Firework actually came out almost exactly a year ago, but the English language version (translated from the original Chinese) was released just before Christmas. Which is a good thing, because Firework is well worth checking out if you have an interest in either horror games or puzzle games. The horror isn't blood-chilling, but rather twisted up with grief and sorrow in how inevitable it is. Similarly, the puzzles aren't going to stump you for long, but they fit very well with the story. These two strands of the game weave together and create a nice, thoughtful experience that's worth the four or so hours of having it.

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Who’s ready for the latest game starring Pokémon that’s not quite a traditional turn-based RPG? Pokémon Legends: Arceus arrives this week, the latest in a long line of side-stories and spinoffs that let us play with our pocket monsters in new and different ways.Pokémon Legends: Arceus, for example, mixes elements of…

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Pokémon Legends: Arceus is out in just a few days, and Nintendo has released yet another trailer, this time revealing some interesting information about the three starters we’ll be using come Friday. 

More specifically, each starter has a final Hisuian evolutionary form. Don’t worry – we’re not going to spoil what they look like here because, well, we can’t. Nintendo didn’t reveal the appearance of these new evolutionary forms, instead opting to tease this new information in today’s trailer. 

“You may have met Dartrix, Quilava, and Dewott in your other adventures,” the trailer’s description reads. “But you’ve never encountered their Hisui region Evolutions.” 

If you watch the two-minute trailer, you won’t be seeing these Hisui region evolutions either. Instead, Nintendo teases their appearances by showing the second evolutionary lines begin to evolve, only to obscure their final form images with smoke and a cheeky fade to black. You can briefly (and only kinda) see a silhouette of each form but rest assured, the full look of each is not revealed in the trailer. 

Bless you, The Pokémon Company. Despite widespread leaks which have splashed Pokémon Legends: Arceus' story and full Pokédex across the internet, today's new press release about the game pretends everything is fine.

With just a couple of days until launch, today brings one final trailer for Legends Arceus - which you can view below. There's not an awful lot in it we've not seen before.

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According to From Software producer Yasuhiro Kitao, Elden Ring can be finished in roughly 30 hours. That's a really nice amount of time. Long enough to feel substantial, but not too long that it'll feel like a massive slog. No bloat, more riding on spectral horse-goat, as they say.

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With 2022 firmly underway, we're already starting to see some decent price drops on gaming peripherals like keyboards and mice. Whether you've finally finished building that new PC over the holidays or recently purchased a pre-built PC or gaming laptop, you might be looking for those all-important finishing touches for your setup. Or as the saying goes: new year, new... PC accessories?

If you're looking for a new mouse to both improve your aim in-game and brighten up your desk, then the SteelSeries Rival 5 Gaming Mouse is a great addition. It is currently at its lowest price on Amazon for £39.99- a saving of £20.

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NIS America announced the western release dates for its NIS Classics Volume 2 collection. In North America, people will be able to pick it up on May 10, 2022. Those in Australia and Europe will be able to get it on May 13, 2022. In addition, there’s a new trailer focusing on one of the two titles in it, Makai Kingdom: Reclaimed and Rebound.

When it comes to the version of Makai Kingdom in NIS Classics Volume 2, it’s a bit special. That’s because it takes content from the PSP version of the game not released outside Japan. Petta Mode will be available for the first time in English. The new trailer calls attention to that.

It shows a main menu with “Petta Mode” appearing under “New Game” and before “Continue.” This comes up at the 1:08 mark. Once it does, people get to see some of her story segments, hear her English voice acting, and get an idea of what her scenario will be like.

As a reminder, the other game in the collection is Z.H.P. Unlosing Ranger vs. Darkdeath Evilman. This is a roguelike. You’re a superhero who gets new body parts from a dungeon. Each one adds different powers.

With EA’s Star Wars exclusivity deal about to expire next year, the publisher has finally announced a barrage of new games inspired by a galaxy far, far away. In addition to confirming that Respawn Entertainment has a sequel to 2019's excellent Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order in the works, EA announced today the Apex…

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Now that Strange Horticulture is out, I would like to make a formal request to all game developers who may be reading this.

Please make a game that is basically Strange Horticulture, but about a weird book shop. Possibly a book shop with a small coffee shop attached. I'm not going to be too strict about it, you know, I'm not a monster. It could, for example, be a library. Or maybe there isn't another business attached, or the business attached to it is a bakery instead of a coffee shop. This isn't just my personal hobby horse, either. I'm pretty sure loads of people would like that game. And please, for the love of God, tell me if the Mystery Book Shop Game already exists. I'd be disappointed if it does, because nobody has yet brought it to my attention.

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Earlier today, Crunchyroll announced that Jujutsu Kaisen 0 finally has a United States and Canadian theatrical release date. The prequel movie, which was released in Japan in late December 2021, is set to arrive in the U.S. and Canada on March 18.

This news came by way of a press release, which also included a brand new trailer. You can check out the official teaser theatrical teaser trailer and synopsis below:

When they were children, Rika Orimoto was killed in a traffic accident right before the eyes of her close friend, Yuta Okkotsu.

“It’s a promise. When we both grow up, we’ll get married.”

Rika became an apparition, and Yuta longed for his own death after suffering under her curse,

but the greatest Jujutsu sorcerer, Satoru Gojo, welcomed him into Jujutsu High.

There Yuta meets his classmates, Maki Zen’in, Toge Inumaki, and Panda, and finally finds his own determination.

“I want the confidence to say it’s okay that I’m alive!”

“While I’m at Jujutsu High, I’ll break Rika-chan’s curse.”

The developer behind the Titanfall franchise, Apex Legends, and Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order is looking to expand upon the galaxy far, far away once again. EA and Lucasfilm Games dropped a press release this morning that announced Respawn Entertainment’s upcoming Star Wars IPs. Multiple titles are in the works, including the next chapter in the Jedi: Fallen Order universe, an FPS with Peter Hirschmann (executive producer on the original Battlefronts), and a strategy game via a publishing collaboration with Bit Reactor. 

The press release reads as follows:

Shueisha and Bandai Namco announced the One Piece game contest winners in Japan. A rhythm battle game featuring Kung-Fu Dugongs won the contest's Grand Award. Bandai Namco will help develop the concept into a full-fledged mobile game.

Yoh Nakamori, Tom Ikeda, and Takuma Okubo from Ougi Works will receive 2 million yen for winning the contest. Bandai Namco will also offer up to 20 million yen to support the its development.

In this game, players will move the Dugongs in accordance with the rhythm. The Dugongs can also enter battles by encountering an enemy. The player will have to make swift decisions to prevent the Dugongs from taking damage.

Members of Ougi Works used handmade figures of the Dugongs to create conceptual screenshots of the game. Bandai Namco noted the cute figures as its primary factor in giving the Grand Award to this title.

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Shueisha held the One Piece contest from April to July 2021. It held the contest to celebrate the franchise reaching 1,000 episodes. People residing in Japan could send Shueisha concepts for a One Piece-themed casual mobile game made with Unity, Unreal Engine, and Criware.

Age of Empires IV. WarCraft III: Reforged. Company of Heroes 3. The team at Blackbird Interactive has watched the recent return of the classic RTS games with interest - vested interest, in fact. Tasked by Korean developer Smilegate with transposing their Counter-Strike-style shooter Crossfire to the strategy genre, Blackbird believes it has identified a hole yet to be filled. A nostalgic need to be catered to.

“I argue that in the recent resurgence, we haven’t yet come across an RTS game that offers players an experience comparable to StarCraft or Red Alert,” says game designer Maurice Grela. “We’re hoping to fulfill that gap.”

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Respawn is making three new Star Wars games, EA has announced.

One is the expected follow-up to Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order, with game director Stig Asmussen at the helm.

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There really is nothing better than pizza, and Epic Games has made it clear that this is true with a new Pizza Party box item that’s been scattered around the Fortnite island. 

Added with today’s v19.10 hotfix, Pizza Party boxes consist of eight “surprisingly nutritious” slices of hot and fresh Slurpshroom Pizza. These pizzas come courtesy of the new Pizza Pit in Tilted Towers, although who knows how their pizza ended up scattered across the entire island. 

“Find Pizza Party boxes scattered throughout the island, then throw one down for an instant feast with the squad – literally throw a party. These boxes of Slurpshroom Pizza contain eight surprisingly nutritious slices – eat them to restore Health and Shield simultaneously until you get 100 Health and 50 Shield.” 

You can also eat slices right from the boxes or save some to use later. This could be especially helpful for squadmates who are on their own or lone wolves ignoring the team play aspect of certain Fortnite modes. Pizza Party boxes can be found in chests, supply drops, loot llamas, and on the ground. You can also purchase some from Tomatohead using Bars.

Epic Games says these items are not currently in competitive playlists but could be after being subjected to an evaluation period, like most items introduced to the battle royale. 

Square Enix updated the Final Fantasy XIV User Interface guide. This includes the addition of new tags users can use to search for answers to their questions. Additionally, several new sections have been added to address several frequently asked questions from the community. Another update allows users on the website to copy and share the URL of the page they are visiting to make sharing answers significantly easier.

The Final Fantasy XIV User Interface guide also features answers regarding how new players can glamour or dye items. Plus, it offers answers to other questions, such as how to buy and sell items from the marketboard. It also has answers regarding most user interface related questions. This includes how to set-up the cross hotbar, accessing different menus, and where to find Player Actions.

Users can also see popular tags at the top of the webpage to navigate to any related questions about any significant features. Clicking on tags will take them to a page, which will have a list of any questions and answers that apply to that related tag.

Additionally, Final Fantasy XIV Patch 6.08 has rolled out. With this update, the Oceanian Data Center is now available. Additionally, the Mog Station shop now features several new cosmetic items.

Final Fantasy XIV is available for the PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, and PC.

Little Orpheus, the Apple Arcade platformer from the brains behind Dear Esther and Everybody's Gone to the Rapture, is coming to PC and consoles.

Developer The Chinese Room today confirmed Little Orpheus launches anew for Nintendo Switch, PC via Steam and Epic Game Store, PlayStation 4, PS5, Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S on 1st March.

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Capcom and Bunri have announced an educational collaboration featuring the Ace Attorney series. The companies will set up a special website accessible for a limited time. Although they have provided a link to the website, it will only be available from February 1 to April 30, 2022. [Thanks, Game Watch!]

When the site goes up, it will feature two educational quizzes aimed at Japanese junior high students. The first one will take loose inspirations from the Ace Attorney games' cross-examinations. Students will have to find a contradictory statement from the witness testimony and then press the "Objection!" button.

In the other quiz, students will help Ryunosuke Naruhodo form correct English sentences during his stay in Britain. The site will provide several English words and students have to form a sentence that correctly translates to the given Japanese example. They'll submit their answers with a "Take That!" button.

Capcom and Bunri will gradually add new questions to both quizzes every Tuesday and Friday from February 15 to March 18, 2022. After adding all questions, the contradiction quiz will have eight stages in total, while the English quiz will have thirty levels. Students who can correctly answer everything will receive commemorative smartphone backgrounds as a reward.

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Square Enix has announced another Final Fantasy XIV Eorzea Cafe collaboration. However, this Final Fantasy XIV Eorzea Cafe collaboration will feature food items inspired by the in-game All Saints' Wake event. The All Saints' Wake collaboration food items will be available at the Akihabara and Osaka locations from February 1 to February 28, 2022. Reservations for both cafes are open.

The Eorzea Cafe will offer two drinks inspired by the Final Fantasy XIV All Saints' Wake event. Along with the two drinks, consumers will be able to order a "Haunted Manor" dessert. The dessert will cost 880 yen ($7). Both drinks are non-alcoholic and adhere to the All Saints' Wake theme. The "Ghost Pumpkin Latte" will cost 880 yen($7), and the "Continental Circus Night Mocktail" will cost 770 yen ($6). Additionally, consumers who visit the Akihabara or Osaka Square Enix Cafe locations will receive a special placemat. The placemat has artwork for the All Saints' Wake 2022 event, which features a character dressed as a clown. This attire is available to obtain through the in-game event.

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I wish I could take credit for that strapline up there, but alas, I cannot. That's right, the creator of Final Fantasy, Hironobu Sakaguchi, really has created his own Final Fantasy XIV clothing label called sakaGUCCI - and he's been showing off his designs on Twitter with some truly great fashion poses.

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Ubisoft's lovable Rabbids are back, and now they're heading to Mars on Netflix.

Rabbids Invasion Special: Mission to Mars will launch for Netflix next month, on 18th February.

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Square Enix uploaded the Bravely Default Brilliant Lights opening to its official YouTube channel. The video is a 3D cinematic, featuring several important characters that will appear in the mobile game. This includes one of the new Warriors of Light, Claire. The opening movie has been uploaded to coincide with the upcoming Japanese release of the title. [Thanks, Dengeki!]

The video shows the fairy Lumina praying before four elemental crystals appear. It then shifts to show a large city with a windmill. Claire is shown reading before she is interrupted by what appears to be a crystal fragment colliding with her lamp. The fragments then fade out of view and coalesce against a strange structure. These areas and characters are significant to the story, and will appear in the mobile game.

You can watch the Bravely Default Brilliant Lights opening movie below.

[embed]https://youtu.be/pyXh2WjCkJA[/embed]

Bravely Default Brilliant Lights will feature a cast of new and familiar characters. Tiz Arrior, Agnes Oblige, Edea Lee, and Ringabel will appear in the mobile title. Additionally, it will function using the Brave and Default battle systems. Players will also be able to engage in cooperative battles with other players.

Nintendo is gradually making improvements to the Nintendo 64 app for Switch Online players.

Last week the addition of Banjo-Kazooie to the service came with a 1.2 update for the app that made some changes, including reduced input lag.

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Spike Chunsoft and Sanrio will collaborate to release a series of Super Danganronpa 2: Farwell Despair Academy goods. Pre-orders for the Sanrio and Super Danganronpa 2 (or Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair) merchandise will remain open until February 1, 2022. Additionally, the collaboration items will be available to obtain at the P'PARCO store in Ikebukuro from March 4 to March 20, 2022. The items will ship sometime in mid-March. [Thanks, Famitsu!]

A wide variety of collaboration goods will be available. This includes acrylic stands, badges, pass holders, mirrors, accessory cases, tote bags, tissue pouches, and clear files. Additionally, if consumers purchase more than 2,200 yen, or $19, in goods they will receive a random collaboration postcard. A total of two postcards will be available to obtain, and they feature Danganronpa characters alongside several Sanrio mascots similar to the merchandise available for pre-order.

You can take a look at the Sanrio and Super Danganronpa 2 collaboration goods below.

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Boisterous bean battle royale Fall Guys is getting its own Monopoly set.

Developer Mediatonic has teamed up with Monopoly maker Hasbro to mash-up the two games into... something. Images released today show the traditional game board with plastic obstacles attached.

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Bang your gong, sing it from the rooftops, put your phone on full brightness and swing it to and fro. Elden Ring has gone gold, which means the game should be ready to release on schedule in February. Every NPC has rehearsed their ominous laugh and bosses their second and third phases, basically.

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A new trailer for forthcoming monster battler Palworld has been released, which looks as bizarre as ever.

From Japanese studio Pocketpair, the Pokémon-inspired game is a "multiplayer, open-world survival crafting game" according to the Steam page.

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The Savvy Gaming Group, which is backed by Saudi Arabia's controversial Public Investment Fund (PIF), has bought the ESL for $1bn.

The group has also snapped up popular esports platform Faceit for $500m, and will now merge the two.

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Final Fantasy XIV is back online after a scheduled maintenance period, and with it comes a new patch. FFXIV version 6.08 is now live, along with patch notes detailing the latest series of changes to the game.

The patch notes themselves are fairly straightforward, containing no radical changes to the way the various jobs play. Instead, a number of jobs all received increases to the potency of various abilities. Notably, the Paladin, Dragoon, Ninja, Samurai, Dancer, Warrior, Monk, Machinist, Black Mage, and Summoner saw the most changes. The potency changes range from minor (such as the Samurai's Hakaze gaining 30 potency) to significant (the Dancer's Technical Finish jumped from 1,080 potency to 1,200). Dragoons also received a range increase to their Dragon Sight ability, which increases a target party member's damage while they stay within range. As of Patch 6.08, a Dragoon's buddy can now roam up to twice as far away.

Valve has added a new Dynamic Cloud Sync feature to support its forthcoming Steam Deck.

The feature allows for seamless save file transfer between PC and the portable Steam Deck device.

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Earlier today, developer Beijing Litchi Culture Media Co. and publisher Winking Skywalker Entertainment Limited launched its first-person action-horror title, Paper Dolls 2, on PS4 and PS5. Accompanying the news was a new console launch trailer showcasing what fans can expect to see and experience in the newly released sequel.

Feel free to take a gander at the new video down below:

As you can see in the footage above, the elevator pitch for Paper Dolls 2 is that it’s a horror game inspired by the largely unplumbed depths of Chinese mythology. In fact, not only is the game set in China’s capital city, but its development is also being handled by an indie developer based out of Beijing as well.

Originally released on PC back in 2020, Paper Dolls 2 is the official follow-up to 2018’s PlayStation, Switch, Xbox, and PC predecessor, and follows Yang Mingyuan who awakens into a nightmarish mansion teeming with spooky ghosts and – you guessed it! – creepy paper dolls.

As the 2022 version of the Genshin Impact Lantern Rite event approaches, miHoYo has released a new EP, “The Joys of Leisure and Pleasure.” As you would expect, this EP shows scenes of Zhongli, whereas the previous EP focused on Ganyu. Additionally, miHoYo released wallpapers featuring Zhongli and Ganyu, who will headline the last two banners of Version 2.4.

The track list for the Genshin Impact Zhongli EP is:

• "Sun Rises in Liyue"
• "Slumbering Lore"
• "Moon in One’s Cup"

Aside from Zhongli, Hu Tao also makes a cameo appearance during the “Sun Rises in Liyue” track. In total, the video is approximately five minutes long, with Zhongli watching over Liyue. Through the video, it is clear that Zhongli's love for the country never waned.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ugeMeCX65Uw

As for the wallpapers, you can obtain both the Zhongli and Ganyu wallpapers via the miHoYo website. Ganyu is napping under a tree in her wallpaper There are two versions of this: one where she is alone, and one where the Traveler and Paimon are watching over her from the bushes. The Zhongli one is very similar, in which there are two versions of it.

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Ellen Raskin was a children's author whose complex, playful novels are enormously rewarding for adults as well as kids. Sadly, she only wrote four of them - four puzzle-mysteries which I return to often, because they are always revealing new aspects, new elements. (I say sadly, but I only half mean it - we are so lucky to get those four novels.)

And Raskin was an illustrator as well as a novelist. She created over 1000 book jackets, including classics like the original cover of A Wrinkle in Time. And alongside the jackets, she created children's picture books - large format, bold designs, a story or poem to lead you from the start to the finish.

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A blatant copy of brilliant indie game Unpacking has today been pulled from iPhone and Google Play stores - but only after it topped their most-downloaded charts.

Anger at the clone's success spilled over last night, as Unpacking's official Twitter account flagged the rip-off to followers and made clear it was nothing to do with the game's original creators.

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Hironobu Sakaguchi, the original creator of Final Fantasy, has begun his own clothing line in Final Fantasy 14.

And yes, the clothing label is called "sakaGUCCI".

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Everyone can agree that it is at least a little bit funny when scammers run fake NFT drops and cryptocurrencies to fleece idiots, but it's less funny when innocent people get caught up in a scam. The publishers of Outerverse, a game about building automation and battling bosses, say scammers are pretending to run a blockchain version of the game and using this to sell cryptocurrency. It seems an obvious scam, which can't be good for the game's image.

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