August 2021

Note: This guide focuses on the Bedrock version of Minecraft, available on Windows 10, Xbox, PlayStation, Switch, and mobile.

Some of Minecraft's warm biomes are harder to find and can be pretty unforgiving. Deserts are pretty common, but Husks--desert zombie--don't burn up in the sun. As beautiful as the badlands can be, they're all but empty. These are Minecraft's warm biomes.

Jungles

Jungles are rare biomes that feature jungle trees that can grow as tall as 31 blocks, as well as very short trees built around a single block of jungle wood as a trunk. The jungle has quite a few biome-specific elements. When it comes to animals, you can find ocelots, parrots, and pandas, all of which generate exclusively in the jungle biome. You can also find rare jungle temples.

One of the more common variants is the bamboo jungle, which is significantly less dense in terms of trees, but with significantly more bamboo--one of the most easily renewable resources in the game, as well as part of scaffolding, which is a must-have for ambitious builders.

Note: This guide focuses on the Bedrock version of Minecraft, available on Windows 10, Xbox, PlayStation, Switch, and mobile.

While Minecraft has plenty of warmer biomes, some of the most beautiful are the coldest. The rare Ice Spikes biome will surprise you the first time you find one for yourself. And did you know that there are cows that grow mushrooms on their backs? These are Minecraft's cold, wet, and weird biomes.

Snowy Tundra

It's like a desert, but for snow. Snowy tundra is typically very large, open, and empty--you'll find trees here and there, but not many. What you will find are polar bears, which are exclusive to the biome, and white rabbits as well. Tundra also sports its own exclusive mob, the Stray, an icy skeleton with ranged and melee attacks that inflict slowness.

No two Minecraft worlds look alike, but they're all made up of the same elements--Minecraft's many varied biomes. Each biome has something that makes it special, whether it's the mysterious spires of Eroded Badlands or the sunflowers that appear only in Sunflower Plains and nowhere else. Knowing what to expect from them will only increase your chances of survival. Did you know that the zombies that appear in the desert are called Husks and don't burn up in sunlight? Or that swamps are the only place to find blue orchids?

Minecraft might be endlessly huge, but it's your world--so go in prepared. We've split all the major biomes in Minecraft into three categories: Temperate, Hot, and Cold (with a side of Weird. Check out each of our guides below to get the lowdown on each one.

The Temperate Biomes of Minecraft

Here are the starter biomes--the most common ones you'll find when you spawn for the first time. Plains, the many types of forests, and swamps make for some of the safer biomes out there, though don't underestimate the danger of the Dark Forest biome, or the rare Witch Hut that can spawn in a swamp.

SPOILER WARNING: Be careful! No More Heroes 3 is a game filled with surprises, and sometimes boss fights don’t always go as expected. In other words, we recommend not reading the boss strategy until you’ve actually started fighting the boss to avoid spoiling some of the game’s best moments!

Not long after you start No More Heroes 3, you’ll be up against Mr. Blackhole, a massive alien menace. He is the first big challenge of the game and will put your newly learned skills to the test. Read on for some tips on bringing this space monster crashing down to earth. For more guides, be sure to check out our No More Heroes 3 beginner's tips.

How to Defeat Mr. Blackhole

Mr. Blackhole may be your first major boss fight, but he’s no tutorial-tier pushover! He comes to battle with various painful attacks and a sturdy, oversized body that can’t be suplexed. He’s also got the ability to create warp portals to launch objects (and himself) through.

SPOILER WARNING: Be careful: No More Heroes 3 is a game filled with surprises, and sometimes boss fights don’t always go as expected. In other words, we recommend not reading the boss strategy until you’ve actually started fighting the boss to avoid spoiling some of the game’s best moments!

Gold Joe is your second major boss battle in No More Heroes 3. While he has some unique tricks up his sleeve, he’s not too tough once you know how to counter them. For more guides, be sure to check out our No More Heroes 3 beginner's tips.

How to Defeat Gold Joe

Unlike Mr. Blackhole, Gold Joe is a small fighter who generally prefers to fight you at close range with his arsenal of swords. His sword strikes can be parried and dodged, giving you openings to really wail on him. However, you need to be careful when dodging around him because the arena's edges are electrified and will cause damage. Be careful not to dodge or run into the wall, or you’ll be regretting it very quickly!

SPOILER WARNING: Be careful: No More Heroes 3 is a game filled with surprises, and sometimes boss fights don’t always go as expected. In other words, we recommend not reading the boss strategy until you’ve actually started fighting the boss to avoid spoiling some of the game’s best moments!

Oh, were you expecting something else? Your next fight in No More Heroes 3 isn’t an alien but a mysterious cyborg ninja from the future--and he’s tougher than any of the unearthly menaces you’ve fought so far! For more guides, be sure to check out our No More Heroes 3 beginner's tips.

How To Defeat Native Dancer

This fight isn’t quite what was planned, but you’re just going to have to adapt on the fly! Fortunately, before combat begins, you’ll be given three additional Death Glove skills, all of which will prove useful in the fight ahead.

The Psychonauts 2 adventure continues in Hollis's Classroom, with Raz and the other interns venturing into the mind of Agent Hollis Forsythe for a chance to learn a new power: Mental Connection. You'll need it to fully explore her mind (and to do some not-great things in there), as well as to uncover all the collectibles Hollis's Classroom hides, to maximize your Intern rank.

Here's everything to find in Hollis's classroom and how you can snag it. Stay tuned for more Psychonauts 2 coverage and guides, including our rundown of all the collectibles in Loboto's Labyrinth and don't forget to check out our Psychonauts 2 review.

Hollis's Classroom Collectibles

• Nuggets of Wisdom: 3
• Memory Vaults: 1
• Emotional Baggage: Hat Box, Steamer Trunk
• Half-A-Minds: 2
• Figments: 42

Like Loboto's Labyrinth, Hollis's Classroom is still introducing new elements in Psychonauts 2. The big power you gain here is Mental Connection, which can be used to reach distant platforms and other locations--and grab collectibles.

Steamer Trunk Tag: Before you leave the classroom, check the outer ring of chairs on the lower level to find this tag.

Nugget of Wisdom: This ought to be your first Nugget in the game, and you'll come across it as you use Mental Connection to climb out of the classroom. You can't miss it.

Like the original, Psychonauts 2 is brimming with collectibles hidden throughout its many locales--both in the real world and in the minds of its characters. Uncovering all of them helps you to level up Raz more quickly, gaining new powers and learning more about each of the people whose minds you'll explore. But finding everything hidden in the depths of the psyche can be tough.

We've been combing through every lobe and synapse of Psychonauts 2 to discover all that's hidden within the game, with the aim of making it a little easier to discover everything. The guide below will walk you through the game's first level, Loboto's Labyrinth, to help you uncover all that's hidden within Dr. Loboto's mind.

Stay tuned for more Psychonauts 2 coverage and guides, and don't forget to check out our Psychonauts 2 review.

Loboto's Labyrinth Collectibles

• Nuggets of Wisdom: 2
• Memory Vaults: 2
• Emotional Baggage: Hat Box, Steamer Trunk, Suit Case, Purse
• Figments: 80

Much of Loboto's Labyrinth is a tutorial for the rest of Psychonauts 2, with your powers slowly unlocking during the course of the level. Those powers then usually allow you to access nearby collectibles, so be aware that you might need to backtrack a bit to get everything you need. We're marking each collectible as it appears during the course of the level, but some will require you to return to the stage at a later time.

Memory Vault: Look for this first collectible to the left of the first Loboto portrait you find, just as you enter the central office after following him.

After years of teases, Destiny 2's scariest and most ubiquitous villain, Savathun, has finally made her appearance. She's not only central to the Season of the Lost, Destiny 2's current content season, she's also making huge moves in The Witch Queen, the next big expansion for the game. Bungie revealed some of what we can expect from The Witch Queen in its recent Destiny 2 showcase, detailing one incredibly important new element: We'll be facing Hive Guardians.

In the story of Destiny 2, this is a massive development. "Guardian" is the term for the sci-fi superheroes the players embody, and they wield specific powers granted by a physics-defying force called the Light. Those powers include the ability to resurrect from death and to use magic to shoot fire or create black holes. Up until now, only humanity has wielded the Light, thanks to its source, the giant machine god-thing called the Traveler, and its Ghosts, the tiny robots that follow players around.

The Hive, meanwhile, are perhaps Destiny 2's greatest enemy. These eons-old aliens are a billions-strong cult that worships death and exists only for conquest and genocide. Where humanity embodies the Light and, we've always assumed, the will of the Traveler, the Hive embodies the Darkness, the other god-like power in Destiny's universe. A Hive enemy that controls the Light and its attendant powers--including near-immortality--is an incredible threat.

Call of Duty: Vanguard's alpha is officially live for PlayStation users, which features the recently announced Champion Hill mode. Here we provide some tips for winning Vanguard's new competitive mode that feels like a mashup of Gunfight and battle royale, with teams competing in a series of 2v2 rounds to be the last team standing.

Your duo only gets 12 combined lives in the Champion Hill arena, so every life and every dollar earned counts. Here are some tips to help you become Champion of the Hill.

Equip The Right Weapons

All squads start with the same loadout of a pistol and submachine gun, but you'll want to upgrade the right weapons for your best chance of success in Champion Hill.

Make sure that you have your pistol out when buying a new weapon from the Buy Station, as a weapon purchase will swap out whatever gun you're holding. Presumably, you'd want the submachine gun over the pistol, but just make sure to hold the right weapon when approaching the Buy Station.

Welcome to No More Heroes 3! Whether you're a seasoned assassin or a beam katana rookie, there’s a lot to consider and understand before going into this ultraviolent action-packed adventure. To start off on your journey to climb to #1 on the UAA charts, we've prepared some advice to help you get on your feet.

For more about how the game stacks up, be sure to read our No More Heroes 3 review. Otherwise, read on for our essential tips and tricks around the game.

PARTAKE IN THE GLORY OF SUSHI

Throughout the various areas of NMH3, you'll find sushi carts offering a variety of eat-in and take-out dishes for Travis to snarf on. Eating sushi provides various benefits depending on the type you chow down on, ranging from simple health and power restoration to boosting Slash Reel odds.

Take-out sushi can be used during battle, except for special fights where Travis dons his armor. Travis can hold up to five of each kind of sushi and snarf pieces mid-fight to get their effects. You'll always want to keep health and power restoration sushi on hand, but having a few pieces of the other types at the ready is also a good idea--having tension and attack-power boosts you can activate at any time is always great. (How does the sushi stay fresh so long? Don't ask.)

Call of Duty: Vanguard's alpha is officially live for PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5, which features the recently announced Champion Hill mode. This new multiplayer mode feels like a mashup of Gunfight and battle royale, with duos competing in a series of rounds to be the last team standing. Basically, Champion Hill is a more chaotic and strategic Gunfight tournament.

Champion Hill combines four small maps to make one large arena, where players in duos compete in 60-second rounds of a Team Deathmatch-style tournament against other squads. Every team begins with a total of 12 lives. In Champion Hill, players want to move through the rounds and work to eliminate all other squads' life count to zero before their squad is eliminated.

All squads start with the same loadout of a pistol and submachine gun. However, better gear can be obtained by collecting cash and using the Buy Stations. All players start with $500 cash, and more cash can be earned through the rounds by eliminating players and scavenging cash piles found around the map.

There are four Buy Stations that can be used during "Buy Rounds," which are phases that happen between every three rounds of combat. Each Buy Station offers something different. Players can choose whether they want to spend cash on perks, killstreaks, equipment like armor plates, or better weapons. Here you can find Champion Hill's full list of available weapons, perks, streaks, and equipment for this alpha.

Those of you of a certain age may remember the bright orange light-gun used in Duck Hunt. While that’s probably been tossed out long ago (if not, it’s worth a lot of money!), the innovation around gaming with something other than keyboards or controllers has really exploded. And now, you’re able to use a light-gun as your controller. With the Arkade Motion Blaster, you can play all your favorite games like Call of Duty, Fortnite, and more in an incredibly immersive, exciting way.

The Arkade Motion Blaster is a Kickstarter-funded project endorsed by YouTuber PewDiePie, and right now, it's available for $130. You’ll be able to feel every moment of the action as you use Arkade’s light-gun to blast away at your enemies, feeling the rush as you play game after game. With the Arkade Motion Blaster's high-precision gyroscope and low-latency Bluetooth connection, you won’t lose your edge by switching to it, and you can even play in a full 360 degrees around you. The light-gun is compatible with Steam or GeForce Now on PC and Mac as well as mobile games on Android, meaning you can take your Arkade Motion Blaster on the go to keep up the adventure.

Xbox Game Pass is very popular, and some believe subscription services like it will take over and dominate gaming in a similar way to what happened in the world of music, TV, and movies. Despite Microsoft's belief in Game Pass as its secret weapon and key growth driver in the future, the company doesn't want you to go to too wild for the service.

During a livestream at Gamescom on Friday, Xbox marketing boss Aaron Greenberg said he advises against naming your child "Game Pass."

"I also ask that no one name their baby Game Pass," Greenberg said.

This wasn't a totally unprompted and random comment. Greenberg offered up his sage advice after the other interview guest, Pete Hines of Bethesda, shared a story of a woman who went into labor during a Skyrim presentation at QuakeCon in 2011. One of the interviewers joked that the family might have named their baby Dovahkiin. That didn't actually happen, but Hines said someone did in fact legally name their child Dovahkiin, and he made good on his promise to give the family free Bethesda games for life.

Regarding naming a child "Game Pass," one of the interviewers said naming a baby "Game Pass" might not even be possible due to the country's rules about child names. In any event, it's probably a good idea to not name your child after a streaming service.

Today PlatinumGames hosted its SuperSummer Festival livestream, and had interesting new goodies to share with its fans.

First of all Hideki Kamiya himself showcased new gameplay of the upcoming Sol Cresta, which is coming this year for PS4, Nintendo Switch, and PC via Steam.

Kamiya-san also revealed that the game will have additional difficulty levels besides normal, both on the easier and harder sides.

We then get to see a Sol Cresta arcade cabinet that has been created for events like the upcoming Bitsummit.

The definition of gameplay is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. That's largely the case for me, at least. I play a lot of online competitive multiplayer (mainly Call of Duty and Rainbow Six Siege), and this year, I've even been jumping back into the Destiny grind now and again. The point is, I'm constantly running through the same environments, chasing the same objectives, using the same fairly small pool of weapons. Why am I not getting bored? Why am I actively enjoying it?

In an effort to understand this, I manage to encourage neuroscientist and author Dr Dean Burnett to chat with me about it. Despite a packed schedule - he's recently been promoting his latest book Psycho-Logical and he's helping to decide the future of European science communication policy - he fits me in one evening. He is incredibly friendly and cheerful, and very happy to share his insight.

"What seems like a sweet spot for how the brain responds is a nice mix of both something familiar, and also the element of novelty," he tells me. "With a game, there is always an element of novelty [...] you still have control over what happens so you can go this way, use this weapon. 'This time I'll try it this way around.' So there's an element of novelty, there's an element of direct influence in the situation so you've got that control, that sense of [...] I have control of the environment."

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Bandai Namco released a new batch of trailers about its upcoming cross-generation JRPG Tales of Arise.

Like the series of promotional videos released three weeks ago and another set two weeks ago, and one last week, the trailers showcase a few of the recurring rates and magic spells in the series, and how they evolved from the older games all the way to Tales of Arise.

To be specific, we get to see Resurrection. Swallow Dance, and Negative Gate

You can check them all out below.

Valve have released their monthly list of Steam best sellers for July, and it's good news if you're a fan of Japanese re-releases. The pixel remasters of Final Fantasy I-III all made the list, but so did The Great Ace Attorney Chronciles and Ys IX: Monstrum Nox. New games from Japanese developers did well, too, with both Monster Hunter Stories 2: Wings Of Ruin and Samurai Warriors 5 making the list.

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It's me, your friendly neighbourhood Other Alice stepping in once more for regular Alice (she's still here, she just has the day off today). I have run out of milk so am drinking a very strong cup of tea - which would be fine, but I don't have a slice of lemon! The horror! The only way to calm my rattled nerves is with a lovely video game.

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Naughty Dog is ramping up hiring for the studio's first standalone multiplayer game.

In a tweet, the studio said it was hiring across multiple disciplines for the new game.

We don't know much about this new multiplayer game, although co-game director Vinit Agarwal took to Twitter to say: "apply if you want to be part of bringing the cinematic experience between players in our new standalone multiplayer action game".

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Shadow Tactics was one of the most pleasant surprises of the past five years, establishing Mimimi as ones to watch before Desperados 3 established them as masters of tactical sneak 'em ups. Now the German developer is returning to their samurai roots with the standalone expansion Aiko's Choice. Announced back in March, it now has a release window: December.

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PlatinumGames has released new DLC for The Wonderful 101 Remastered.

The Prince Vorkken DLC is out now on Steam for 80p, and on PlayStation 4 and Nintendo Switch priced 75p.

This DLC lets you change the main player character to Prince Vorkken Ohgee, heir to the throne of the comet Rhullo and leader of the Guyzoch Space Pirates.

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Halo Infinite doesn't have per-match XP - battle pass progression is tied to challenges instead, 343 has clarified.

"Playing and winning matches will be challenges, which will help players progress through the battle pass," Halo community manager John Junyszek tweeted.

"Even though this means no per-match XP at launch, you're still always progressing through challenges and therefore the BP."

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While Gamescom 2021 has now officially wrapped, Polish developer Bloober Team still managed to smuggle in a brand new PS5 launch trailer late last night to commemorate the release of their upcoming psychological horror game, The Medium.

Feast your eyes on the freshly cut Gamescom footage of The Medium running on PS5 down below:

For those unaware, The Medium is a Silent Hill-esque atmospheric horror experience that even boasts the aforementioned Konami series’ original composer, Akira Yamaoka, on music production duties.

While the title launched on Xbox and PC earlier this year, the game is all set to launch next week on PS5 on September 3. The PS5 version will feature some unique and immersive DualSense support.

Atlus has released another trailer showing off the gameplay of one of the over 200+ demons that will be featured in its upcoming JRPG Shin Megami Tensei V.

The demon showcased today is Asparas, another demon that has been part of the franchise basically forever.

You can watch the trailer below.

343 has outlined a number of new features coming to Halo: The Master Chief Collection.

Chief among them is a new map for Halo 3 called Icebox, which is a remake of the classic Halo 2 map, Turf.

Icebox was originally a multiplayer map from the cancelled Halo Online (343 has added Halo Online maps to Halo 3 before). Unlike the original, which is set in Mombasa, Icebox is set in the Russian city of Tyumen.

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An Xbox engineer fixed a user's tiny, 15-year-old Xbox 360 gamerpic so it now displays properly on modern devices.

Earlier this week, video producer and editor Gabriel Roland tweeted a picture of their 360 gamerpic as it appears now on modern consoles: tiny.

This Pac-Man gamerpic, bought for 80 Microsoft Points in 2006, shrinks with each new console generation as resolutions increase.

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Two polearms, a bow, and a claymore in the shape of a fish will appear as new weapons in the next update.

The post Genshin Impact Luxurious Sea Lord Claymore is a Fish appeared first on Siliconera.

Starfield committed to a November 2022 release date during E3, and we're now beginning to learn more about Bethesda's next big RPG. This week they released three "Location Insight" videos, describing in basic detail some of the cities you'll visit on your interplanetary adventure.

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While it’s the weekend, there are no slow news days for Microsoft Flight Simulator, with third-party developers who continue delivering.

First of all, Military Visualizations revealed the first images of its ATR-72-600, already working within Microsoft Flight Simulator.

The turboprop airliner by ATR would certainly be a fantastic addition to the simulator’s lineup of available aircraft, and you can see what the flight deck looks like below (the images were shared on the developer’s brand new Discord server).

Every Pokemon is interesting and worth talking about. I don’t play a ton of Pokemon, but I do enjoy the universe and I love learning more about the creatures in it. So, Here’s Another Pokemon! It’s Buizel!

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The Kickstarter for Goodboy Galaxy - the first commercial Game Boy Advance game since 2008 - has smashed its target in less than a day.

The Kickstarter went live yesterday asking for £18,000. Today, at the time of this article's publication, it's on over £58,000.

Goodboy Galaxy is the work of two developers, Rik Nicol and Jeremy Clarke, who met while working at a mobile games studio in the Netherlands.

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A new The Ascent patch aims to make various performance improvements to the game across platforms.

The patch is now live for The Ascent on Steam, and is currently going through the deployment process for Windows Store and Xbox console, developer Neon Giant said in a post on Steam.

The most important part of the patch for me is it targets performance improvements for the PC version, specifically the Windows Store version.

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A handful of Konami games on GOG have received a controller support update.

Five games received support for modern controllers yesterday, courtesy of GOG's own tech team:

The update means these games now have full support for modern controllers, such as the PlayStation 5's DualSense controller, the DualShock 4, Microsoft's Xbox One and Series X and S controllers, and the Nintendo Switch Pro controller.

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She also features a smaller pony version of the Vocaloid singer as a separate figure.

The post Get a First Look at the New Hatsune Miku My Little Pony Figure appeared first on Siliconera.

Let's be real: The iPhone in your pocket is probably close to 10 or 20 percent battery life by the time the sun starts going down. That means that by the time a cell phone would come most in handy, it's completely dead. Bumming a charge from someone else is normally an option, but then you end up being the person standing next to the bar by yourself side-eyeing your phone and waiting for it to get back to a fifth of the way charged so you can leave.

The best charger to use is this new Apple MagSafe Duo Charger. It typically retails for $150 and is currently 20% off for just $120. The charger is already an Amazon favorite with 4.6 out of 5 stars.

The MagSafe Duo Charger is notable because it can charge two different devices at once. You can charge an iPhone, an Apple Watch, your AirPod case, and more. Even better: It's completely wireless, which eliminates the biggest reason most of us have owned four or five different chargers in the last couple of years--those fragile wires that seem to fray if you simply nudge your phone an inch outside of the stretch radius. The charger folds in on itself, making it easy to carry anywhere. Instead of having to ask someone if you can use their wired charger, you can simply and discretely plug this charger into an outlet and, as long as your phone is next to or on top of it, charge it very quickly, along with any other Apple device.

No More Heroes 3 has just hit the shelves, and Grasshopper Manufacturer released its own version of the launch trailer.

The new trailer, dubbed “SUDA51’s Director’s Cut,” brings the name of creator Goichi Suda.

As you may expect, it’s quite a bit crazier compared to the “normal” version, which we also embedded below in case you missed it. It also includes a very special “guest.”

You can check it out below.

Good games don’t die, they just get old. Halo 3 is a very good (and yes, very old) game, being released back in 2007. But 13 years later it is still getting new maps. This time, 343 Industries is adding a remake of a classic Halo 2 map into the Master Chief Collection version of Halo 3.

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Naughty Dog is one of the most beloved game developers in the industry. Since 1984, the studio has delivered a steady stream of hits, including iconic franchises like Crash Bandicoot, Jak and Daxter, Uncharted, and The Last of Us. But making games isn’t getting any easier, so we sat down with Naughty Dog co-presidents Evan Wells and Neil Druckmann to talk about how they’re shepherding the legacy of the studio, working to combat work crunch, and dealing with harsh criticism.

At first hearing, Naughty Dog can come across as kind of a silly name for a company. It definitely has a legacy now, but do you ever wish you could change the name?
Evan Wells: I love it. I think it’s got a great history at this point. When Jason [Rubin] and Andy [Gavin] founded the company, they were called JAM Software, which was maybe cool back in the ’80s but probably not so cool today. They were about to publish their first game with EA and they went, “There’s already a JAM Software, so you’ve got 24 hours to come up with a new name.” That’s where Naughty Dog came from. I think it works. I like the name, and I wouldn’t want to change it now.