All this week, Eurogamer is marking Pride with a series of features celebrating the intersection of queer culture and gaming. Today, Lottie Lynn explores her long relationship with Runescape, and charts the MMO's journey toward welcoming queer inclusion.

I find it funny how realising I was queer took less time than completing the Temple of Light puzzle in RuneScape. You'd think I'd solve the puzzle long before having a personal revelation, but I wanted to brag about completing it without a guide and, well, let's just say the amount of time it took falls into the territory of embarrassing. Thankfully, Mourner's End Part II, as the quest was known, didn't destroy my love of RuneScape, but while the game satisfied my longing for adventure (and lava capes), what teenage Lottie was truly looking for was LGBTQIA+ characters and narratives. The advantage of playing the same MMORPG for 16 years, though, is you experience how the game grows not just in mechanics and features, but in the stories it wishes to tell.

RuneScape 3 is one of these games, having gradually introduced LGBTQIA+ characters - such as Angof, one of the game's first transgender characters - as it has evolved. While some of these narratives were sadly cut for time, such as the reveal in Normad's Elegy that Korasi and Jessika from the Voids Knight quest trilogy were in a relationship, others, such as Caelyn and Annette Kaadan - married lesbian couple by day, philantropic thieves by night - have taken the spotlight in their own quests. There's even Ed and Grey, a gay werewolf couple. You can now find queer characters across Gielinor and the worlds beyond, but RuneScape 3's new Tales of Pride is the first mini-event celebrating both Pride month and its LGBTQIA+ narratives.

You would never expect an action story to feature so many endearing moments, yet Spy x Family pulls it off with its adorable cast of characters. Whether you are watching the cuteness of Anya Forger or giggling over Loid and Yor’s “Will They or Won’t They?” relationship, you have undoubtedly loved each passing moment of the Forger family.

So, now that the anime has concluded its first installment, here are five reasons why Spy x Family is the most wholesome anime of the year.

Developed by Ubisoft exclusively for the Nintendo Switch, Mario + Rabbids: Sparks of Hope is the follow-up to Kingdom Battle, which was a bit of a surprise hit when it came out a few years ago. It didn’t take long for Ubisoft to announce a sequel, and if you’re wondering when Mario + Rabbids: Sparks of Hope is set to release, here’s what you need to know.

Mario + Rabbids Sparks of Hope Release Date

Mario + Rabbids Sparks of Hope launches Oct. 20, 2022. The news was originally leaked a day early by Ubisoft, as fans caught a posting of the release date on the website. Today, the Nintendo Direct Mini confirmed that the game would indeed be coming to Nintendo Switch around Halloween.

The game was announced last year, and it was revealed that the gameplay loop for Sparks of Hope would be very similar to Kingdom Battle. Players will be able to choose from a roster of characters from both the Mario and Rabbids series, and take part in a variety of XCOM-like tactical RPG battles.

However, Sparks of Hope is also set to have a much larger scope than the first game, and players will be able to visit locations past the iconic Mushroom Kingdom. There will be new levels taking place in all sorts of galactic locations, which should help to keep things feeling fresh for a while.

That’s all you need to know about when Mario + Rabbids: Sparks of Hope is coming out for now. Be sure to search for Twinfinite for more news and information on the game.

Ahead of the June 28, 2022 Nintendo Direct Mini, Atlus confirmed Persona 3 Portable, Persona 4 Golden, and Persona 5 Royal Switch versions are on the way. As with the other console and PC ports, Persona 5 Royal will arrive first. That will show up on October 21, 2022. The other entries will follow. The official website for the games updated before the showcase went live. [Thanks, Nibel!]

Three iconic Persona titles are ready to steal your heart on modern consoles!

Persona 5 Royal, Persona 4 Golden, and Persona 3 Portable are coming to Xbox Game Pass, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, Windows PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Steam, and Nintendo Switch! #P25th pic.twitter.com/w7opPDAryu

— Official ATLUS West (@Atlus_West) June 28, 2022

Why is Bushy Bulb disabled in Fortnite? is probably one of the most asked questions in the community right now and we are here to tell you everything about it. Fortnite Chapter 3 Season 3 is all about flora and fauna, with the Reality Tree taking the center stage and dropping its saplings all around.

Epic Games added a brand new Back Bling to reflect the mood of the season called Bushy Bulb, which looks similar to the Reality Tree sapling. However, the developers recently disabled the Bushy Bulb backbling in all playlists, including Creative and Save the World. This surprise removal of the item has everyone left wondering why. So, here’s all you need to know.

Why Is Fortnite’s Bushy Bulb Disabled?

Via its Fortnite Status Twitter account, Epic Games recently shared a post announcing that the Bushy Bulb Back Bling has been disabled from the game. However, the “quest associated with it” will still be completable and players may be able to earn the reward.

Last year, the team behind Fallout: London, a “DLC-sized mod” for Bethesda’s Fallout 4, released a reveal trailer that showcased what to expect across the pond in the world of Fallout, and it looked great. Today, the team released another video spanning almost five minutes that highlights some of the well-worn and lesser-known locales of London that players can visit when the mod is released. 

And speaking of release, today’s trailer revealed that Fallout: London will be released in 2023, as reported by IGN. The release window comes after a stunning four minutes of in-game footage. Had I not known Fallout: London was a mod, I probably would have assumed it was a brand-new chapter in the franchise – that’s how good this looks! Check it out for yourself below: 

As you can see in the trailer, players can expect to see Tower Bridge, Big Ben, and more. Plus, the trailer hints that players won’t win every battle with bullets – they might be going medieval in some quests, donning a knight’s armor and taking down enemies with a sword. Everything about this trailer is exciting. Fortunately, Fallout: London is releasing sometime next year. 

A new announcement trailer for Fallout: London is now here, revealing it will release sometime in 2023.

"Fallout: London is a DLC-sized mod for Bethesda's Fallout 4. As a continuation of the base game, the mod will allow the player to visit the previously unexplored post-apocalyptic environment of London," the description explains.

This mod will be a change from the rest of the Fallout series, as it will not take place in America. The developer hopes this will allow for users to explore "new cultures which have not homogenised with their American counterparts". It will also mean that players can dive on into "pre-war European history, and the effects the Resource Wars had on the class structured society of pre-war Britain."

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Every month I throw half a dozen broken shovels at the sleeping forms lying around the RPS treehouse floor. I demand they dig a new hole for the monthly RPS Time Capsule of games we'd like to save from a certain year, and usually it isn't a problem. This time, however, the staff complained a lot about the year choice: it's 2005, baby, and they struggled. I'm okay with it though, because we ended up with a lot of cool abandonware and interesting choices I couldn't have predicted. Especially because, since I got to the Time Capsule first, I got to stuff in the most obvious choice.

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Major changes are coming to Dead by Daylight, including an overhauled progression system and tweaked perks.

The aim is to shake up the current "meta" and re-balance the game, forcing players to consider new tactics and strategies.

The changes will be added in the forthcoming mid-chapter update for Chapter 24: Roots of Dread - that hits the public test build on 29th June and will be fully implemented in July.

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Code: To Jin Yong is a new wuxia game being developed by the Tencent-owned Lightspeed Studios that shows the power of Unreal Engine 5.

Based on a series of novels by Chinese novelist Jin Yong, the game will explore the iconic characters and environments of the books and TV adaptations from over the years.

A proof of concept trailer has been released and it looks stunning.

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Skyrim has been around for quite the time, with many a new edition or various mod upgrades being made available in its 10 plus years on the market. However, we now also have a mod that covers any version of Skyrim that releases even further down the line (which, let's be honest, will likely happen).

The mod in question comes from Nexus Mods user xilamonstrr and brings Skyrim's big scaly dragons into super sharp focus. I am talking about seeing all the little details, right down to each beast's scars, in much, much, higher definition.

And, while 16k may seem a touch excessive given that most games tend to opt for 1440p, xilamonstrr has a good reason for choosing this resolution. In short, the dragons in Skyrim are huge, and therefore their textures can get stretched more than the other enemies and entities in this world.

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Wondering how to fix stream delay on Twitch? Stream latency is the delay between your broadcasting software capturing an event and the event being displayed to viewers. When streaming to Twitch, you can choose between three different latency settings – Normal, Low, and Ultra Low.

If your primary objective is to live chat with your audience, it’s highly recommended to opt for Ultra-Low Latency, which results in a delay of 2 to 5 seconds. Despite streaming with an Ultra-Low Latency setting, many Twitch streamers face huge stream delay problems.

How to Fix Twitch Stream Delay

While streaming to Twitch, your audience may report the huge stream delay in the chat, which could be annoying not only for your viewers but also for you. In such a case, you can follow these steps to fix stream delay on Twitch:

Also in Steam Deck news, Valve’s Lawrence Yang – a designer who worked on the on the handheld PC – has weighed in on a widely shared mod that replaces the pre-installed SSD with a larger, faster model. His advice: don’t do it.

The mod, by Twitter user Belly Jelly, swaps out the dinky default M.2 2230 SSD for a slightly longer M.2 2242 drive. It seems to mostly work fine except for making “the heat spreader bow a bit.” It was subsequently shared by PC Gamer, GameSpot and others before Yang tweeted a warning that such a change would “significantly shorten the life of your Deck” by moving thermal pads vital to cooling the charger IC (integrated circuit).

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Ubisoft briefly published a 20th October release date for its promising-looking Nintendo Switch sequel Mario + Rabbids Sparks of Hope.

The company has yet to officially trumpet the date, but it was live for a while on Ubisoft's store (thanks, Gematsu) ahead of today's Nintendo Direct, which is scheduled for 2pm UK time.

Today's announcement stream is set to feature third-party games for Nintendo Switch - of which Sparks of Hope is a prime example. It seems likely we'll see this made official then.

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Ubisoft has said it will attend Gamescom 2022 - a show many other companies have said they will skip.

A brief message posted to Ubisoft's Twitter last night revealed the publisher would be present at this August's Cologne-based convention, though did not detail what games might be on offer.

Ubisoft's decision comes after the recent pull-outs from Sony, Nintendo, Activision Blizzard and Take-Two, which have all chosen not to attend. Microsoft has yet to make an announcement - though it's unclear what it might bring.

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Free in-game Pride items will be included in Two Point Campus when it releases on 9th August.

The item pack will include rainbow coloured items like rugs, bedding, flags and more, and will be free forever across all platforms.

In addition, Sega and Two Point Studios will today host a Twitch livestream of the game to raise awareness and funds for Mermaids - a charity supporting trans youth and their families.

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The Nintendo Switch-exclusive Shin-Chan: Me and the Professor on Summer Vacation is getting an English global release in 2022. The game will release sometime in August 2022 for the Nintendo Switch and PlayStation 4. It will be a digital-only release for both platforms.

The full title of the game is Shin-Chan: Me and the Professor on Summer Vacation - The Endless Seven-Day Journey -. The game originally released in Japan back in July 2021 as Crayon Shin-chan: Ora to Hakase no Natsuyasumi ~ Owaranai Nanokakan no Tabi. Developed by Neos Corporation, the company reportedly sold a total of 300,000 copies roughly two months after launch. The game follows a boy named Shinnosuke Nohara as he enjoys a summer vacation out in the countryside.

https://twitter.com/shinchan_summer/status/1541649464892559362?s=20&t=k-uZmY01bzPdF-fbVlIGHw

The upcoming release is the first time the game will appear outside of Asia, as well as on the PlayStation 4. Furthermore, the game will be available in languages other than English and Japanese. Supported languages include German, Spanish, and Portuguese. Neos Corporation has also updated the game's official website to include background information, characters, and gameplay details in English. Notably, fans can also get a glimpse at what the in-game text will look like.

Check out some of the in-game screenshots below:

"My most insidious Blue."

Red writes to Blue. She leaves her letter in a pot of boiling water in an MRI machine. Blue writes to Red. She leaves her letter in a spew of magma as Atlantis is destroyed. Slowly, it dawns on me that this is - what's the half-forgotten term? - an epistolary novel. A story in letters. Red and Blue, deadly agents from different sides in a hideous war, exchanging notes across the crackling divide.

And the war takes place in the sweep of time - all of time, and across a multiverse of different universes woven together into a braid. This is what the agents do: they zip back and forth through time and across dimensions, tweaking events so their side inches closer to victory. But then the notes - teasing and taunting at first, one brilliant agent recognising their opposite. And of course the teasing and taunting cannot last forever.

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Valve will up the pace and ship more than twice as many Steam Decks in the coming months compared to last quarter.

"Hello! Some great news on the production front. We just sent the last batch of Q2 emails, and we'll start sending Q3 reservation emails on the 30th," the company announced.

"Production has picked up, and after today we'll be shipping more than double the number of Steam Decks every week!"

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Glen Schofield is feeling relaxed. It’s been, you sense, a whirlwind few weeks for the Dead Space creator, his new team having finally put out the first glimpse at its stylish, slick and incredibly gory space horror Calisto Protocol at Geoff Keighley’s Summer Games Fest - a reveal that marks a significant milestone in a project spun up some three years ago alongside new studio Striking Distance.

"It feels like freedom," Schofield says as we chat in the sun in an annex to Summer Games Fest's LA venue. "It always feels that way, but somehow this one was more cooped up for longer. I'm kind of used to it because Call of Duty always made you keep your mouth shut, but this one felt longer."

Put some of that down, perhaps, to the challenges of working through the pandemic - challenges that Striking Distance had to adapt to just as it was spinning up development. "We were about 50 people or so when we moved into our brand new spot," Schofield says of the studio's headquarters in California's San Ramon valley. "We'd been working on it for six months: designers, artists, architects, you know, everybody. Nine days later we got kicked out."

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Word from the Steam Deck foundries is that Valve are significantly stepping up the number of handhelds they ship out to reservation holders. A missive from the official Steam Deck Twitter account claimed they’ll “more than double” the total of weekly shipments, and confirmed that those with order availability estimates in Q3 2022 will start receiving emails to confirm and claim their orders from June 30th.

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We all know and love them– the iconic Disney princesses. Whether you’ve been watching them since the older animation style or are fairly new to the “franchise,” chances are that you find the movie’s fun.

Each princess is unique in her own way, harboring positive qualities that motivate viewers to grow as people. If you were one of the Disney princesses, which one would you be? We’ve made a fun Disney princess quiz that will let you know.

All you need to do is answer each of the questions about your personality and our quiz will do the magic calculations to match you up with one of the iconic Disney princesses.

Take it now to see which one you are!

(All images belong to Disney)

King Amusement Creative will live-stream anime songs 24/7 every day of the year as part of its Anileap project. A beta stream is now available to listen to on the company’s YouTube channel. The streams will cover keystone songs from anime history, as well as new ones from the Reiwa era. Only songs from anime King Amusement Creative was involved in will be played on Anileap. [Thanks, Famitsu!]

Similar to other YouTube streams in which the channel plays a single genre of music for hours on end, Anileap will play the music while the background is on repeat. In the case of Anileap, you will watch a blue-haired girl floating in a bedroom that appears to double as a spaceship. She and her strange pet are both reading books. The art style is reminiscent of more retro (1970 - 1990) anime.

As this is a beta version of Anileap, it may end without warning. Additionally, the point of the beta stream is to test out the server, animation, and such. Because it is not the official release yet, there may be some issues that pop up in regards to the features. You will not be able to go back in the stream and listen to songs that were played earlier. As of the time of writing, songs from Shouta Aoi, Yui Horie, and Nana Mizuki have appeared.

Hello! Once again, Eurogamer is marking Pride with a week of features celebrating the intersection of queer culture and gaming. Today, Ed Nightingale speaks to Emi "Captain Fluke" - esports' most prominent trans caster - about the past, present, and future of LGBTQ+ representation in the industry.

"If I can use the position that I'm in from the sort of privileges that I've been gifted here in esports world, then I need to make sure that I can leave it better than I came in, and then I can leave it happy with what I've done."

Emi "Captain Fluke" is an esports caster covering Rainbow Six: Siege and Valorant. In fact, she became the first openly trans caster of an esports major, a trailblazing position that's come with ups and downs.

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Expeditions are one of the main features in Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes that will allow you to raise your support rank with various characters. It’s pretty similar to the Tea Time feature from Three Houses, but there are more locations for you to unlock as well. Here’s a full Expeditions guide for Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes, where we’ll break down all the locations you can unlock, and what kind of rewards you get.

Unlocking Expeditions in Fire Emblem Warriors Three Hopes

Expeditions will become available to you pretty early on in the game, once you get past the first four chapters. There are a total of four Expedition locations in Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes, and we’ve listed them below:

• Plains
• Forest
• Mountains
• Waterfront

The locations really just serve as different cosmetic backdrops for your mini dates, and don’t have too much of an impact on your conversations, so feel free to choose whichever you like most. You’ll also unlock more locations as you upgrade the Recreation Quarter, and the material requirements will increase as you unlock each one.

There’s no need to stress out about it, though, as you’ll naturally get the materials to upgrade everything as you progress through the chapters and clear out every side battle.

F1's bold new era is just hitting the halfway point of its inaugural season, and it turns out it's a lot like the F1 of old; a different team dominating, perhaps, and a slight shuffle of the running order, but there's a feeling 2022's regulations have introduced as many problems as they've fixed, and that the positive impact of the new ruleset won't really be seen for some years to come.

F1 22 isn't exactly a bold new era for Codemasters' long-running series, and a familiar racer it most certainly is. It features the cast and cars of the new season - including Ferrari's achingly beautiful F1-75, perhaps the best looking race car to roll out of Maranello since Enzo himself was calling the shots - plus the season's new track that runs around the car park of downtown's Hard Rock Stadium (if you're wizened enough to remember the Caesars Palace race, first off condolences - but also isn't it funny how what's old is new again?)

The race in Miami always felt like the endgame for F1 owners Liberty Media's initial push for the sport - a push that, of course, has seen the face of F1 change immeasurably, and mostly for the better thanks to the swell of new fans introduced via Drive to Survive and a new breed of social media savvy drivers.

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Today Neos announced the release window of the PlayStation 4 port of Crayon Shin-chan: Me and the Professor on Summer Vacation – The Endless Seven-Day Journey.

The game will launch in August 2022 on Sony’s old-gen console, and perhaps the biggest surprise is that it will be released simultaneously in Japan, United States, and Europe.

While voices will be only in Japanese, text will be provided in Japanese, English, German, Spanish, and Portuguese.

The game was previously launched for PlayStation Switch in Japan and Asia only, and it has since shipped over 400,000 copies after selling out at major retailers when it launched. According to the developer, it’s still selling plenty, but today’s announcement does not mention whether the original Switch version will ever get localized and released in the west.

Tomorrow you can check out a few localized screenshots and the splash screen.

Developed by Kuro Games, Punishing: Gray Raven is an action-RPG gacha game that’s garnered quite a bit of popularity in the community. Kuro Games also recently announced Wuthering Waves, an MMORPG with similar action combat elements, so folks who are waiting for that game might be interested in checking out PGR in the meantime.

The web keeps on spinning over at Sony Pictures, as a new Deadline report reveals that Emma Roberts will be joining both Dakota Johnson and Sydney Sweeney in the upcoming Madame Web spinoff.

Roberts, who you may have last seen in American Horror Story and Scream Queens, will join the film in another unannounced role. The trio will also count Celeste O’Connor, Isabela Merced, and Tahar Rahim as their co-stars in Madame Web, which is being directed by S.J. Clarkson based on a screenplay by Matt Sazama and Burk Sharpless.

The film is definitely going to catch more invested fans as the titular character is not exactly well-known. An elderly lady who “suffered from a lifetime of blindness and many years of neurological deterioration due to myasthenia gravis,” Madame Web “compensated with her profound psychic abilities, establishing herself as a medium,” as stated in Marvel’s official bio. 

The film could be a vehicle in which to introduce many of the other female characters that are part of the Spider-Man universe, unless Madame Web herself somehow discovers newfound vigor to dish out the hurt to criminals.

Today Atlus released another extensive trailer of the upcoming JRPG Soul Hackers 2, focusing on a relevant gameplay feature.

We get to see the Soul Matrix, a series of dungeons dedicated to your teammates that lets you deepen your relationship with them the deeper you go.

Within these dungeons, you can also learn new Summoner Skills and defeat super-powerful “risky enemies.”

The video also showcases gameplay, providing an example of what you can find in the Soul Matrix.

You can check the video out below. Keep in mind that English subtitles are provided, but you may need to manually activate them.

Soul Hackers 2 releases for PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, and PC (Steam and Windows Store) on August 26, just one day after the Japanese launch on August 25.

Kurozaki Sakura is an artist based in China.

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Nintendo has announced that there will be a 25-minute-long Nintendo Direct Mini tomorrow that will focus on third-party titles coming to the Switch. While it’s not the first-party Direct that many fans have been clamoring for, there are a lot of partner titles to be excited about. Here are eight third-party announcements we’d love to see at tomorrow’s Nintendo Direct Mini.

Hi, yes, it’s me again, one of the 14 people on Earth who enjoy playing Battlefield 2042. As I enter my sixth month of playing the game, and as I approach the game’s level cap, I’ve found my attention of late turning towards the finer details of the game’s maps, and which ones I prefer playing.

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Developer Nightdive Studios has announced that its critically panned remaster of Westwood Studios' classic point-and-click adventure Blade Runner will now include the well-recieved ScummVM version of the original game on Steam.

Nightdive's remaster was announced back in March 2020, but the project appeared to be on a permanent hiatus after the studio told Eurogamer it was struggling to overcome certain "obstacles". It was a bit of a surprise, then, when Nightdive's long-awaited Enhanced Edition of Blade Runner resurfaced earlier this month with a 23rd June release date, but perhaps less of a surprise, given its history, when the remaster launched to less-than-stellar reviews.

For those that purchased the game via GOG, there was some respite in that all copies of the remaster came with the previously available ScummVM version, developed by a dedicated group of enthusiasts. Steam purchasers, however, were stuck with Nightdive's inferior remaster - until today, that is, when the studio revealed it would adding the ScummVM version as an alternative download for all purchases.

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In Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes, there’s an almost endless amount of different classes that you can have your main character, Shez, and subordinates advance through. As such, it can be a bit confusing as to what route you should go. Luckily, we’ve got everything you need to know on the class tier list for the game right down below.

Since Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes is a musou game, the style of play and progression you’ll want to choose is going to differ heavily from what you might have known in Fire Emblem: Three Houses. What might have worked well in a turn-based tactical format might not apply to this type of gameplay.

Do note that we’ve mostly only covered Master and Advanced classes in this list, but the prerequisite Intermediate classes will work well too, if you haven’t unlocked those later classes just yet.

If you’re an anime fan, you’d be hard-pressed to watch this ever-expanding medium and not have seen at least one mecha anime. This genre is all about big robots and action: two things that almost everyone can agree on that results in some pretty cool storylines and combat. With that in mind, you might be wondering: what is the best mecha anime? Here is everything you need to know.

The Best Mecha Anime

While this answer may be different for some people, the general consensus tends to be that the best mecha anime of all time is Neon Genesis Evangelion. Despite releasing over 25 years ago, this franchise is still heralded as one of the most influential and enthralling series to ever grace anime, let alone the mecha genre.

For a game like Wordle, learning how to weed out letters and words can make your life that much easier. This way, wrong guesses can be very helpful and guide you along the way. In this guide, we’ll go through all of the 5-letter words starting with D and ending with L to give you a good idea of where to start and aid you on the quest to maintain your streak.

Note that the following list of words has been tested and will work in Wordle. However, if you spot any missing or incorrect words, please inform us via the comments below so we can take a look at the list and update it if necessary.

All 5 Letter Words Starting With D and Ending With L

• datal
• debel
• decal
• dedal
• devel
• devil
• dholl
• dital
• domal
• dotal
• dowel
• drail
• drawl
• drill
• droil
• droll
• drool
• ducal
• dural
• dwaal
• dwell
• dynel

Armed with your newfound knowledge, it is time to take on the challenge proper. Select your pick from the list and use it as your answer in Wordle. Be sure to check the colors to get a better idea of where to make the right adjustments. Correct letters in the right position will turn green, yellow indicates a right letter in the wrong place, while grey rules out the letter entirely.

Hey, remember this time last year when Reubs whipped up a more modern version of the classic Simpsons: Hit & Run in just a week? Well he’s back in 2022, and has far more ambitious goals for the project.

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