that are less blurry, without loss of performance. The update also provides a more consistent framerate, with fewer hitches, resulting in a smoother experience overall."

Good! It's been lingering for far too long, especially in light of the PS5 and Series X upgrades.

You can get a look at the upgrade below, with the old visuals on the left and the new ones on the right. Notice the extra details like the individual leaves on the tree.

Performance boost [Epic Games]

The organizer will work directly with game platform stores to provide new game demos during the event.

The post Tokyo Game Show 2021 Will Mostly Take Place Online Again appeared first on Siliconera.

Remember when Team Ninja said it was "looking into" reports of Nioh 2 crashes on PC? Well, they looked into it!

Ironically, the bug was introduced with a prior patch, leaving Team Ninja to scramble and find a fix for it. That very fix has been implemented as of now, as part of version 1.27.1. These changes have been applied to the Steam/PC and PS5 editions of the game.

It's not a super exciting patch, as everything is intended to squash issues entirely. I'm talking crashes (including a rare one when folks were "raising their level to 750 while using a mouse" - obscure!), and just plain old random crashes. There's three separate bullet points for crash fixes, and one of them was triggered "in certain environments." That sounds...common!

The PS5 fixes involve "other minor bugs," but also address 120FPS problems where "certain enemies" were going crazy when the framerate was jacked up. Ah, designing frame-perfect action games isn't easy!

Team Ninja [Twitter]

If you’ve ever been to Japan (and even if you haven’t), you are probably aware that shoes are a big deal—and specifically, taking them off. The bottoms of shoes are considered dirty for obvious reasons. Because of this, walking inside while wearing shoes is certainly frowned upon.

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Can you believe Warframe came out a whopping eight years ago, in 2013? It was a follow-up to Digital Extremes' Dark Sector, a third person shooter with a knife frisbee gimmick that got a lukewarm reception (though I myself liked it a bunch). Dark Sector was itself a reimagining of a prototype the team had built for a game set not in a fictitious Eastern European setting but in space, and watching it now, you'll be amazed by how much of the DNA of Warframe was established years before the game ever came out.

The Tenno are there, Warframe's space ninjas and guardians of the solar system, in their strange organic armour. And for years, Warframe wasn't a lot more than that to me. A decent enough action title with a lot of grinding, unlocking new "warframes" to fight in. In my mind it's always sat alongside Destiny. Interesting space settings tethered to a treadmill of rote action. But while I've spent the last year or so giving both of these games another go, amused by certain additions (Destiny's bow is a joy to wield and Warframe's Octavia kills enemies with custom music...how could I not) only one of them has managed to grab me.

So if you're interested in playing Warframe, turn back now. I mean it, massive spoilers ahead. If you're remotely interested in playing it already then you'll be served better by experiencing its story for yourself.

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Can anyone help getting in touch with SEGA?

The new Pikmin game from Nintendo and Pokémon Go developer Niantic has begun a public test in Singapore, it was announced this morning.

Players in the region can download the app now via Google Play, and be the first in the world able to try it out.

Currently, the game is still titled "Pikmin App (Early Access)", and players have been discouraged from posting images and gameplay footage online.

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New information about The Firmament has been shared with this recent update as well.

The post Final Fantasy XIV Patch 5.5 Diamond Weapon Trial Screenshots Revealed appeared first on Siliconera.

We have a brand new number one this week, as Capcom's Monster Hunter Rise inevitably debuted in the top spot of the UK Charts. The fantasy adventure, which has already sold an amazing four million copies worldwide, leads a streak of Top Ten Switch dominance.

The news of Monster Hunter Rise's success has been somewhat eclipsed, however, by a ridiculous sales spike for Nintendo's Super Mario 3D All-Stars. As reported by GamesIndustry.biz, the retro compendium saw its sales boosted by 276% last week, no doubt in anticipation of the title's de-listing, scheduled for tomorrow, March 31. The imminent removal of the title, heavily promoted by Nintendo, led to a rush of panic-buying, ultimately reinstalling the title in the number two spot. What a fucking surprise.

The terrific Terraria added Steam Workshop support in a patch yesterday, making it easier to install mods and share worlds with other players. Players have been modding the crafty sandbox explore-o-stabber for ages, and the Workshop doesn't support the most complex mods, but a Steam Workshop is certainly welcome for reduced faff.

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This entry will serve as a sequel to Utawarerumono: Mask of Truth.

The post Utawarerumono: ZAN 2 Announced For PlayStation 5 and PlayStation 4 appeared first on Siliconera.

The fight goes on in Activision's tribizillion-dollar shooter franchise Call of Duty. Tomorrow will see the launch of "Reloaded", a mid-season update for both Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War and its sister battle royale title Call of Duty: Warzone. The coming weeks will see a slew of new content made available for both releases, because the bullets. won't. stop.

Firstly, Black Ops Cold War will receive its reworked Miami map, Miami Strike, which hopes to improve the rep of the neon nightmare - which I actually quite like, to be honest. Miami Strike will be running a 24/7 playlist in order to help the community get to grips with the new, streamlined layout. My Tiki bar better still be standing.

Speaking of maps, third-act campaign locale Mansion will be added to Gunfight and Face Off modes, while Golova is getting copy-pasted from the excellent Outbreak mode to enter rotation in the not-quite-as-excellent Fireteam. New modes will include Multi-Team Hardpoint, (which sounds like total chaos), Gunfight Tournament, and a Blueprint-based variant of Gun Game.

This week, Nexon announced that last year the company greenlit up to $1.5 billion worth of investments in Konami Holdings, Bandai Namco Holdings, Sega Sammy Holdings, and Hasbro.

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Fortnite's new primal season got its first update this morning, and dinosaurs now roam the game's island.

Like other wildlife, Raptors are tameable with a Hunter's Cloak item - if you feel brave enough. But there's no way to command them from a motorbike.

Fortnite fans have been expecting these dinos to appear since Chapter 2 Season 6 first kicked off two weeks ago. Suspicious-looking eggs around the island have been slowly cracking, with the sounds inside suggesting this wasn't something left by the Easter bunny.

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The statue features Midoriya and friends ready to fight, with a bulky All Might statue behind them.

The post Preorders Begin For Prime 1 Studio’s $1900 My Hero Academia Statue appeared first on Siliconera.

miHoYo has released a trailer introducing us to Sister Rosaria, the next character headed to PS4, PC, and mobile phenomenon Genshin Impact. Rosaria will be added to the gacha pipe during the next banner event, which is expected to launch on or around April 6.

Rosaria is a high-ranking Sister in Monstadt's Church of Favorius. Despite her important position, Rosaria is relatively bored of her holy lifestyle, flitting around in an aloof manner and often failing to show up for her duties. But even with this apathetic attitude toward her chores, Rosaria remains wholly dedicated to defending Monstadt and the church - facilitated by her femme-fatale nature and highly-adept spear-fighting skills.

The trailer also spotlights both Rosaria's English and Japanese voices. Her English localization is provided by Elisabeth Maxwell, perhaps best known for her roles as Persona 5's public prosecutor Sae Niijima and Hyrule Warrior's Gerudo fighter Urbosa in. For Japanese VA fans, Rosaria is voiced by Ai Kakuma, who also voices Edelgard in Fire Emblem, Yuri Sakazaki in The King of Fighters, and is a mainstay of anime. The fact that Rosaria is not a hammer-wielder, therefore robbing me of a "Sister Sledge" headline, will bother me for the rest of the day.

John Hanke, boss of Pokémon Go developer Niantic, has issued a tease showing a pair of Google Glass-style spectacles.

The glasses have been customised with the Niantic logo, while Hanke's Twitter post states that the specs are being made to interact with games on Niantic's AR platform.

For now, we can but speculate at the tech inside - though this isn't the first we've heard of Niantic testing its games on headset devices.

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Although I didn't find the first season of The Witcher show hard to follow, it boggles the mind why the showrunners decided it was a good idea. The editing and pacing was incredibly off, so it makes sense why a lot of folks got mad about it. The discourse around the second season should be a lot more focused, especially since the narrative is reportedly more focused.

That second season narrative, mind, will seemingly also involve the Wild Hunt. More of a legend than a major plot point (depending on the medium), it looks like Netflix literally ponied up for some horses and armor, so they're likely not going to have the crew show up for a few seconds in some inconsequential dream sequence.

The pictures (below) come courtesy of the Netflix Witcher fan Twitter account, which show off Wild Hunt filming in North Devon, England. One of my absolute favorite parts is the epic shot of them all riding on the beach together contrasted directly to the one with the cast and crew, and the filming trucks.

There's some real "end of Monty Python and the Holy Grail" energy there!

Netflix Witcher [Twitter]

Last year, the in-person Tokyo Game Show was canceled due to covid-19 concerns. In its place was an online event. This year, once again, the show will be only online.

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