Your first look at new features for the monk class

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• Overwatch 2020 Blizzard GearFest Mercy Funko – $14.99
• Overwatch D.Va Collectible IncrediBuild (from Insight Editions) – $129.99
• World of Warcraft 2020 Blizzard GearFest Illidan Funko – $14.99
• World of Warcraft 2020 Blizzard GearFest Murloc Funko – $14.99
• World of Warcraft 2020 Blizzard GearFest Sylvanas Funko – $14.99
• Hearthstone Collector’s Edition Pin Set – $59.99
• Blizzard Series 7 Blind Pack Pins 5 Pack – $29.99
• Blizzard Series 7 Platinum Signature Pin Set – $199.99
• Blizzard Series 7 Collector’s Edition Pin Set – $79.99
• Blizzard Series 4 Badges Booster Pack (4 Packs) – $19.99

A shop based on Nintendo's classic RPG series Mother will be opened temporarily in Osaka and Tokyo from November to December 2020.

The post Mother Shop Will Open Temporarily in Osaka and Tokyo, Japan appeared first on Siliconera.

Little Hope

Ever since I created my Orc Warlock 16 years ago, I've been playing World of Warcraft annually. That sounds pretty crazy out loud now that I think about it.

Nearly two decades of playing the game same: a sentiment that many have eye-rolled over the years as they waxed poetic about the "good days" of WoW and how they no longer play it (or in the case of several people, have gotten out of games entirely). People change, and so has World of Warcraft.

Blizzard is cashing in on that nostalgia, as they do every year, with a 16th anniversary celebration in-game that lasts until November 22. Check your Azeroth mailbox for a gift package, which includes: 200 Timewarped Badges, an experience and reputation boost item (16% for one hour) and a "Letter from the Timewalkers" questline item. There's also an event that involves WoW trivia if you head to Historian Llore in Stormwind or Historian Ju'pa in Orgrimmar.

Oh, plus "level 30 and above" characters can fight Lord Kazzak, Azuregos and "one of the four Dragons of Nightmare" each day for extra loot and 50 Timewarped Badges. You may recall the former name from one of the first WoW viral videos where he was kited to Stormwind. Ah, back when YouTube videos were harmless and in glorious 240p.

Fortnite is inarguably one of the biggest games of the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One generation. In fact, it was such an influential game and phenomenon that we called it generation-defining in our end-of-generation awards. Today, developer Epic Games detailed exactly what its iconic battle royale game brings to the next-gen consoles when it launches alongside them next week.

On the Xbox Series X/S side of things, players can expect 60 frames-per-second performance (even in splitscreen), with 4K resolution on the Series X and 1080p resolution on the Series S. The Xbox Series X version delivers dynamic visuals, with trees and grass responding to explosions, better simulations for smoke and liquid, and all-new storm and cloud effects. The Series S supports most of those enhancements as well, but Epic doesn't specify exactly which ones. The load times on both consoles are also significantly improved, delivering textures faster while also getting you into matches quicker. 

Netflix's The Witcher season 2 is in progress currently after several major hiccups surrounding the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. With a few firsts looks and a little recasting, the witchers have yet another surprise in store for fans: a new toy line from McFarlane Toys. 

This isn't the first time McFarlane Toys has adapted the Witcher universe but the new additions will be specific to the Netflix series, a series set before the time seen with CD Projekt RED's adaptation. The news of the new line comes by way of Toys News International with confirmation that the new line will include a few figures, though which characters we'll see have yet to be revealed. We do have a spiffy teaser image though, one that includes the wolf and swallow symbol: 

New Toys International

McFarlane Toys isn't abandoning the games though, don't worry. Just last month the toy company confirmed a few new additions to its Withcer line up, including Eredin and the new Gold Label series that is available now to pre-order. 

No Malarkey

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Today, during a livestream from Japan, Koei Tecmo revealed a new figure dedicated to its upcoming JRPG Atelier Ryza 2: Lost Legends & the Secret Fairy.

The figure, portraying heroine Ryza herself, will come from Wonderful Works, which is responsible for the creation of a very popular figure dedicated to the first game (popular enough to get a second print).

For now, we get to see the unpainted prototype. Of course, it will be painted before the figure is actually manufactured. Incidentally, this may very well be the first figure announced for a PS5 game.

Watch Dogs: Legion

features grime star Stormzy, not just as a piece of marketing material but as a quest giver. He’s been a big part of the hype of Watch Dogs: Legion, so fans are obviously excited to find and collab with him in-game. Here’s how to find Stormzy in Watch Dogs: Legion.

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Log in for some food and enchancement material following the Genshin Impact Amber AR Event!

The post Genshin Impact Packs Lunches and Merch for Amber AR Contest Winners appeared first on Siliconera.

Some of the first big PlayStation 5 games we saw this year – Sackboy, Spider-Man: Miles Morales, and even Horizon Forbidden West – will also be playable on PlayStation 4. But that should be it, at least as far as Sony-backed titles go. Another big-hitter, Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart, will only launch on PS5.

It's easy to point to Rift Apart's SSD-dependent dimension-hopping design and shrug off the notion that this game could ever possibly get an inferior PS4 version, but if Horizon Forbidden West can make a dual PS4/PS5 release happen (which I'm curious – and anxious – to see play out), then who's to say?

Well, how about Insomniac itself? The studio reiterated Rift Apart's PS5-only status on Twitter.

It’s a PS5 exclusive

— Insomniac Games (@insomniacgames) November 2, 2020

We weren't led to believe otherwise, but on the off-chance there were any lingering doubts, there you go. (The responses to this tweet, as with all tweets about any conceivable topic, are pretty ridiculous.)

As an aside, as much as the PS5 and Xbox Series X/S are in the spotlight right now, it's nice to consider folks who are sticking with their current consoles that will still have a few more (seemingly) great games to look forward to. The PS4 has had such a strong "final" year – if you even want to call it that.

If you’re an avid Middle-earth: Shadow Of Mordor fan, I have some bad news for you. Warner Bros. are removing all of its online features, so you only have until 31st December 2020 to enjoy them before they disappear forever.

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Parents of RPS, good news: a lovely-looking game about a funny farm of silly talking animals is coming in time for you to put it on your kid’s Christmas laptop. Orwell’s Animal Farm will launch on December 10th, the developers announced today, turning Georgie Orwie’s picturebook into a game where you make decisions to determine the fate of the farm. I just know I’ll be best friends with the big ol’ shire horse, Boxer.

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Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart is a PlayStation 5 exclusive, Insomniac has confirmed.

The developer responded to a tweet from someone wondering whether the upcoming platformer will be released on the PlayStation 4 as well as the PS5. It's answer is unequivocal.

Given Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart's use of the PS5's fast loading to instantly teleport the player to new worlds, the game would probably have to be significantly reworked for PS4. But some had wondered about the exact nature of its exclusivity given recent revelations about other PS5 games, such as Spider-Man: Miles Morales, Horizon: Forbidden West, and Sackboy: A Big Adventure, which are also coming to PS4 when they were initially announced for PS5.

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Riot Games announced that Ruined King: A League of Legends Story will come to PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, Switch and PC early next year, marking the first time anything League of Legends related has come to consoles.

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[cms-block], Black Smi-day, who needs to wait until November 27th when you’ve already got deals like Samsung’s 500GB 860 Evo already going on in the US for their lowest ever prices right now? As part of Amazon’s new ‘epic’ daily deals promotion, the 500GB model of our best SATA SSD recommendation can now be had for just $54, making it a much better buy than its $50 250GB sibling. Hurry, though, as this deal is today only and will be gone at midnight.

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In case you missed it, developer Iggymob gave us a detailed look at the new Gungrave game (that's still scheduled to be released on PS4 by the end of this year in Japan). Yes, I said "new Gungrave game."

Despite the misstep with the VR game, Gungrave G.O.R.E is decidedly not a VR title, nor is it a retread. Instead, it's the first mainline release in the series in many years; following the 2002 release of the PS2 original, the 2003 anime, and the 2004 Overdose sequel. It's a monumental moment for fans, like if the Trigun game Planet Gunsmoke was suddenly revived out of the blue. In the tease we get to see Beyond the Grave himself (albeit with his back to us) facing down an Orgman enemy, as well as a new look for the Death Hauler coffin weapon.

But is this thing actually coming out by the end of the year? And what about a potential PS5 release, given that so much has changed since we had our last development update? Well, we still aren't getting more info on that just yet; as the official Twitter account for the game asked people to stay tuned.

Uh, I think I will. Given how little pure character action games are released these days, I'm going to follow it until the end.

Gungrave G.O.R.E [Twitter]

With the future of Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines 2 less clear than before, a new vampy experience is rearing its head for a chance to shine. In a move no one really could have predicted, a battle royale Vampire: The Masquerade game has been announced. 

The teaser trailer for the vampire-driven battle royale experiences comes by way of Sharkmob with a teaser trailer showing off what the new game will have to offer. “Experience the next thrilling evolution of Battle Royale multiplayer action games set in the cult classic Vampire: The Masquerade universe where vampire sects are at war across the streets and rooftops of Prague,” reads the description. “Choose your playstyle, go solo or together, battling rivals and the hostile Entity who’s hellbent on exterminating all vampires. Use your supernatural powers, weapons and blood to become stronger in order to hunt, fight and survive the night.”

The battle royale Vampire: The Masquerade game will be Sharkmob's first major game following the studio's debut back in 2017. Sharkmob is made up of a pretty impressive dev team, including names from both IO Interactive and Massive Entertainment. 

Today, during a livestream from Korea, the local publisher of Final Fantasy XIV revealed a set of new costumes.

The set is called “Eorzea School Uniform” and it does exactly what it says on the tin with male and female versions.

The caveat is that the costumes will be released first in Korea on Dec. 8. It’s extremely likely that it’ll come to the western servers as well, but we don’t know when.

We can probably expect to know more down the line, but for now we wait.

You can check out a few screenshots and the concept art below.

Reisalin Stout will also be able to wear her Atelier Ryza: Ever Darkness & the Secret Hideout costume with the Deluxe Edition Season Pass.

The post Atelier Ryza 2 Digital Deluxe Edition With Season Pass Will Include Sophie Neuenmuller Costume appeared first on Siliconera.

Despite the launch of three brand new titles, Electronic Arts' football sim FIFA 21 has managed to retain the top spot of this week's UK Charts, at least as it applies to physical sales.

Ubisoft's open-world sequel Watch Dogs: Legion, Nintendo remake Pikmin 3 Deluxe, and Bandai Namco's horror title Dark Pictures Anthology: Little Hope all debuted in the Top Ten, but failed to secure the number one spot, landing at numbers two, seven, and nine respectively. Of course, with the ever-increasing shift to digital sales, the digital charts may tell a different story.

Next week sees the start of the next generation of video gaming, a generation that will likely see digital sales further supersede physical sales. While there will always be a market for physical games sales, via online retailers and the high street, recent years have seen a constant and undeniable market shift towards digital downloads, which is very unlikely to halt anytime soon.

Today, during a livestream from Japan, Koei Tecmo revealed new footage of the remasters of the Surge Concerto series, Ciel Nosurge DX and Ar Nosurge DX.

We get to see the first trailer related to both games, and then we move on to the first gameplay of Ciel Nosurge DX.

After that, we also see gameplay of Ar Nosurge DX, including exploration and battle.

Japanese audiences will be able to get their hands on a Collector's Edition of the Demon's Souls original soundtrack soon.

The post Demon’s Souls Soundtrack Will Have a Physical Release in November for Japan appeared first on Siliconera.

Today, during a livestream from Japan, Koei Tecmo revealed new footage and details of its upcoming JRPG Atelier Ryza 2: Lost Legends & the Secret Fairy.

We get to see a look at dungeon gameplay on top of plenty of costumes and even battle.

You can check both videos out below on top of the reveal of the theme song “Somewhen, Somewhere…” that came at the same time from the western arms of Koei Tecmo.

Dirt 5 on PlayStation 4

Codemasters‘ Dirt series has seen its fair share of changes over the years. From the Colin McRae beginnings through to a separation into two sub-series, it’s a franchise with a lot on offer. For Dirt 5, it’s more accessible than ever, leaving traditional rallying to its sister, but still ensuring you hit the asphalt for more than a second or two.

With the introduction of the Dirt Rally series, the core Dirt series is now more casual by design. The former is the home of long, intense events that test your focus, precision driving, and tight control. Rally is now the hardcore simulation series, leaving Dirt to offer the more traditional, pick-up-and-play racing experience.

As a result, Dirt 5’s gameplay has been tweaked from what Dirt fans might expect. It’s not nearly as punishing, with throttle control and precise braking things of the past. You can hurtle around every track at full pelt, flooring the accelerator between each corner.

Cars also stick to the track perfectly, allowing you to satisfyingly get the back out around corners – as it should do on dirt tracks – yet not forcing you to contend with too much under or oversteer. Every vehicle in Dirt 5 feels sturdy; you can throw them around and be confident that they won’t bite back.

It still feels like a Codemasters game though. Driving isn’t floaty like it is in the likes of Need for Speed; you still have to correct steering and fight around icy corners at times, but it’s not demanding. A great balance has been found between making the gameplay engaging but accessible.

The Indie Collective has announced a release date for the video game adaptation of George Orwell's seminal novel Animal Farm. The strategy-based adventure title will launch on PC via Steam, as well as iOS and Android platforms, on December 10.

Developed by Nerial, Orwell's Animal Farm will put players in charge of managing the resources and defense of the notorious Manor Farm, where a menagerie of barnyard animals have overthrown their human owners in an effort to make a better world for themselves. However, under the rule of pompous pig Napoleon, the other species soon come to learn that while some animals are equal, some are more equal than others.

Publisher The Dairymen has released a new teaser trailer, recounting the infamous moment when Napoleon explains to his fellow animals how it would be better for everyone if Napoleon makes all the choices befitting the governing of the farm's affairs, to save them from making "the wrong decisions".

Dirt has been many things in its lifetime, but here's a first: a mainline entry developed outside of Codemasters' Southam campus as its Cheshire studio takes point, giving us the series' trademark raucous off-roading through an all-new filter. The results are fascinating, if not always entirely convincing. With the Dirt Rally series picking up the more serious and sim-minded point-to-point action, Dirt 5 is a pure arcade racer, packed full of spectacle and a smattering of smart ideas, and while some parts ring a little hollow, others can still leave one hell of an impression.

It's a multidisciplinary racer, and a patchwork of different influences, but by far the biggest is Dirt 2 - that loudest, most raucous of Dirt games, with its music festival framework that the original Dirt 2 team would go on to develop further with the Forza Horizon series. In Dirt 5, that festival vibe pervades - you're given a customisable lanyard and access to a lattice of various events split over five chapters, all underscored by a light story headed up by Nolan North and Troy Baker.

Don't run away just yet, though. If it sounds a little off then it most definitely is, and if you were concerned that Dirt 5's initial announcement led with this bizarre little inclusion, I totally get it. So I'm pleased to say it's almost entirely inconsequential, confined to some light babbling in the background hosted by Donut Media's James Pumphrey and Nolan Sykes, with North and Baker making what amounts to cameos in a series of podcasts (there's a further cameo from W Series champion Jamie Chadwick, who does a sterling job of pretending to phone in from a festival in Nevada). It all builds to a showdown that can't help but feel a mite anti-climactic, though I'm more than okay with that.

Welcome to Morning Music, Kotaku’s daily hangout for folks who love video games and the cool-ass sounds they make. Today we’re hopping into a blue backpack that is…being carried by a bear?

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Samsung T7 2TB Portable SSD | $250 | Amazon

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The early [cms-block] deals continue this week, and one of today’s highlights is this 16GB Crucial Ballistix RAM kit clocked at a nippy 3000MHz for £65 over on Amazon UK. This is the cheapest this set has ever been, according to my Amazon price tracker, as it’s cost £78 or more for most of 2020. If you’ve ever wanted some rainbow RAM on the cheap, this is definitely worth considering.

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A special campaign is now underway in Octopath Traveler Conquerors of the Continent to celebrate this milestone.

The post Octopath Traveler: Conquerors of the Continent Has Surpassed 5 Million Users appeared first on Siliconera.

Earlier this year, we were given a teaser taste of Guild Wars 2's next expansion: which would later come to be known as End of Dragons.

But while we waited for the next chapter of the Guild Wars saga to begin, ArenaNet dished out some juicy news that the game was coming to Steam (sans account transfers). Well, that plan is changing, at least temporarily. According to a short post from ArenaNet, the company has made the decision to "put the Guild Wars 2 Steam release on hold for the time being."

The reason given? Their "number one priority" is focusing on the End of Dragons expansion and the "epic climax" to the current storyline, to deliver "high quality" content. In fact, the first major look at the upcoming Icebrood Saga conclusion is coming this week on November 5.

For those of you who don't play Guild Wars 2, the idea is that the game is part of a "living" world, where storyline changes can come through major or minor patches. Although other MMOs like World of Warcraft have "pre-patches" and the like to facilitate similar story arcs, Guild Wars 2 is built around its narrative at its core.

While it's a bummer that the game isn't coming to Steam anytime soon, I'm sure veterans don't mind as they can't transfer their accounts anyway.

Guild Wars 2 Steam Release News [ArenaNet]

Given the enormous amount of murder that takes place in the average Among Us game, I can't say its spaceships are particularly child-friendly, but apparently that's not enough to stop some crewmates from bringing their kids to work. One of the cosmetic items in Among Us is a mini crewmate pet that follows you around until you die - and will then sit sadly on the floor while you fly around as a ghost. As a result, some games end up littered with orphaned children after their parents have been murdered: but one Among Us fan decided to get creative and imagine a better future.

Unity developer Ahmad Creations has made a video showcasing an "adopt" mechanic for Among Us, which was created by partially remaking the game using the Unity engine. Ahmad Creations then added custom art and coding to get the adopt function to work - and then, of course, edited the final video together. The end result is a trail of little Among Us children, looking significantly happier than when they were abandoned on the cold Skeld floor.

"I hate to admit how long this took me to make", Ahmad Creations said in a hugely popular Reddit post sharing the video. Naturally, I asked how long it took to make.

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A video has emerged showing Spider-Man: Miles Morales loading in just seven seconds on a PlayStation 5.

That's from pressing play on the PS5 home screen to the game's main menu popping up. From there, loading a save and getting back into the game itself takes just under two seconds.

The origin of the low quality video is unclear, although it was posted to reddit over the weekend and has already seen nearly 4m views on Imgur. EDIT: It looks like it's Norwegian.

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While Bloodlines 2 is the big Vampire: The Masquerade game folks are waiting for, it’s far from the only game in the tabletop RPG setting, with the newest and weirdest being… a battle royale? Huh. Sharkmob, a Swedish studio founded by former The Division devs, this weekened announced a yet-unnamed battle royale that’ll see vampires scrapping through the streets and over the rooftops of prague. Huh. A surprising use of the license. It’s due next year, and all they have to show for now is a cinematic trailer.

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In years past, massive crowds descended on Tokyo’s Shibuya. But this year, with the global pandemic, things were supposed to be different. They were supposed to be virtual.

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