5 Funniest Ways to Die in Helldivers 2

1 year 3 months ago

In Helldivers 2, friendly fire is a feature that can’t be avoided, so it’s best to embrace. Because of that, you are bound to die many hilarious deaths, so here are the funniest ways to die in Helldivers 2.

Helldivers 2 has a deep sandbox-like nature to it, with many of its systems having realistic nuance. There’s no gamey resilience to your stratagems, powerful weapons, explosive grenades, or anything. And because of how little health you have and how many things explode, dying from friends or from forgetting that you’re cooking that grenade can and will happen.

Author
Ali Taha

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If you're enjoying Cobalt Core, you should play Sunshine Heavy Industries

1 year 3 months ago

I promise I'm not trying to turn RPS into a Soggins the Frog fansite, but... If you have a) been enjoying Cobalt Core as part of RPS Game Club this month, and b) especially like it when Soggins turns up with his ship of malfunctioning missile launchers, then I implore you to make Sunshine Heavy Industries your next port of call in your Steam library. It's what the Cobalt Core devs Rocket Rat Games made first, and you can immediately see a lot of shared DNA between the two games - not least its chunky, charming pixel visuals and some crossover between its cast of characters - including our pal Soggins.

It is, I should stress, a very different game to Cobalt Core - it's a sandboxy spaceship builder with zero combat involved, for starters - but I've been playing it again this week ahead of some other Game Club-themed articles I've got cooking, and I've been having a lovely time with it. Not least because I get to spend more time with Soggins the very smug frog, all while listening to even more excellent chill tunes from Cobalt Core composer Aaron Cherof.

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Author
Katharine Castle

Stellar Blade ESRB Rating in Line With Korean GRAC One

1 year 3 months ago

Stellar Blade ESRB Rating in Line With Korean GRAC One

The ESRB issued its rating for the upcoming action game Stellar Blade and dubbed it “Mature.” This comes after the Game Rating and Administration Committee (GRAC) in Korea rated it for players ages 19 and up.

The description shared by the board offered explanations for Stellar Blade being suggested for players ages 17 and up. Some of it involved the way women are depicted in the title. It specifically mentioned the physics for bodies and “revealing costumes.” The degree of violence, which involves various guns and swords and involve blood, also ended up cited. It did note only one swear, with that being the word “shit.”

Here is the full ESRB description as taken from the official site:

Author
Jenni Lada

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After Pricing Dragon’s Dogma 2 $70, Capcom Is Now Considering a Video Game Price Review

1 year 3 months ago

Dragon’s Dogma 2 is the first Capcom game priced $70, but it sounds like there’s more to come.

In a financial results conference call Q&A summary, Capcom responded to a question about the company’s video price policy that also pointed out $69.99 had become the norm for triple-A video games across the industry.

“Dragon's Dogma 2, which is scheduled for release this fiscal year, will be priced at $69.99,” Capcom replied. “Industrywide development costs are rising, and we are considering a price review as one option. Ultimately, we intend to take a thoughtful approach in pricing our games while ascertaining user feedback.”

That very much suggests $70 will become the standard for Capcom video games, as it has become the standard for so many other triple-A video game publishers. It seems reasonable to expect Monster Hunter Wilds, due out at some point in 2025, will cost $70 — or perhaps even more.

News of a potential price review comes as little surprise, given comments made last year by Capcom president Haruhiro Tsujimoto. Speaking at the Tokyo Game Show, Tsujimoto said he thought the price of video games were "too low", and that increasing the price of video games would be a “healthy option” for the industry.

Author
Wesley Yin-Poole

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The Best Sci-Fi, Fantasy, And Horror Streaming In February 2024

1 year 3 months ago

February is here. Let’s watch some movies. Welcome to io9's latest edition of the Nerd’s Watch, where we pare down the enormous lists of new films and television shows arriving on all your favorite streaming services into the sci-fi, fantasy, and horror titles we think you’ll like most. (And sometimes, just the ones…

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Author
Germain Lussier

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Fallout and Fallout 2 Free on Epic Games Store Next Week

1 year 3 months ago

A handful of classic Fallout games, including the beloved Fallout 2, are free to download and own forever via the Epic Games Store from February 22 for a week.

As reported by VGC, Fallout, Fallout 2, and Fallout Tactics: Brotherhood of Steel will be available from February 22 to 29 to anyone with an Epic Games account. Players just need to log in to the store and visit the individual game pages to claim them, granting access to them forever.

The original Fallout, not developed by current franchise owner Bethesda but Interplay Productions, launched in 1997 and laid the groundwork for what would become one of gaming's most iconic franchises.

Players would explore a wasteland littered with wild and wacky characters and engage in turn-based role-playing combat to defeat all manner of mutants.

Fallout 2 is perhaps the most beloved of the pre-Bethesda games, offering a similar game to the original but improving systems across the board. "With its great storyline, huge game world, and well written scripts, Fallout 2 gave [us] many, many hours of totally absorbing gameplay," IGN said in our review.

Finally, Fallout Tactics: Brotherhood of Steel takes that beloved world and applies tactical, squad-based combat. "Fallout Tactics: Brotherhood of Steel does just about everything right. The only problem is that there's too much of it," we said in our review.

Author
Ryan Dinsdale

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Multiplatform Microsoft and a very different future for consoles | This Week in Business

1 year 3 months ago

This Week in Business is our weekly recap column, a collection of stats and quotes from recent stories presented with a dash of opinion (sometimes more than a dash) and intended to shed light on various trends. Check every Friday for a new entry.

Microsoft dropped a bombshell yesterday, confirming recent reports that it would be going multiplatform, bringing a quartet of first-party games to rival consoles in the near future.

It didn't say which four games those would be, but it ruled out Starfield and Indiana Jones, which had been named in those unconfirmed reports. Between what was revealed and what was reported, it seems likely we're looking at Sea of Thieves, Hi-Fi Rush, Pentiment, and Grounded.

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Author
Brendan Sinclair

McDonald’s Japan Next Happy Meal Toys Feature Kirby, Pompompurin

1 year 3 months ago

McDonald's Japan Next Happy Meal Toys Feature Kirby and Pompompurin

McDonald’s Japan announced that the next Happy Meal collaborations toys include Kirby plush and Sanrio’s Pompompurin. The first round of Kirby plushies and Pompompurin toys will appear on February 23, 2024, and the second one on March 1.

The company's X (formerly Twitter) official account shared two posts showcasing the new plushies and toys. When it comes to the new McDonald’s Japan Kirby plush, there will be eight available, with four appearing in each round. The plushies feature Kirby in different poses. The first round also includes a Waddle Dee plush, with the second one including a special yellow Kirby plush.

https://twitter.com/McDonaldsJapan/status/1758325328076792094

Meanwhile, the first round of Pompompurin Happy Meal items includes a ball maze toy, a jumping Pompompurin, and a picture matching game. The second round a fridge-shaped mini container with a magnet, a Pompompurin sofa stamp, and a tissue case.

Author
Daniel Bueno

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Bandai Namco cancels development of "at least" five games

1 year 3 months ago

Bandai Namco has revealed it cancelled development of "at least" five projects following a review to implement "stricter standards" and an "emphasis on quality" in its upcoming games.

The information comes from the company's latest financial report for Q3 of FY2024, which contained changes to its projections of profits and sales for the full fiscal year.

The Tekken 8 and Elden Ring publisher lowered its projections for profits due to "valuation losses". These losses include "loss on disposal of titles following a review of the composition of the titles within the next mid-term plan in mind", the company stated in its report.

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Author
Liv Ngan

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Call of Duty Dataminer Reveals Unannounced Warhammer 40,000 Skins

1 year 3 months ago

Following the revelation that Call of Duty Modern Warfare 3 and Warzone are getting a surprise Warhammer 40,000 crossover, a dataminer has revealed what the skins actually look like in-game.

Modern Warfare 3 dataminer TheOfficeCOD posted a video showcasing two Space Marine operator skins coming to Activision’s shooter, one from the Ultramarines chapter, the other from the Blood Angels.

While the Space Marines look goofy holding Call of Duty guns (these Power Armour-clad transhuman warriors are meant to dwarf the average human in terms of size and power), it sounds like they are reserved for use with the Juggernaut killstreak, which lets you wear a hulking, armoured suit and wield a devastating minigun. That sounds much more up a Space Marine’s street. Perhaps the Juggernaut's minigun will be swapped out for a Bolter, the iconic Space Marine weapon from Games Workshop's grim dark sci-fi universe.

Indeed, TheOfficeCOD revealed the Warhammer 40,000 skins are labelled as Juggernaut in the files, and suggests they are reserved for a limited-time event or special game mode. But, there are Space Marine finishers, apparently, which suggests an Operator addition.

Author
Wesley Yin-Poole

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Epic secures iOS developer account, Europe mobile store and Fortnite launch this year

1 year 3 months ago

Epic Games will begin developing a mobile version of the Epic Games Store for launch on iOS in Europe, the company has said, now it has officially received an Apple Developer Account.

The store's launch will also herald the return of Fortnite to iPhones, years after its previous version was locked down after Epic Games added the abililty to make direct in-game payments, circumventing Apple's standard 33 percent cut.

Epic said today it planned to launch the Epic Games Store on iOS in 2024, operated by Epic Games Sweden.

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Author
Tom Phillips

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Baldur’s Gate 3 Patch 6 Notes Detail New Kissing Options, Idle Animations

1 year 3 months ago

Baldur’s Gate 3 Patch 6 Notes Detail New Kissing Options, Idle Animations

Larian Studios released the Baldur’s Gate 3 Patch 6 notes and, as someone might expect, they are huge. The biggest new additions involve some additional animations that add ambiance to the world when romancing characters or hanging around camp, but there are also new fixes to improve the overall experience. 

The actual notes went into more detail about how these animations will look when you are at camp and around your companions. With the kisses, it is random which one you will see or get when you kiss a character you are in a relationship with. However, there are different ones and character heights will be taken into account. As for the new idle animations, there are six total. Halsin, Jaheira, Lae’zel, Minsc, Minthara, and Shadowheart will all do different things than before when they’re relaxing.

Here are the full Baldur’s Gate 3 patch notes, as taken from Steam. Note that they do contain spoilers if you haven't beaten the game.

HIGHLIGHTS

Author
Jenni Lada

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Best PS5 Deals: Preorder Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth, Game Deals, SSD Discounts & More

1 year 3 months ago

Now that PS5 consoles are regularly available to buy, it's an excellent time to start picking up games, accessories, and hardware for it. What's even better is when you can find all of those things at a discounted price. Below, you can find a variety of different sales on everything from games to SSDs and even information on where to buy a PS5 now. You can even still grab a Spider-Man 2 PS5 Slim bundle right now, though you'll want to act fast to pick one up as they're starting to sell out. We've also included links to where you can preorder Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth ahead of its release on February 29 for PS5.

TL;DR - Best PS5 Deals Right Now

Author
Robert Anderson

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Baldur's Gate 3, Spider-Man 2 sweep DICE Awards 2024

1 year 3 months ago

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Baldur's Gate 3 and Marvel's Spider-Man 2 were the big winners at last night's DICE Awards in Las Vegas.

At the 27th iteration of the ceremony, Insomniac Games took home six accolades, including outstanding achievements in animation, character, original music, audio design and technical achievement, as well as action game of the year.

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Author
James Batchelor

Post Malone Is Not Only Curating WWE 2K24's Soundtrack, He's a Playable Character, Too

1 year 3 months ago

Prolific musician Post Malone will not only be a part of the soundtrack for WWE 2k24, but will also become a playable character in the game, 2K Sports has confirmed.

In a blog post, 2K Sports revealed that the rapper would not only include a few of his songs on the soundtrack, but that he curated the game's score, serving as Executive Soundtrack Producer, with various genres from electronic music to rock. 2K also revealed that Post Malone would be a playable character in WWE 2K24, purchasable via a DLC pack that will be available at an undisclosed time following the game's release.

Additional info for WWE 2k24, including the roster, Superstar ratings, and DLC, will be "shared soon," 2K wrote in the blog post.

2K also revealed the list of 12 songs featured, which you can check out below:

Author
Taylor Lyles

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More Unicorn Overlord Allies and Enemy Revealed

1 year 3 months ago

More Unicorn Overlord Allies and Enemy Revealed

Atlus and Vanillaware revealed six new Unicorn Overlord allies and one enemy. Dinah, Morard, Nigel, Ramona, Sanatio, and Yunifi will be on Alain’s side, while Elgor will be another foe.

Three of the new Unicorn Overlord allies are bestrals, which means they belong to humanoid species with animal traits. Dinah leads a group of soldiers called the Snowpetals and is voiced by Sayaka Senbongi. Both Ramona and Morard are part of the Bastorias Frostblooms. She’s the group’s leader and is voiced by Nanako Mori. He’s one of its most valuable warriors and is voiced by Tomoyuki Shimura. Ramona’s adopted (human) daughter Yunifi is an archer with the group. She’s played by Hisako Kanemoto. Sanatio isn’t a beastral, but he is a Heavenswing Knight with the wings of an angel. Mutsumi Tamura is the voice actor for him. Finally, the last new ally revealed is the Knights of the Sacred Heart leader Nigel. Takayuki Ishii provides his voice.

Here’s how all of those characters look in and out of battle.

Author
Jenni Lada

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Helldivers 2’s New Extraction Missions Are Absolutely Wrecking Players

1 year 3 months ago

If you’re playing Helldivers 2 you’ve probably heard the in-game call to action: the Automatons are making a push towards Earth and it’s time for players to turn their attention away from the killer bugs they started with and onto the killer robots. The only problem is, the killer robots are absolutely wrecking players.

This week, Helldivers 2 developer Arrowhead opened up two new worlds to play on, and introduced new Automaton defense missions including some that involve safely extracting a certain number of scientists or civilians. And it’s these extraction missions in particular that players are having trouble with.

Why? Simply put, these missions chuck hordes of heavily armoured Automatons at you in relentless waves of robot death. It’s incredibly difficult to cope with, even when in a four-person squad. The Automatons, already considered the tougher of the two enemy factions, land from their dreaded dropships in their droves. It can feel overwhelming from the moment you spawn in. All this, and you need to keep those squisy scientists alive until they reach safety.

“I've had a few goes at the civilian defense mission and holy shit we were getting WRECKED,” said redditor Cracker3011. “They don't stop coming. THEY DON'T STOP COMING.”

Author
Wesley Yin-Poole

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Here Are The Winners Of The 27th Annual D.I.C.E. Awards

1 year 3 months ago

27th Annual D.I.C.E. Awards Winners

The 27th annual D.I.C.E. Awards took place yesterday. While it doesn’t have the mainstream flashiness of the Game Awards, D.I.C.E. is a more industry-focused (and arguably more prestigious) event that honors the best games and creators of the last year. It is hosted and judged by the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences (AIAS) along with votes from over 30,000 industry experts, developers, and studios. 

You can view the full list of nominees here. The big winners were Baldur’s Gate 3, which won Game of the Year among other accolades, and Marvel’s Spider-Man 2, which walked away with six awards. Additionally, legendary Nintendo composer Koji Kondo was inducted into the AIAS Hall of Fame during the ceremony.

Here's the full list of award winners:

Game of the Year - Baldur’s Gate 3

Outstanding Achievement in Game Design - Baldur’s Gate 3 

Outstanding Achievement in Game Direction - Baldur’s Gate 3

Outstanding Achievement in Animation - Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 

Outstanding Achievement in Art Direction - Alan Wake 2 

Outstanding Achievement in Character - Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 – Miles Morales 

Author
Marcus Stewart

Baldur's Gate 3's latest patch improves smooching, idle animations, and a bazillion other things

1 year 3 months ago

Baldur's Gate 3's latest update has, as per most of their updates, a colossal number of improvements. Notably, there are new animations for folks who hunker down in your camp and a speedier way to dismiss unwanted companions. But most importantly of all, the smooching has been improved tenfold for fans of romance, or voyeurs who relish virtual characters trading saliva.

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Author
Ed Thorn

Every Change In Baldur's Gate 3's Sixth Big Patch [Updated]

1 year 3 months ago

After days of basically edging the community with videos of new kiss animations, Larian Studios has finally released Baldur’s Gate 3’s patch six. The roughly 21GB update brings new kisses for your lovers, quality-of-life improvements, and a slew of bug fixes. Here are a few of the highlights:

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Author
Kenneth Shepard

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Baldur's Gate 3 smooches update now live

1 year 3 months ago

The latest, and very timely, update for Baldur's Gate 3 is now live across PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X/S.

Patch 6 has been teased by Larian Studios since last week, when we learned it would include more kissing animations and easier party management, but we didn't know when it would be rolling out - or everything else it would contain.

Well, the update is now live, and with it comes the usual delight of patch notes a la Larian, which are too lengthy to be contained in Steam's character limit (of course).

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Author
Liv Ngan

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Where to Buy Nintendo Switch Consoles (February 2024)

1 year 3 months ago

Nintendo's latest console, the Nintendo Switch, has quickly become one of its best-selling consoles of all-time, surpassing even the likes of the massively popular Nintendo Wii. Since its launch in 2017, it has been heavily sought after by seasoned and casual gamers alike, as well as families due to its massive library of family-friendly Nintendo Switch games.

If you're looking for the best places to purchase Nintendo Switch consoles online, we've got you covered with a full breakdown below, including pricing on current Nintendo Switch consoles, the best time to buy a Nintendo Switch, information on Nintendo Switch Online, as well as where to trade in your exisiting Nintendo consoles and games.

Where to Buy Nintendo Switch Consoles Online

If you're looking to buy a new Nintendo Switch OLED, Nintendo Switch, or Nintendo Switch Lite, here's where you can purchase them online in 2024. You can also check out our guide to the best Nintendo Switch deals for potential discounts.

Nintendo Switch OLED

Nintendo's newest Switch is the Nintendo Switch OLED, aptly named due to its larger 7" vivid OLED touchscreen display. Nintendo Switch OLED retails for an MSRP of $349.99. Internally, it's no more powerful than the standard Nintendo Switch, but has double the internal storage at 64GB, an improved kickstand for tabletop mode and better speakers. Here are all of the main retailers currently selling this Switch model:

Author
Matthew Adler

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Tomb Raider super fan reveals they were behind trilogy remaster

1 year 3 months ago

A Tomb Raider fan and modder has revealed that they put their own personal projects on hold for a very good reason: they have actually been leading the development of Tomb Raider 1-3 Remastered.

XProger is the brains behind OpenLara, an open-source cross-platform engine of the classic Tomb Raider series. However, this project and others are now on hold, as XProger was scooped up by Aspyr's parent company Saber Interactive to work on its official Tomb Raider project.

"For the past year I've been busy with a dream project that has become the culmination of the last eight years of my life - Tomb Raider 1-3 Remastered," XProger shared on X, thanking Saber for "trusting me to lead the project and assemble a dream team of true fans".

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Author
Victoria Kennedy

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Palworld Dev Outlines Anti-Cheat Plan, but Admits It’s Struggling to Keep Up With Cheaters

1 year 3 months ago

Palworld developer Pocketpair has addressed the rampant cheating that is affecting the 'Pokemon with guns' survival and crafting game, and outlined a number of steps it’s taking to try to combat the problem.

In a statement, Pocketpair confirmed that some Palworld players are currently unable to connect to official servers due to cheating “and the influence of fraudulent activities.” “We have confirmed that some players are unable to play the game properly,” Pocketpair continued.

“As a company, we do not tolerate any fraudulent activity or cheating, and we are working on measures to deal with it strictly and as a priority.”

Cheating has been an issue for Palworld ever since its explosive launch on PC and Xbox Series X and S earlier this year. Xyrem, from video game cheat prevention organization the Anti-Cheat Police Department, told IGN that Palworld cheats “have been kind of exploding as there are a lot of people who are interested in cheating”.

That doesn’t come as a surprise given Palworld’s incredible launch success — it’s sold an incredible 12 million copies on Steam, and is the biggest third-party Game Pass launch ever.

According to Xyrem, Palworld does not have an anti-cheat system in place. “Everything is client authoritative,” Xyrem continued. “Meaning most things you do inside the game are done via the client, the server does not check for any of these things. So for example, you can spawn items, manipulate your player's speed, damage, health, etc..”

Author
Wesley Yin-Poole

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IGN UK Podcast 736: Who Remembers the 1990s?

1 year 3 months ago

Cardy, Mat, and Jesse delve into the whole Xbox exclusivity situation and how it can teach us all to just calm down. Then, we've got plenty of games and TV shows to talk about including Persona 3 Reload, Tomb Raider, Helldivers 2, Mr and Mrs Smith, and much more. That's all before the show descends into a game of "remember this thing from the '90s?". Listen or the Demon Headmaster will come for you.

What's the scariest kids TV show? What's the best KitKat? Get in touch at ign_ukfeedback@ign.com.

IGN UK Podcast 736: Who Remembers the 1990s?

Author
Simon Cardy

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Square Enix is Streaming FFVII Remake Soundtrack

1 year 3 months ago

ffvii soundtrack remake

Square Enix Music is streaming the FFVII Remake soundtrack on its YouTube channel. The stream will run until 11am JST on February 17, 2024.

Here's the stream now for folks to watch:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bzOrNfa8uts

The stream will play the original FFVII Remake soundtrack, the Plus version of the soundtrack, and the soundtrack for Intergrade. As of the time of writing, the stream is playing “Let the Battles Begin! Break Through” from FFVII Remake. According to the chat, this is a very sudden atmospheric change from the previous song, and that the stream is going through the soundtrack in the order it is on the CD.

Author
Stephanie Liu

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Hello Neighbor's creator is making a Home Alone-esque game that looks a lot like Hello Neighbor

1 year 3 months ago

I'm kind of fascinated by what happened to Hello Neighbor. The original, a stealth horror game against a creepy AI that learned your likely movements, was hugely popular in alpha in 2016. The series was acquired by TinyBuild in 2020, and since then there has been a heroic number of spin-offs. There's one set in an amusement park, a multiplayer game called Secret Neighbor in which one small child is actually a large adult man in disguise, a direct sequel called Hello Neighbor 2, and a VR game called Search And Rescue. I think everyone got a bit of Neighbor fatigue there, lads.

This might include the original creator Nikita Kolesnikov, as (still under the auspices of TinyBuild) he's made a new thing. Currently on Steam for playtesting, the project currently known as RBO isn't falling far from the home invasion tree, as players will either be a home-owning Protector - a McCallister, if you will - or an Intruder, or Wet Bandit.

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Author
Alice Bell

Bandai Namco's Q3 revenue rose 3.9% to $5.1bn

1 year 3 months ago

Bandai Namco has released its financial results for the nine months ending December 31, 2023, reporting a drop in sales in its Digital Entertainment segment and overall profit while its total net sales showed a slight increase.

Net sales: ¥772 billion ($5.1 billion, up 3.9% year-on-year)

Profit: ¥84.4 billion ($560.9 million, down 28.5% year-on-year)

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Author
Sophie McEvoy

Kingdom Hearts Chain of Memories Cards Are Back

1 year 3 months ago

kingdom hearts com cards

Square Enix announced that it will sell its Kingdom Hearts Re: Chain of Memories playing cards again.  They will come out on April 27, 2024.

You can pre-order the cards from the Japanese Square Enix store. They cost 3,080 JPY, which would be around $20.50. During their initial run in 2023, pre-orders opened up in June 2023 and the cards shipped out on September 30, 2023. These cards are still not available in the North American store, which means that if you want to purchase them but you live outside of Japan, you’ll need to use a proxy service.

Author
Stephanie Liu

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Payday 3 is finally getting an offline mode

1 year 3 months ago

Payday 3 will finally be getting an offline mode - although we don't know exactly when.

Payday 3 hasn't exactly had the best of launches. It was plagued with matchmaking issues and online-only requirements on release, and subsequent patches were delayed. All this lead to developer Starbreeze admitting that sales and player activity were lower than it had hoped, but it would endeavour to turn this around with a series of prioritised improvements.

Now, we know more about what these upcoming improvements will be, thanks to the reveal of Operation Medic Bag. Here, the developer announced that an offline mode is coming to Payday 3, as well an overhaul to matchmaking (Starbreeze admitted that right now, "matchmaking isn't doing a good job of bringing people together"), tweaks to the UI, a solo mode and a quickplay option. Additionally, "challenges will be removed", with the developer stating it will "switch infamy progression to be tied to heist completion".

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Author
Victoria Kennedy

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Helldivers 2 boss praying servers survive next few days

1 year 3 months ago

Helldivers 2 director Johan Pilestedt is hoping the game's second weekend will go much smoother than its first.

In a thread posted on X, Pilestedt reflected on the changes developer Arrowhead Game Studios has made since Helldivers 2 released to huge success on 8th February for PC and PlayStation 5.

"I am completely exhausted by the success," he stated, but "very, very pleased."

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Author
Liv Ngan

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Game of the Week: Helldivers 2 is a reminder to always bet on Double-A

1 year 3 months ago

When my daughter was learning to write her own stories at school - learning composition, I guess, in the language of education - she'd come home with poetry and essays about animals and little bits of this and that, all of which she was fine with, but never more than fine. When it all clicked is when they wrote stories - specifically silly, scary stories with ghosts and people falling on their butts and all that kind of jazz.

Silly, slightly scary stuff really clicked in fact - not just with my daughter, but with the whole class. For a few glorious weeks, alongside spelling and long division and the bus-stop method (something to do with division too I think?), the class was busy turning out pulps. She loved it. They all loved it. I loved it.

This came to mind this week when we realised that Helldivers 2 wasn't just a success, but a massive, horizon-filling smash. This sequel to a game that I have fond memories of, but not a lot of other people seem to remember playing, is suddenly everywhere. It's our game of the week, inevitably.

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Author
Christian Donlan

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For Sony and Microsoft, revenue growth is more important than any "console war" | Opinion

1 year 3 months ago

Not so long ago, the announcement that Sony didn't have any new entries in its major first-party franchises in the pipeline for the coming year would have been viewed as an extraordinary opportunity for Microsoft to gain ground on the market leader.

There are many reasons why Xbox has faced an uphill struggle against its major rival. Brand strength and digital library lock-in are certainly among them, but the ultimate, seemingly insurmountable barrier was Sony's first-party studio system, which delivered an extraordinary line-up of hit software throughout the PS4 era and carried over into the current generation seemingly without stumbling – until now.

Microsoft's own difficulties in building a portfolio of studios that could rival that line-up is well documented; its travails were constantly magnified by unflattering comparisons with PlayStation's studios seemingly humming along and turning out a steady supply of hit games. By some interpretations, at least, Microsoft has now spent the better part of $100 billion dollars trying to close that gap – becoming, in the process, one of the biggest game publishers in the world.

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Author
Rob Fahey

Skull and Bones’ PC performance is mostly smooth sailing, but do stow it on an SSD

1 year 3 months ago

Because it’s somehow my job to worry about the technical fidelity of electronic toys, I’ve been eyeing the long-overdue arrival of Skull and Bones with some nervousness. After nearly a decade of delays, you’d probably just want to get it out the door, right? Skip straight to the open-world pirate adventuring, none of that 'making it work on a range of graphics cards' nonsense.

But nope. For all its other shortcomings, Skull and Bones performs alright on PC, very often more smoothly than its system requirements suggest. Though I’d still recommend abiding by its SSD storage requirement – following the rules might not be very piratey, but installing on a hard drive will curse you to some pretty tedious load screen waits. Geoffrey Rush would hate it, honestly.

While Edwin sequesters himself in the starting area, let’s head below deck for a closer look at Skull and Bones’ PC particulars. That includes a full rundown of its graphics options – which include ray tracing and DLSS – and a quick guide to the best settings for an ideal prettiness-to-performance ratio.

Author
James Archer

Streets Of Rogue 2's latest dev diary is a crash course in proc-gen map building

1 year 3 months ago

The first Streets Of Rogue was an RPS favourite when it launched back in 2019 (we literally couldn't stop playing it), and we've known for a while now that its sequel, Streets Of Rogue 2, is due to arrive later this year. Ahead of the game's launch, developer Matt Dabrowski has started releasing a series of dev diary videos detailing his design process and how it's all coming together. The latest is about how he creates the game's proc-gen open worlds and biomes, and it's a fascinating watch if you've ever wondered how its particular blend of randomised chaos works behind the scenes.

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Author
Katharine Castle

Payday 3 returns Starbreeze to profitability despite "significantly lower" than expected sales

1 year 3 months ago

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Starbreeze has released its full-year financial results, reporting its first profit before taxes since its brush with insolvency back in 2018.

The key contributor was the long-awaited release of Payday 3 back in September, despite CEO Tobias Sjögren confirming the both sales and player activity are "currently at significantly lower levels than we would like."

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Author
James Batchelor