June 2021

I'm a little late to this particular party. Nintendo's E3 direct was a solid two weeks ago and the ensuing conversation, about whether or not the Currently Unnamed Sequel to The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild should include the defining feature of The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, is now long finished, at least for now. But still, allow me to barrel on in anyway.

Breath of the Wild, if you're still unfamiliar, has weapons that irreparably break after you've used them for a little while, and that is annoying. In fact it's very annoying, and I feel like I'm as well-placed as any to say this because I wrote the majority of our 111-page guide to Breath of the Wild's shrines while using those weapons to get through them, and what became very clear, very quickly, was how an arsenal containing little more than a few sharpened twigs did not make my life any easier.

Casey Hudson, former boss of BioWare and director of the Mass Effect trilogy, has detailed what he's up to next.

Writing on Twitter last night, Hudson announced he had formed a new development outfit named Humanoid Studios, and begun recruitment for a number of roles.

"I've been working with some colleagues on something awesome, and I wish I could tell you all about it!" Hudson wrote. "Today we are announcing a new independent video game company built to unleash the creative freedom of developers - bringing innovation and artistry to players through an all-new IP."

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Thought we know everything about Evangelion? We don’t, it seems! During a recent press conference for the Blu-ray release of Evangelion 3.333, voice actor Maaya Sakamoto said that creator Hideaki Anno told her secrets about the character she plays, Mari Illustrious Makinami.

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You can also just use them to write too, of course.

The post Slay Demons at School or Work With This Demon Slayer Pencil Game appeared first on Siliconera.

The two new games are evolved versions of FF Type-0 and FFXV.

The post Hajime Tabata Is Working on Two New Large-Scale Video Games appeared first on Siliconera.

You can bring your player character to China's landmarks while enjoying Photo Mode.

The post Dynasty Warriors 9: Empires Will Still Have An Explorable Open Field appeared first on Siliconera.

Players will be forced to make choices that will impact how their game will end in Shin Megami Tensei V.

The post Shin Megami Tensei V Will Feature Multiple Endings appeared first on Siliconera.

Publisher Konami famously wound down its involvement with AAA video game production after parting ways with Hideo Kojima following the launch of Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain, but a newly announced partnership with Bloober Team might very well signal its return.

The arrangement, which is said to “include jointly developing selected contents and exchanging know-how” is sure to fuel speculation over the resurrection of Kojima’s final project, Silent Hills, given Blooper Team’s resume of spooky horror games of a similar design. The Polish game developer is best known for The Medium, The Observer, and Layers of Fear.

Silent Hills was, of course, Kojima’s last hoorah with Konami before his relationship with the company fell apart. It was also the first appearance of The Walking Dead’s Norman Reedus in a video game, which, in turn, paved the way for his starring role in Death Stranding.

The probably soon-to-be-renamed Half-Life: Loop is an unofficial HL twin-stick shooter set in Black Mesa. It locks Gordon Freeman into a series of challenges to prove to the G-Man he’s the right man for the job, using the classic Half-Life enemies and crates to craft an endless, violent job interview. No wonder he was so handy with a crowbar. He’d already passed the test!

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Back in December, Casey Hudson left his role as general manager at BioWare, after having been with the Mass Effect and Dragon Age developers on and off for two decades. With a big departure like that, it was a wonder what he'd get up to next. But now Hudson has revealed he's founded his own company, Humanoid Studios, and is currently working on a new game.

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Around a month ago PUBG Corp teased "Tiger", a new map which would allow players to respawn if they died early. Well, that map's called Taego (I see what they did there), and it's out now on test servers. Seeing as I spend most of my time dead in PUBG, it has my attention.

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It's a wonder why I enjoy Mass Effect so much considering I think third-person games are a bit rubbish. Would it be the perfect game if it were all in first-person? I don't know, but someone has made a mod that adds a first-person mode to each game in the trilogy in the Mass Effect Legendary Edition, so now we can find out.

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As RPS safety officer and unofficial nonsense warden, I have to warn you to not operate heavy machinery while watching this video of someone operating heavy machinery. That would be silly. This first look at American Truck Simulator’s Wyoming update is a 24-minute jaunt along the chunky landscape of the American West. It’s a backdrop that can be both distractingly dramatic while still feeling like a brain massage.

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A working system is a valuable asset. It works. It lets you test new ideas cheaply. Don†™t take that for granted. ...

Conan Exiles developer Funcom has acquired a majority stake in Swedish game studio The Outsiders for an undisclosed fee. ...

"If a team actually takes the risk of starting a new company, starting a new studio, building that over years, building value in that. To say they shouldn†™t sell, I think, is just short-sighted." ...

Silent Hill publisher Konami has confirmed a partnership with Bloober Team, developer of horror games such as The Medium and Blair Witch.

The agreement allows Bloober to "produce games from existing and new IPs" which Konami owns - including, of course, the missing-in-action Silent Hill.

No further detail on the project was announced today, other than some vague promises of "high quality content" and the exchanging of game-making "knowhow".

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Remember those Call of Duty: Modern Warfare maps that were surprise-added (and then removed) earlier this year? Well, they're back once again, and hopefully they're going to stick around a bit longer this time.

The returning multiplayer maps are Al-Raab Airbase (6v6) and Drainage (Gunfight), with the former being reintroduced as a 24/7 playlist, and the latter now available in the Gunfight and Gunfight - Snipers Only playlists.

The maps were originally added to the game in an update back in March, a move that surprised players given Activision was expected to have switched focus to supporting Black Ops Cold War and Warzone. Al-Raab Airbase and Drainage were briefly available to play in private matches, but in April Activision removed the two maps, later explaining they needed more time in the oven. Anyway, they have now returned, and should help mix things up for those still playing Call of Duty: Modern Warfare multiplayer.

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The Binding of Isaac: Four Souls tabletop game is back on Kickstarter raising millions more dollars for a new expansion called Requiem. The latest crowdfunding campaign has become a metagame of its own, with social media stretch goals egging fans on to do Binding of Isaac stand up and even send pics of themselves in a…

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Love Live! is one of the last Square Enix arcade games still in active service as of this writing.

The post Love Live! School Idol Festival Arcade Version Will Shut Down in October appeared first on Siliconera.

The mobile game's lifespan has extended as DelightWorks finishes checking the offline version.

The post Sakura Revolution Shutdown Delayed to July 2021 appeared first on Siliconera.

Umu! It's a little earlier than usual but Nero is back for another year of sports and gacha.

The post Grand Nero Festival Revival Event Goes Live in Fate/Grand Order appeared first on Siliconera.

Atlus has released one more brand new trailer of its upcoming JRPG Shin Megami Tensei V, focusing on another of its 200+ demons.

We get to see the recurring demon Mothman in action, following the previous videos we saw over the past few days featuring Jack Frost, Fionn mac Cumhaill, Amanozako, Angel, Daimon, Mermaid, Mandrake, Arioch, Kumbhanda, Feng Huang, Inugami, Turdak, and Fafnir.

You can enjoy the trailer below.

Fruits Basket: The Final just had its last episode air, ending the series with plenty of heartfelt hugs that are sure to make even the manliest of fans shed a tear. Yet, it wasn’t just that final episode of the last season that felt more dramatic and real, it was actually the entire thing.

In a recent interview with Anime News Network, Fruits Basket Director Yoshihide Ibata commented on this serious change in tone, noting that the lack of gag elements that were present in the first two seasons was purposeful.

The 1st season and 2nd season had gag elements at every turn, but in The Final it became serious. The daytime drama elements became more pronounced, and it got difficult to insert gags, like it was a different piece of work altogether. I was concerned if I could convey this adult atmosphere, so I approached the production of The Final as a challenge.

In another part of the interview, Ibata also mentions that they spoke with Natsuki Takaya-sensei in-depth regarding working around telling the painful story elements of Fruits Baskets while still managing to make it enjoyable. For the full interview, you can head over to Anime News Network.

If you’re still on the hunt for more anime content, be sure to check out all of the news, features, and meme posts down below. There are also plenty of quizzes to take as well.

Featured Image Source: TMS Entertainment

Atlus has this week revealed its financial results for fiscal 2021, which included an update on the sales of its acclaimed Persona franchise. As reported by Personacentral, the numbers are impressive, with total franchise sales topping 15 million worldwide, which is up by around 2 million from last year’s fiscal report.

Other key takeaways include Persona 5 Royal having sold around 1.8 million copies since its Japanese launch on Oct. 31, 2019, which is up by 400,000 units from the last report a year earlier. Also, Persona 4 Golden for PC has sold approximately 900k copies worldwide since its launch in June of 2020.

Sales for the action-RPG spin-off Persona 5 Strikes weren’t given an update, but Personacentral reported earlier this year that it had sold 1.3 million units worldwide as of April 2021.

For a full review of the fiscal report, you can head over to Personacentral. In brief, despite Atlus’s losses as a result of “the effect brought upon by the amortization of business rights with the transfer of operations,” the sales of the game’s released from April 1, 2020 to March 31, 2021 exceeded Atlus’ sales expectations and contributed to parent company Sega’s profit as a result.

Twinfinite reviewed Persona 5 Royal last year and thoroughly enjoyed it, scoring the game 4.5/5 and concluding that “the additions introduced in Royal allow Persona 5 to become the excellent JRPG it was always truly meant to be, and it’s a wonderful effort that will surely be appreciated by fans.”

Let’s talk about some spoilery post-credits reveals

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We’ve had a secret Silent Hill game (PT). We’ve had a game that the internet insisted was a Silent Hill game, but probably isn't. The insidious nature of the series means this post could technically be a Silent Hill game, and if it is I probably wouldn’t know until it was too late*. Here's another hint that the series is coming back: horror-focused developers Bloober Team just announced a “strategic partnership” with Konami. Of course, they didn’t mention anything else, but with Silent Hill, you don’t have to. It’s all implied.

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One of the most brutal frustrations in the world is the realisation that you have completely borked a meal with an overdose of salt. You taste a stew while it's on the stove and it's near-perfect: deftly spiced, neither too rich nor too light, and with the perfect levels of sweetness and acidity. It just needs a little salt, you think. And so you sprinkle in what you swear in the moment is a pinch, set it proudly on the table, and kerblammo: it tastes like it's been strained through a pirate's rancid beard.

The Last Spell is a superb turn-based tactical defence game, overburdened with too much salt. Or rather, with the precursor element from which salt is derived: extreme difficulty. This is not a "game is too difficult" sulk for the same reason that I continue to use salt in cooking. The Last Spell is a game about desperate last stands. It needs to be difficult and its systems have been designed around that fact. But the calibration is just a little off, and where it should trigger satisfaction and compulsion, it more often prompts exhaustion.

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Apex Legends' Genesis Collection Event started today, introducing lots of new cosmetics as Collection Events often do. But more importantly, this one has put the old versions of the Kings Canyon and World's Edge battle royale maps back into rotation. That means: Skull Town and the train have returned. Between now and July 13th, you'll be able to drop into some of your old favourite drop zones that have since been pulverised in the new map layouts. I played a few games on World's Edge last night, and it felt very strange being back.

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A group of former Riot Games developers have established a new studio called Amihan Entertainment. ...

PUBG's much-teased Taego map has finally arrived on PC test servers, bringing with it some new features including self-revives and a special "second chance" mechanic. Well... new to PUBG, at least.

The freshly-released patch notes explain that Taego is an 8x8 map set in 1980s South Korea, with landscapes "ranging from wide-open reed fields to the close quarters of Hosan Prison". It's also got some wildlife, with flocks of birds that react to player movement and gunfire, so take your binoculars with you - those birds might just help you track down another squad. If you stream yourself doing that, you're a twitcher in two senses of the word.

The map also has a new feature called Comeback BR, which gives players who die before the first Blue Zone the ability to get themselves back into the game. All you have to do is stay alive in a separate "Comeback Arena" for a certain amount of time. It sounds pretty similar to Call of Duty: Warzone's Gulag, except it's more like another mini battle royale rather than a one-on-one battle to the death. Players who survive are reintroduced to the main game in phase three of the match, complete with all their items and gear.

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The well-reviewed Xbox Wireless Headset has been tough to track down since it launched back in March but it's now available once again - and at a small discount from Currys PC World.

Usually priced at £90, you can enter the code GAMINGFND3 right at the end of the checkout process to drop the price to £85.

The voucher is intended to be used to subtract the price of next day delivery from your order, but you can select standard delivery instead and you'll shave a fiver off the cost of the headset.

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Playing through the original Doki Doki Literature Club is a singular experience, unfolding with a dark and twisted magic that cannot be recaptured once set loose. It can be expanded upon, however, enhanced with new stories, structure, and secrets that make this week’s Doki Doki Literature Club Plus a worthy reason to…

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Yes! I was so stoked to see Capcom finally releasing English versions of The Great Ace Attorney games. The Ace Attorney series is one of my absolute favorites, and I know English-speaking fans have been desperate for a new entry to the series ever since we were left with Android and iOS releases of Dual Destinies and …

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In a furious tirade on Twitter, independent games publisher Iain Garner of Neon Doctrine has unleashed his frustrations with trying to publish games on a major games console—one he says that isn’t made by Microsoft. During the spleen-venting, he suggests that getting prominent promotion for a game from the platform…

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The "will they, won't they" concerning Konami and the future of Silent Hill is not even close to a new conversation, so much so it's almost a bore at this point. Still, with the Abandoned game inciting Hideo Kojima-related conspiracy theories and rumors of a new Silent Hill game having run rampant for years now, it looks like there might actually be some substance to the latest report. Konami and Bloober Team, the studio behind Layers of Fear and The Medium, issued a new press release to media talking about a fresh partnership between the two companies.

The Ace Attorney series is about as zany as you can imagine. Part visual novel, part puzzle game that sees players gather evidence and present court cases to an equally wild cast of characters. Though the North American fanbase has seen its fair share of entries featuring Phoenix Wright and the rest of his lawyers at large, two games have always eluded them. 

The Great Ace Attorney Adventures and The Great Ace Attorney 2: Resolve were released in 2013 and 2017, respectively, on Nintendo 3DS and mobile, but only for a Japanese audience. That all changes on July 27 as Phoenix Wright's ancestor, Ryunosuke Naruhodo, and the bumbling legendary detective Herlock Sholmes make their way west as Capcom is releasing these two titles as The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles collection for PlayStation 4, Switch, and PC! But what can North American fans expect from this new set of games?

Doki Doki Literature Club Plus gives more people a chance to see new and old stories, but it's a bit difficult to read on the Switch.

The post Review: Doki Doki Literature Club Plus Switch Can Be Hard to Read appeared first on Siliconera.

Another version of Jiren appears to be on the way to Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2 as DLC. The original version of him appeared as DLC years ago.

The post Another Jiren Will Head to Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2 appeared first on Siliconera.

The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles releases on July 27, 2021, and we’ve been able to check out the game’s early chapters. Read our impressions!

The post Preview: The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles Is Its Own Best Advocate appeared first on Siliconera.