Efforts to turn Life is Strange into a TV series are still ongoing, and look to be gathering steam once again.
Legendary Pictures has now signed up award-winning singer-songwriter Shawn Mendes as an executive producer and to work on music for the show, The Hollywood Reporter writes.
13 Reasons Why production company Anonymous Content has also been brought on-board.
This year's all-digital Tokyo Game Show 2021 will include announcement livestreams from Xbox, Square Enix, Capcom and Sega.
A schedule for the event includes a 50-minute Xbox livestream to be held on the show's opening day, 30th September, which promises "some exclusive news and content to share".
A new Square Enix Presents livestream will then follow on 1st October, with a 50-minute slot dedicated to "the latest news about our upcoming titles".
Brendan "PlayerUnknown" Greene has left PUBG parent company Krafton to set up a new indie studio, PlayerUnknown Productions.
It has been a couple of years since Greene was involved in development of PUBG. In 2019, he launched PUBG Special Projects, a new Amsterdam-based division which had been working on a fresh project codenamed Prologue.
Greene's new company is also based in Amsterdam and looks like it may continue working on Prologue, with Krafton investing in the new company with a minority stake.
Over the years I've sat in my fair share of fictional classrooms, mainly in Persona 5, where you answer pop-quiz type questions and avoid projectiles between stints moonlighting as a masked vigilante. But have we ever seen life from the other side of the desk? I propose that someone should make a game about the day-to-day school life of a teacher, trying to manage their time and energy to better their students, which would shine a great light into pedagogy (there's your word of the day).
When it comes to teaching, things like union strikes over pay and lengthy holiday time relative to other jobs may come to mind, but being a school teacher is about so much more than that. As a school teacher you are interacting with so many different people, not just pupils, and it's crucial that you form strong bonds with these people to thrive in the role.
Imagine the social management aspects of Persona 5 on a colossal scale. There are faculty staff, departmental heads, heads of year groups and overall heads of the school. And that's just internally. Liaise with someone to deliver a talk to your students, negotiate prices and arrange logistics for a field trip, try to acquire the latest textbooks and teaching materials - it's a vocation that sees you dealing with so many people every day. Of course there are only a certain number of hours in a school day, and a game could see you choose which bonds you'd best like to focus on, perhaps with a real-time aspect, so you could truly feel each second ticking by.
Perfect for summer and for Halloween.
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We’ve already seen how AI can give Street Fighter characters human faces. Now, let’s see what it does to manga ones.
Apex Legends is getting rid of tap-strafing, a bit of movement tech that allows players to do speedy mid-air turns without losing any momentum. It was never an intended game mechanic, but something high-level players have discovered that makes it incredibly tough to shoot at them. But last night, Respawn announced that they're doing away with tap-strafing in the battle royale's next patch.
Fans have been playing video games featuring the mobile suit mechas since 1986.
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Toriyama's new VR game will be more accessible to casual players than Swords of Gargantua.
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A detailed Proof Games report into Mark Haspel, the co-founder of game grading company Wata, has brought to light worrying details of his business activities, and of Wata in general.
Wata appraises and rates the quality of collectible video games, often pushing their prices into the hundreds and thousands of dollars. To avoid any conflict of interest, it has previously stated it does not allow employees to have their own games graded or sell any that have been graded by the company.
But, this week, Proof Games' Seth Abramson discovered he had apparently bought several WATA-graded video games from an eBay seller that turned out to be Haspel. One of his purchases reportedly included a yellow sticky note that invited Abramson to email Haspel privately "for more games".
Off-road racing car fanatics, rejoice! Yes, a batch of new content has just dropped for Codemasters’ acclaimed racing sim, Dirt 5. While some of the content will be free for those who already own the game, there’s also a newly released paid DLC pack that adds a bunch of new stuff in, too.
Let’s start with the free stuff, right? Specifically, the game’s latest Update 6.00 will introduce two new Moroccan tracks – Ait Ojana and Tinghir – and they will feature, “challenging terrains, big jumps, and buffeting sandstorms.” Elsewhere, the latest patch will add a handful of new liveries for the, “MINI Cooper SX1, Armada Engineering Unlimited Truck, Volkswagen Beetle Rallycross, Porsche Macan T1 Rally Raid, and Renault Megane R.S RX.” as well.
Meanwhile, Dirt 5’s latest paid DLC pack – which is officially dubbed the Wild Spirits Content Pack – boasts the addition of two new cars, 25 Career events, five new achievements/trophies, and more. This aforementioned premium content pack will set you back $7.99/£6.99 and is available to download now for Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5 and PC. Check out the trailer for the new DLC pack down below:
No Man’s Sky’s eagerly anticipated fifth-anniversary update is here, bringing Hello Games’ science fiction universe one step closer to Star Wars. The Frontiers update gives the game new planetary settlements—procedurally generated hives of scum and villainy that you can take over and govern as you see fit.
Sonic Colors Ultimate is still an entertaining modern Sonic the Hedgehog game, and this latest version feels tighter and looks sharp.
The post Review: Sonic Colors Ultimate is Still a Pretty Great Sonic Game appeared first on Siliconera.
The fourth group will specifically consist of swords that belonged to the Date clan.
The post Touken Ranbu Musou Fourth Group Will Feature Tsurumaru Kuninaga appeared first on Siliconera.
TGS 2021 will have many live streams from SNK's KOF XV to miHoYo's Genshin Impact.
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If you've ever wanted to live the life of a space sheriff in some intergalactic frontier town, No Man's Sky's latest free update has you well and truly covered.
No Man's Sky's Frontiers update - the 17th (!) to release since launch - arrives today on Xbox, PlayStation, and PC, bringing something a little bit different to Hello Games' ever-expanding exploratory space sim. Players can now stumble across procedurally generated Mos-Eisley-like settlements while exploring inhabited planets around the galaxy, each featuring unique buildings, neighbourhood layouts, colour schemes, and interior and exterior decorations.
Intriguingly, settlements serve as more than just points of interest for roving space tourists; players can agree to become the overseer of an ungoverned settlement, whereupon they'll be placed in charge of everything from town planning and treasury management to policy making and conflict resolution, even defending from enemy attacks when required.
Xbox Game Pass is adding even more titles to its evolving library, this time with another Final Fantasy adventure and some indie favorites. That, or you can get your crazed surgeon on with yet another simulator joining the fray.
Before diving into the eight new games arriving on Xbox Game Pass this next month, let's take a quick look to see what the membership itself even is. The Xbox Game Pass library continues to change with new titles being added. From day one launches of hit games to indie treasures that deserve their stage time just as any other game, the Game Pass membership allows Xbox fans a chance to have instant access to an eclectic library without having to shell out $60 for each experience. There are two options available for players to take part in, the standard membership and Ultimate. Xbox Game Pass is $9.99 per month, with Ultimate coming in at $14.99, including Xbox Live.
Click to watch embedded media There are quite a few Microsoft Flight Simulator mods out there, including the meme-worthy modification that added in the trapped ship that was stuck in the Suez Canal previously. Now, one Nintendo fan has added a little Mario Kart flair with their creative Microsoft Simulator mod, and while it doesn't play like the racing experience we grew up with, it's still pretty nifty.
Every week, we feature a mod as part of my Mod Corner vertical and this week, I had far too many people email me this particular Flight Simulator experience to ignore. After checking it out, it looks pretty fun, just don't expect and exact replica in terms of experience.
Creator Illogicoma blended the two worlds together with their Microsoft Flight Simulator mod that adds seven tracks into the mix from Mario Kart 8. Sounds cool, right? There's one small caveat: it's not actually available, at least not publicly. In the video at the top the article, you can see the mod in question, including the beloved Moo Moo Meadows. Come on, you know you loved it.
Sonic Colors arrived at a pivotal time in the history of the series. While several games during that era were of questionable quality, Sonic the Hedgehog (2006) served as a rock bottom for the franchise, and Sonic Team needed to right the ship. Thankfully, 2008's Sonic Unleashed restored a lot of goodwill to the fan base. Its follow-up two years later, Sonic Colors, continued the trend and remains a beloved title to this day. Sonic Colors: Ultimate gives players a chance to experience the previous Wii-exclusive title again or for the first time. And regardless of which camp you fall in, Sonic Colors: Ultimate is worth playing.
As with every good remaster, Sonic Colors: Ultimate looks far better than the original version. The biggest leap forward comes in the form of the game finally being available with HD visuals after spending its entire existence to this point on the 480p Wii. Sonic Colors: Ultimate not only blows past that meager resolution but can reach 4K on compatible devices. Add to that 60 FPS performance (though some dips happen), better lighting, and graphical tweaks, and this new version of Sonic Colors often looks great in action. However, it can be hard to spot Sonic amidst the overly busy backgrounds in some side-scrolling sequences when the camera pulls way back. Also, in a few cutscenes, lighting on some characters (I'm looking at you, Tails) is inconsistent.
Earlier today on the Pokemon Unite Twitter account, it was announced that the five million pre-registration milestone was met for the mobile version of the game. That means players will get bonuses for all of the original pre-registration milestones, but it looks like at least one and maybe more are on the way.
The first milestone, 1000 Aeos Tickets, was reached eight days ago when the one million pre-registration goal was met. One day later, the 2.5 million milestone was met, unlocking the Pikachu Unite License — players who already have Pikachu will receive Aeos Coins instead. And then earlier today, the five million pre-registration goal was met, which means players will get Pikachu’s Festival Style holowear for free.
Pokemon Unite players will be able to redeem these bonuses starting when the mobile version launches on Sept. 22 up until 10:59 AM ET (2:59 PM UTC) on Oct. 31. But that’s not all fans of this game will have to look forward to later this month. That’s because it looks like more unlocks will be added as each new milestone is met.
Today several publishers and developers revealed their livestreaming plans for the upcoming Tokyo Game Show 202.
Sadly, Tokyo Game Show 2021 will be an online event again this year due to the COVID-19 pandemic and will air between September 30 and October 3.
That being said, there will still be a lot of content for fans of games from Japan and the rest of the world to enjoy over four days of livestreams.
Here are a few interesting examples, with the full schedule published on the event’s official site. All times are JST (Japan time).
Nothing stops the meteoric evolution of No Man’s Sky, and Hello Games just revealed a brand new update named “Frontiers.”
The update, which was teased last month, has already been released and brings tons of relevant changes to the ever-changing space game. Prepare for a big download, as it’s over 11 gigabytes on PC.
This includes procedural settlements that you can help build and even administer yourself, supporting their prospering growth or exploiting them for resources. You can also keep them safe from sentinel attacks.
The building system has also been radically overhauled to make it more intuitive and flexible.
We also get beautiful nebulas in space and new effects on the ground. You can find the full (and very extensive, as usual) patch notes on Hello Games’ official site.
No Man’s Sky is currently available for PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, and PC.
Today Izanagi Games released another trailer of its upcoming escape game/bullet hell shoot ’em up hybrid Yurukill: The Calumniation Games.
The trailer showcases another of the characters featured in the game, Kristina Kobayashi, It follows previous trailers that introduced Allan Poe Akechi, Keiichi Oka, Hanaka Ichirin, Izane Akegarasu, Gentoku Omuro, Kagura Kagutsuchi, Raita Yamada, Futa Yamada, Sengoku Shunju, Rina Azami, and the host of the Yurukill Games, Binko.
Atlus has released another trailer showcasing one of the over 200+ demons that will be featured in its upcoming JRPG Shin Megami Tensei V.
The demon showcased today is Ananta, another demon that will prove familiar for the fans of the franchise and the Persona series.
You can watch the trailer below.
This June, for the first time in a long time, I went to Kyoto with my kids to see the sights. But like everywhere, the city felt different. Something was missing.
It was summer. The kids needed something to do. Kyoto Prefecture is not far from where I live in Osaka. I can be there in 20 minutes by car. We masked up…
Take on the odds and defy fate.
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The new Genshin Impact Collected Miscellany video looks at the Raiden Shogun and her moveset, perhaps offering ideas for build ideas.
The post Genshin Impact Raiden Shogun Video May Give Build Ideas appeared first on Siliconera.
Microsoft and Square Enix's promise to release multiple Final Fantasy games on Xbox Game Pass continues in September with FFXIII.
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One of the Super Monkey Ball Banana Mania DLC characters will be Hello Kitty, but you'll have to pay to play as her at launch.
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In a Gamescom virtual event relatively light on content, the release of a free 60 frames per second PS5 upgrade for Horizon Zero Dawn was a definite highlight, giving another Sony first-party classic the full frame-rate upgrade and dramatically improving the experience as a result. This patch is an interesting, because unlocking 60fps is not as easy as flicking a switch, as demonstrated by the initial release of the PC version last year. This showed that simply removing the frame-rate cap brought into a focus a range of issues for a game designed primarily with 30fps in mind. Put simply, it's clear that this patch took real effort to produce and it's likely that many of the solutions in the revised PC version worked their way back to this new PlayStation 5 upgrade too. The bottom line is that however Guerrilla managed it, it works, and it works well.
So, what does the patch actually do? On the face of it, Horizon Zero Dawn follows the template laid down by the God of War, Days Gone and the initial Ghost of Tsushima patches in that graphics are totally unchanged from the original release and frame-rate is unlocked, with v-sync providing a 60fps limit. That means that the 2160p checkerboarding solution remains in place, but the PS4 Pro's alternative 1368p native rendering performance mode option has been removed as it's essentially redundant. Despite no improvements in how the game renders, there's an argument to say that graphics have improved perceptually thanks to the frame-rate upgrade - simply because checkerboarding artefacts persist for just one display refresh now rather than two. On a modern LCD screen, this helps to blend them somewhat, making them less noticeable.
The upcoming week will bring eight games to Xbox Game Pass, including Final Fantasy 13 and the long-awaited launch of The Artful Escape.
This next round of additions starts tomorrow with Signs of the Sojourner and Surgeon Simulator 2: Access All Areas, both of which are for console, cloud and PC.
The former is a narrative card game about connecting people. The latter is a party game about disconnecting bits of people. Both are worth a fair shake.
The next Valorant act kicks off on September 8th, and it's bringing a new map with it. Fracture is a H-shaped battlefield where the defending team will start out in the middle, with the aim of protecting a site on each side. From the sounds of things, attackers will be able to choose which side they head in from too, which sounds rather stressful and a bit confusing.
A couple of weeks ago I went hands on with Lost In Random, an upcoming EA Original from Zoink. Zoink have done fun, slightly strange games in the past like Flipping Death and Fe, and usually in a blue-purple colour palette. Having now played several hours from the start of Lost In Random, I'm glad to say it's really quite fabulous.
But let me tell you, you'll have an urge to mark the time when you first fire it up, if only so you can check how long it takes for a character speaking in rhyme to turn up. It is an inevitability. You'll have been clued in by the extremely "Tim Burton makes a video game!" look of the trailers and screenshots, but it's hard to overstate how much Lost In Random does look like that.
Want to learn how to create the best build for Kujou Sara in Genshin Impact? Kujou Sara is one of two new characters PC players have access to as part of Genshin Impact's V2.1 update. Her story and abilities are tightly bound up with that of the other new hero, the Raiden Shogun, since the Kujou Clan are devoted servants of the Electro Archon Baal. However, Kujou Sara has her own unique skills in combat — and, from a gameplay perspective, is also quite a bit easier to get hold of for your party than the Raiden Shogun. Read on below for our suggestions on putting together the best build for her.
Want to learn how to create the best build for the Raiden Shogun, a.k.a. Baal, in Genshin Impact? Raiden Shogun is the title given to the vessel of the Electro Archon of Inazuma in Genshin Impact. Until the Cataclysm that deity was Baal, and although Beelzebul has since taken over, you'll still hear the Raiden Shogun referred to as Baal pretty much interchangeably. Confused? The important thing to understand is that the Raiden Shogun is a powerful 5*, limited-time character; and if you're fortunate enough to get her in your party, you're going to want to know which builds work best for her. Read on below for our suggestions for the Raiden Shogun's best weapons, artifacts, and more.
F.E.A.R. was good and I miss it. Not that it's gone, of course, just that it's one of those dormant series that probably won't come back. If it does? Most likely it'll be proper naff anyway, seeing as numbers two and three weren't exactly pushing things forwards. If anything, it veered from F.E.A.R. to A.C.T.I.O.N a little too heavily in its final days.
The original F.E.A.R. had those clean lines, that slow-mo, and an exceptional use of grey. All of which were lost a bit with those follow-ups. But having dipped into the demo for FPS Trepang2, I've realised this might be the closest I can get to a true F.E.A.R. sequel.
Japanese indie collective Asobu are holding their second annual showcase today, showing off loads of delicious new indie games that I'll no doubt be stuffing onto my Steam wish list before the day is out. Last year's showcase yielded some great new finds on that front - I'm looking at you, Pull Stay - and with over 60 new games to sink your teeth into with this year's selection, I guarantee there'll be something to catch your eye this year as well. While some will no doubt be familiar faces - Eastward, Tangle Tower and Garden Story all feature in this year's line-up, for example - I've highlighted a bunch of my favourites below that have caught my eye.
The main presentation is in Japanese, but there are full English subtitles available and you can watch it in full right here or over on Twitch if you prefer.
Brendan “Playerunknown” Greene, the creator behind the massively successful PUBG: Battlegrounds (formerly known as Playerunknown’s Battlegrounds) has announced his studio, Playerunknown Productions, is going independent. The team has separated itself from Krafton, which oversees publishing for PUBG related properties. While Krafton retains a minority stake in the studio, Greene and his team are, for all intents and purposes, free to pursue whatever projects they wish.
Playerunknown Productions is based in Amsterdam, and the company’s website describes it as a place to “explore, experiment and create new technologies, pipelines, and gameplay.” The press release specifies the team is exploring systems to facilitate massive open worlds. In December 2019 the team released a brief teaser for a project called “Prologue” that featured a seemingly panicked protagonist in a stormy forest. Whether or not this is a slice of the team’s new project or more of a tech demo remains to be seen.
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