September 2021

Photo modes are undeniably in fashion now, so much so that I've just started assuming most major RPGs and third-person action games will have one built in at launch. I've never put in the time to get particularly skilled at lining up the best shots, but I'm always well impressed by those who do. It's a bummer though when a looker of a game doesn't have a way to really get up close and personal with its pretty cast and environments. Tales Of Arise, which just launched this month, doesn't have one yet, for instance. That's where the extremely nifty and very handy Universal Unreal Engine 4 Unlocker comes in. It's a mod that lets you toggle a free camera to take amazing screenshots in over 300 Unreal Engine games.

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Today Thrustmaster shared a teaser trailer for a controller that will be revealed tomorrow during FlightSimExpo 2021.

The new controller appears to be part of the TCA (Thrustmaster Civil Aviation) line like the excellent Airbus set. The relevant difference is that this one is officially licensed by Boeing.

The “dream” wording in the trailer could indicate a controller set inspired by the 787 Dreamliner, and the cabin also looks from the same aircraft.

Differently from the Airbus version, this is likely to have a yoke instead of a sidestick, and it’s probably going to have the much more complex Boeing flaps setup.

There are probably going to be many more differences, of course.

We can certainly expect it to be compatible with Microsoft Flight Simulator, and other sims like X-Plane and P3D. It remains to be seen whether it’ll support other platforms beyond PC.

You can watch the teaser trailer below and expect to read the news here on Twinfinite as soon as they’re shared tomorrow.

Earlier today in an official press release from Square Enix, it was announced that Life is Strange: Remastered Collection will be launching on Feb. 1, 2022. This reveal comes just over a month after it was announced that the game was being delayed until 2022. Included in this bundle is the original Life is Strange along with the prequel, Life is Strange: Beyond the Storm.

However, it’s not just a port and repackaging of these two titles. As the word “remastered” implies, the visuals are improved in a number of ways. Square Enix mentions that the character and environmental visuals will be remastered. On top of that, they mention that the games are running in a new engine that has improved lighting.

It’s not entirely clear what part of character models or the environments will be improved. It could be any number of aspects like textures, coloring, more polygons. Plus it’ll be interesting to see what improvements the new engine brings to the table besides just improving the lighting.

What’s more, Life is Strange remastered will feature brand-new fully motion-captured facial animations. However, it’s important to note that when the new facial animations are mentioned in the press release that Square Enix only references the original Life is Strange and not Before the Storm. But to the contrary, it’s never explicitly stated that the new facial animations are limited to the remake of the original game.

Today Microsoft and Remedy Entertainment released a new trailer of the upcoming Alan Wake Remastered.

The trailer showcases a comparison between the new graphics running on Xbox Series X with the original game running on Xbox 360.

You can watch it below, and read a summary of what was improved.

“So what’s new in Alan Wake Remastered? For starters, the game runs in 4K at 60fps on Xbox Series X, and in 1080p at 60fps on Series S. You can expect to see re-worked cutscenes with improved facial animations and lip-syncing, richer environments, and enhanced character models that have updated skin and hair shaders. Improvements have also been made to materials and textures in general, plus anti-aliasing, shadows, wind simulation, and increased draw distances.

Joy be unto Jubelius! After 1386 days without any news following Bayonetta 3’s Game Awards teaser trailer way back in 2017, the bad Umbran witch is back, and on Bi Visibility Day no less. During yesterday’s Nintendo Direct, we not only got a sick-ass trailer, but also a tentative release window of 2022. Yes, we …

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Like a circular space structure imbued with the power to destroy all sentient life at the push of a button, some things just go on endlessly. Such is the case with discussion around aim assist features in Halo games. Chatter has kicked off fresh following the not-a-beta for the forthcoming Halo Infinite.

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It’s the year of our lord 2021 and I’m playing Diablo II on my PlayStation 5.

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Yesterday, Nintendo shocked the world when Shigeru Miyamoto announced the main cast for the upcoming animated Mario film. But only some main characters and their Hollywood counterparts were unveiled. Surely Nintendo does not need our help with the casting process, but why not have some fun with it anyway?

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The latest two SMT V demon digest videos look at series mainstays Decarabia and Forneus in the latest installment.

The post SMT V Decarabia and Forneus Trailers Show Up appeared first on Siliconera.

The ARC-V Pendulum Summoning mechanic and its characters are coming to Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Links this month.

The post ARC-V Coming to Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Links This Week appeared first on Siliconera.

Asmodee Digital's video game adaptation of acclaimed co-op board game Gloomhaven is, after more than two years in Steam Early Access, getting its version 1.0 release on 20th October.

The original board game iteration of Gloomhaven, designed by Isaac Childres, is a sprawling, turn-based tactical dungeon crawler set in a persistent fantasy world that's packed with characters, items, and scenarios, all gradually unlocking over the course of a 100+ hour campaign. It's a thrilling, richly designed, and all-round fantastic RPG experience, and one that also happens to come in a box big enough to kill a man.

As such (plus the fact the original board game retails for around £100), the prospect of a cheaper, more manageable digital iteration of Gloomhaven is an enticing one indeed - and the good news is the PC release, developed by Flaming Fowl Studios, has been widely praised during early access. It isn't quite a 1:1 interpretation (which Flaming Fowl say is neither possible or desirable), but all differences have been discussed with Childres and the end result is a "very faithful adaptation of the original gameplay and design."

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Actraiser is back! The ancient and somewhat revered SNES title is back on PlayStation 4, Switch, and PC, with a surprise drop yesterday. Actraiser Renaissance is a remaster, and includes a ton of significant changes to the original game, though you can see the classic shine through fairly easily. A full-on graphical revamp, a rearranged and remastered soundtrack, and more can’t be missed, but there are actually a number of big changes to gameplay and structure as well.

For all their absurdity, the Super Mario Bros. games follow a straightforward template. An Italian plumber adventures in a magical land, fights evil monsters and rescues a princess. It’s simple, but Nintendo’s vibrant fairy tale could have been fertile ground for a Hollywood fantasy epic. Instead, when Super Mario Bros. released in 1993, it portrayed a version of Mario that was worlds away from Nintendo’s vision. The Mushroom Kingdom had been turned into a neon-lit cyberpunk city where dinosaurs had evolved into humans. Bowser was a leather-suited politician fascinated by mud baths. The iconic goombas had become eight-foot tall lizard warriors with shrunken heads. Super Mario Bros. stands as one of Hollywood’s worst adaptations, but the story behind the film is infinitely more bizarre than the one the movie tells.

[Editor's Note: We're repromoting this classic story in light of the recent announcements around Illumination's Mario movie.]

"Dracula and Frankenstein are modern day 20-something flatmates who never see one another and only exchange sticky notes. Also they are both very sad. Also Dracula wears puple shades," is the kind of message I'd expect to see from one of my writing acquaintances with the timestamp [2:15am]. It's also the kind of thing I'd respond to with a "yes, do it," eager to find out exactly how the hell they would. That's the energy that I downloaded Frank And Drake's demo with, and it sure is a moody, somber narrative adventure about two unlikely housemates.

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Deathloop is the latest game to play around with time but it’s far from the only one. This summer’s divisive indie game 12 Minutes also centered around a repeating time loop, as have many other games, ranging from the star-charting Outer Wilds to the Nintendo 64 classic The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask. But which…

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Rejoice, belt collectors of Final Fantasy XIV. Contrary to what some players and outlets believed, the developers aren’t removing belt items from the game entirely.

In the notes for the latest 6.0 patch, known as the Endwalker expansion, the developers said that belts will no longer drop, and they won’t be obtainable…

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Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout launched August 4, 2020, as a “free” PlayStation Plus game. It didn’t take long before word-of-mouth spread about its fun blend of platforming and game show-style battle royale format, becoming one of the most popular multiplayer games on the market. Apparently, that initial buzz was even louder than we realized because Fall Guys has achieved the world record as the most downloaded PS Plus game of all time.

The honor has been certified by the Guinness World Records, and the accolade has been immortalized within the pages of the 2022 edition of its annual record book. Unfortunately, Mediatonic’s news post announcing the milestone doesn’t state the exact number of downloads. Odds are you’ll have to buy the book to learn how many downloads future PS Plus titles need to accrue to supplant Fall Guys. Still, that’s an impressive feat when you consider the sheer number of popular games offered by the service over the years, including similar multiplayer success stories like Rocket League. Fall Guys has beaten them all.  

Handcop is a work in progress "fist person shooter" that's just as neat as it is horrifying. This wacky prodecurally-animated cop hand has three legs and chest hair for goodness sake. I can't decide if three "legs" is better or worse than three finger "arms". Oh, and of course officier Michael McWrist is running about carrying a giant gun. It's relatively early days for Handcop right now, it sounds like, but its wacky animations are already catching the internet's attention.

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Type-moon released another trailer of its upcoming fighting game Melty Blood: Type Lumina, which will soon launch both in Japan and in the west.

While this trailer displays a full match with Miyako Arima against Vlov, a new character introduced in Tukihime: A Piece of Blue Glass Moon. This time around, contrary to the previous trailer, it’s Vlov’s turn to best his opponent. 9

You can check it out below.

Here’s how Type-Moon describes Miyako.

“The eldest daughter of the Arima branch family, which took Shiki in as a child. Currently in the fifth grade, she sees herself as Shiki’s other sister.

Her feelings are easy to see as she always wears her heart on her sleeve. She unabashedly adores her kind, quiet older “brother”, but whenever he is near, she becomes so nervous she can barely speak. This continued for many years until Shiki was suddenly called back to the Tohno family, and Miyako did not take the news well.

Atlus is continuing to release its never-ending series of trailers focusing on the over 200+ demons of its upcoming JRPG Shin Megami Tensei V.

This time around we get to see the gameplay of Sandman

You can watch it below.

Okay, here we are: it is now autumn. I'm ready. I've folded my summer bedding away, pulled out the big duvet, and bought a bigger Thermos. And this is the nice part of autumn, when things are cosy and transitionary, before the feeling of death sets in. I was cheered by reading about your favourite autumn games this week. But anyway, what are you playing this weekend? Here's what we're clicking on.

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Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine - pretty much the best Space Marine game ever made - turned 10 years old this week, and to celebrate it received a special Anniversary Edition on PC (thanks, PCGamesN).

Space Marine was developed by Dawn of War and Company of Heroes maker Relic Entertainment for release in 2011 on PC, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360.

Relic left its strategy roots behind to create a fun third-person hack-and-slash/shooter hybrid that, while failing to set tills alight for now defunct publisher THQ, went down well among Warhammer 40,000 fans. You play an Ultramarine versus the Orks, with a heavy emphasis on melee (you heal via executions). It's a bloodfest.

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Halo Infinite's latest technical preview (this one feels pretty much like a beta but with limited-time matchmaking) is in full swing - and players are coming up with some amazing trick shots.

I managed around four hours of play last night, and found myself on the receiving end of the new grappling hook more times than I would have liked. But it's the new repulsor equipment that I think may be one of the best additions across the entire game.

Trigger the repulsor and your spartan holds out their arm for a brief moment to deflect oncoming grenades and rockets. The idea is you can bat enemy grenades back at their sender, hopefully for a kill.

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Grab your static-filled radios and rusty pipes! Yes, Konami’s iconic survival horror masterpiece, Silent Hill 2, celebrated its official 20th anniversary recently, and to coincide with the big date, directors – Leigh Thorne and Ruben Abreu – debuted their fan-made Silent Hill: Road of Guilt film project on YouTube.

Go ahead and feast your eyes on the creepy new video down below:

Clocking in at just over eighteen minutes, the short fan pic is a blood-splattered love-letter to Konami’s classic horror franchise, setting its sights specifically on 2001’s critically acclaimed sequel in both tone and narrative.

Indeed, the fan flick’s story centers on a bewildered James Sunderland who recounts his ongoing mental plight with a mysterious therapist, much akin to Climax Studios’ Wii-era horror reimagining, Silent Hill: Shattered Memories.

Fall Guys has a Guinness World Record for being the most downloaded PlayStation Plus game ever.

Developer Mediatonic made the announcement on its website - without saying exactly how many PlayStation Plus downloads it has seen.

Fall Guys exploded onto the scene last summer, launching on PC, and on PlayStation 4 straight into PlayStation Plus. Its clever combination of platforming and battle royale made for fun and addictive arcade gameplay, and 24 hours after release it had more than 1.5 million players. As of December 2020, Fall Guys had sold more than 11m copies on PC alone.

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Work on the new and improved version of Dwarf Fortress is ongoing. To tide us over, we have a new 10 minute gameplay video showing off the game's graphics.

The video below shows the new Desert Fortress in action. We see the new menus, a first look at the desert terrain, and what it looks like underground.

Dwarf Fortress is perhaps the deepest simulation of a world ever created, an infamously complex. It has for years had ASCII dwarves - little smiley faces fewer pixels than the average emoji. For the upcoming Steam release, Dwarf Fortress is getting actual graphics and much more in a bid to make it a tad accessible.

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New series such as Mieruko-chan and Selection Project make their debut, while Yashahime: Princess Half-Demon returns for a second season.

The post Funimation Fall 2021 Anime Lineup Revealed appeared first on Siliconera.

Atlus just released another trailer revealing 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 Dominion, which has been part of the series since its debut in Shin Megami Tensei II.

You can watch the trailer below.

Kena: Bridge of Spirits from Ember Labs finally released this week, initially capturing our attention at the PlayStation 5 gameplay reveal event last year thanks to a visually fresh, appealing presentation. Based on Unreal Engine 4, Kena shines through the artistic accomplishments of the developer, backed by a solid game design and mostly solid performance. However, underlying issues with UE4 do peek through - and they're especially evident on the PC version of the game.

In putting this piece together, we took a look at the game running in both quality and performance modes on PlayStation 5 and factored in platform scaling in both directions. In theory, the PC version should allow us to see Kena running at its absolute best, while taking a look at the game operating on PS4 Pro gives us an idea of how older hardware copes with a very attractive game. As it happens, everything plays out as logically as you would expect - but the extra horsepower in PS5 and high-end PC goes a long way in delivering Kena at its best.

In terms of what makes Kena special, it's not just the style of the art that stands out but also the basic quality in delivery. Every object, every texture and material seems to have been authored with a consistent style and polygon budget. There's an understanding of which edges need to be rounded and which can retain a more obvious polygonal structure. Combine it all together and you rarely find an object that sticks out as being of an inconsistently low res, or modelled oddly. On top of that, character expressions and animations are first class: Ember Lab previously worked on animation shorts for fan films, product advertisements, and other mainstream media.

PlayStation 2 classic Ico has turned 20 years old.

In the 2001 adventure game, developed by Japan Studio and Team Ico and directed by Fumito Ueda, you play a young boy born with horns who encounters a princess called Yorda. The pair work to escape a castle, while Ico helps Yorda evade shadowy creatures.

The hook - apart from Ico's gorgeous, minimalist visuals and design - is the player controls Ico while assisting Yorda. Digital Foundry revisited Ico in the video, below:

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Art of Rally comes out on PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5 on 6th October, developer Funselektor has announced.

The PlayStation release of this stylish take on off-road driving includes all the previous updates in all the previously released versions, with new tracks, cars, environments and improvements now as standard. The new trailer is below:

Art of Rally, which initially launched on PC toward the end of last year, delivers a top-down, faintly retro twist on the rally racing formula, sending players careening across low-poly renditions of Finland, Germany, Japan, Norway and Sardinia.

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If you've always wanted to learn another language but don't know where to start, this deal might be up your alley. Right now, you can add a language to your arsenal by grabbing a Busuu Language Learning Premium Plus 1-Year Subscription for $59 (reg. $108).

Once you become a member, you can learn up to 12 different languages with access to an incredibly wide range of online resources. Busuu is the world's largest community for language learning.

With over 100 million users, you have the opportunity to practice with both fellow learners and experts, including native speakers. You'll also have access to over 1,000 lessons specially created by expert linguists with enhanced speech recognition and personalized study plans. With the premium plan, you'll also be able to use the offline mode, adaptive vocabulary trainer, and advanced grammar lessons.

Sable is out now, and the open-world adventure game wears its inspirations on its thick-lined sleeves. With an aesthetic that borrows heavily from the art of Moebius and gameplay that borrows heavily from The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, you may go into the debut PC and console game from developer Shedworks thinking you know what to expect. But Sable has plenty of surprises in store. It may seem like Breath of the Wild minus combat, but it differs from Nintendo's masterpiece in plenty of other ways as well. And, if you go in expecting pacifist Zelda, you may be waiting for mechanics that will never show up.

Here are seven things we wish we knew when we first embarked on our desert adventure.

You CAN Upgrade Your Stamina

Sable is radically open-ended, which means that it's easy to complete the game without ever discovering the area you need to find in order to upgrade your stamina. (It's so difficult to find, in fact, that I straight up didn't think you could upgrade your stamina at all for about 10 hours). But you can if you know where to look.

Similar to Corrupt Taro, Corrupt Woodsmith is a test of the abilities and strategies you've developed up to this point in Kena: Bridge of Spirits. In Taro's case, that mostly has to do with the Spirit Bow, as most of the ways to weaken him and make the fight easier are related to sniping parts of his body. Similarly, Woodsmith is all about your recently acquired Spirit Bombs--this fight requires you to regularly use Kena's bomb abilities, so having a good grasp of how they work is vital for overcoming this fight.

In the following guide, we go over how to best handle the Woodsmith and her fiery attacks. More so than the Taro boss fight, this battle will test you on your ability to keep track of your surroundings. Always keep in mind where the Woodsmith is, as well as where the two healing flowers are in relation to you. Turning your back on the Woodsmith to run away and heal can result in some easily avoidable deaths--this boss behaves differently depending on how far away you are from her and turning your back to run away means you'll have a hard time responding to her long-range attacks. Keep your eyes on Woodsmith so you can keep track of her tells.

More Kena: Bridge Of Spirits Guides:

Just about every week brings something new to Destiny 2, whether it's story beats, new activities, or interesting new combinations of elements that let players devastate each other in the Crucible. Iron Banter is our weekly look at what's going on in the world of Destiny and a rundown of what's drawing our attention across the solar system.

Bungie rolled out even more Trials of Osiris changes this week, and while I know we've been talking about this a lot, the alterations to the mode continue to sound really excellent. I've spent a little time in the mode again this weekend and remain excited for the adjustments, which is a really nice feeling to have after spending the last year getting amped to try a Trials run and then getting demoralized over the course of a couple hours and some rough losses.

Trials isn't the only thing going on this week, though. The Shattered Realm has quickly become one of my favorite things in Destiny 2 right now, and the last couple iterations of the mode have done some really cool things with story. Here we go.

There's never been a better time to be a fan of racing games, as not only is there no shortage of great titles to choose from, but they all look fantastic on current consoles and PC rigs. Not only is there a wide selection of attractive games to choose from, but you can faithfully replicate what it feels like to be inside of a modern hypercar thanks to a selection of peripherals on offer from multiple manufacturers.

Manufacturers from Logitech to Thrustmaster have long offered terrific steering wheels to use in these games, and even though many of them cost several hundreds of dollars, they're well worth investing in when you want to treat yourself to a virtual track day. If you're on the hunt for more hardware to enhance your racing experience, we've also got round-ups on the best accessories currently available for Xbox, PS4, and PS5.

We've rounded up the best racing wheels on PlayStation, Xbox, and PC, with some of our entries even boasting multiplatform use. If you're looking for some games to play with your new racing wheel, check out our roundup of the best PlayStation racing games (many of which are also available on Xbox and PC). The most prominent racing exclusives on PlayStation and Xbox are getting new entries soon as well. Make sure to check out our Forza Horizon 5 preorder guide and Gran Turismo 7 preorder guide for more details.

Call of Duty: Warzone's annoying shipping container structures may finally be opening soon, as a glimpse of Verdansk's shipping containers make a brief appearance in Treyarch's Season 5 cinematic outro trailer for Black Ops Cold War's ongoing narrative.

Yesterday's cinematic trailer shows operators Frank Woods and Jason Hudson discussing the recent events from Season 5's previous cinematics, which include Stitch and Kitsune activating the Numbers broadcast. Woods and Hudson believe their fellow operator Alder has become compromised after the broadcast.

If you blink, you might miss the quick clip of Warzone's shipping structures when Hudson mentions that Adler has now gone rogue in Verdansk. This is likely a tease that players can expect something to finally happen with those containers.

The mysterious shipping containers arrived with the Mobile Broadcast Stations at the beginning of Season 5. The containers are found near several major points of interest on the map, and they're all stacked in a similar pattern. The stack is three containers tall and three wide, with two additional containers connected on the sides. Each structure has a green fuel tank and generator attached to seemingly supply power to whatever is hidden inside.

GTA Online players can get triple rewards for participating in Deadline, an Adversary Mode. All players ride Shotaros that give off light trails that explode upon contact. The objective of the game then is to avoid bumping into these lethal lights and to get other players to cross into the trails. There's also different power-ups like speed boosts or hop abilities available for players to take advantage of.

In other increased rewards, Meth and Cocaine MC Sell Missions will give double GTA$, and Car Meet's Pursuit Series will give players double Rep. Additionally, placing top give in the LS Car Meet Series for four consecutive days will get players a free Karin Previon.

This week's Lucky Wheel prize is the Nagasaki Outlaw. A free piece of apparel is also Nagasaki-themed: Players can get a white and red hoodie with the words Nagasaki scrawled on the front.

Discounts

• 40% off any MC Clubhouses and all Clubhouse Upgrades
• 50% off all MC Resupply costs
• 50% off Cocaine Lockups, Meth Labs, and their Upgrades and Modifications
• 50% off RC Bandito
• 40% off Western Rampant Rocket
• 30% off Vapid Dominator ASP
• 40% off Dinka Vindicator

As always, any players who connect their Rockstar Games Social Club account with Prime Gaming will get GTA$100K for logging on anytime this week. Prime Gaming members will also get the following exclusive discounts, valid through October 20: 35% off the Dinka RT3000 and 65% off the Lampadati Casco.