October 2021

For decades, the James Bond franchise has wowed audiences with explosive action, dramatic locations, and the memorable performances of several iconic actors who have played the suave and ice-cool protagonist himself. Not least, we’re certain that fans of the series would agree that just as every good story needs a bad guy, the very best James Bond films are punctuated by the wicked villains who keep our favorite secret agent in the business of saving the world.

The question is, how many of them can you recall with only an image and four options to choose from? Well, that’s what we’re here to find out with another challenging quiz to put your knowledge to the test. Below you’ll find 15 images of villains (including henchman) from the James Bond franchise, dating back as far as the 1960s right up until the brand new film, No Time to Die. Good luck!

The Genshin Impact 2.2 live stream happened this past weekend, and it gave us a look at a few new features, events, weapons, banners, and more that’ll be coming to the game when the update goes live on Oct. 13. It’s looking smaller than the August 2.1 update, but regardless, here’s a rundown of everything we know so far about what’s coming in Genshin Impact 2.2.

October opened with a fall festival for fans of indie games as Steam’s Next Fest is currently running with scores of short game demos to play for free. Formerly known as the Steam Game Festival, this PC-friendly event boasts hundreds of titles, which is more than enough to keep you busy during the 7-day run, even bordering on overwhelming. But don’t worry about the cold reality of indecision; you can take comfort in our blanket of suggestions. While the Steam Next Fest only lasts until October 7, there are plenty of full indie game releases to look forward to in the first half of the month. 

Jump On The Hayride; We’re Going To The Festival

Bountiful treats await gamers this week at Steam’s packed carnival. One of indie’s most anticipated titles, Tunic, has a demo for anyone that missed it in the summer. But newcomers to the scene are also in attendance and ready to give players a free taste of gameplay, like Lil Gator Game. New or old, familiar or little-known, here is a list of demos you shouldn’t miss.

New World taps into older MMORPG conventions to create something that feels new today, a stark contrast to other genre titles that ferry players through a linear and unified experience. Instead, New World challenges players to forge their path in player vs. player territory control, extensive crafting and gathering, and standard questing monster hunting. New World excels in the crafting and gathering department, with incredibly satisfying and meaningful progression to make your gear and help out your friends that may specialize in other crafts than yourself.

Want to do it all? You can. With New World’s skill system, you only need one character that can learn to do anything and everything, given enough time and resources. Putting the finishing touches on your first masterful craft feels fantastic. The player-driven economy also feels lovely, as unloading your bags back at your homestead for a few coins fuels the engine further. While the traditional monster mashing and questing are beyond mundane here, the other aspects of the game – crafting, gathering, progression of all kinds, and social focus – make the game feel compelling and exceptional today, even if these concepts were popular years ago on the MMO scene.

It's rare to see big discounts on high capacity SSDs, especially when the SSDs in question are also super-fast PCIe 4.0 models - but that's exactly what's happening for today only over at Amazon. PNY's XLR CS3040, a model compatible with both PC and PS5, has been discounted $230 for a massive 4TB size. That cuts the price of the drive down from a whopping $750 to a still significant (but much more reasonable) $520, a 31% discount.

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The Crucial P5 Plus is one of the fastest SSDs on the planet with a peak read speed of 6600MB/s, thanks to its combination of a PCIe 4.0 interface, 1TB of TLC NAND flash and Crucial owner Micron's advanced controller. Today, the P5 Plus is also the cheapest second-gen PCIe 4.0 SSD in the UK, as the drive has been marked down from £157 to £126 on Amazon. That's an incredible price for an SSD that works equally well in a PC or a PS5.

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If you think you're tired of game showcases, this one might just resurrect your enthusiasm from its post-E3 grave. We're being tricked and treated to another "EEK3" showcase of indie horror games hosted by Haunted PS1. Last year's showcase dug up a whole bunch of trailers for new and upcoming spooky games with a lo-fi or retro flair. This year is sure to unearth more of the same when it premieres this Friday.

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I don’t think it would be controversial to say that as well as its brutal and satisfying combat, God of War fandom loves the series for how that combat is shown in its cinematic third-person perspective. It now seems impossible to imagine the game’s cinematic camera altered in any way, but David Jaffe, the director of…

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Metroid Dread is almost here and understandably, folks are excited. But unless you buy a physical copy, before you can play Dread, you’ll need to download it. Luckily, Nintendo has compressed this next epic chapter in the Metroid saga into a teeny-tiny package. In fact, its total file size of 4.1GB is smaller than…

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The title doesn't have a concrete release date quite yet.

The post See an English That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime Isekai Memories Trailer appeared first on Siliconera.

The film, released in Japan in 2009, is arriving just in time to celebrate the anime's 1,000th episode.

The post One Piece Film: Strong World Coming to U.S. Theaters appeared first on Siliconera.

Ah, the Wii. A classic console that instills nostalgia in the hearts of millions. Being one of the best-selling consoles of all time, it’s no wonder so many hits came out of this beloved platform.

Let’s take a look at the casual system with a casual library full of fun for countless, casual game nights. Take this quiz to find out just how many of the top 25 best-selling Wii games you’ve played. For added fun, only mark the ones you’ve fully completed!

Be sure to let us know how you did in the comment section below. While you’re here, don’t forget to check out all of the other amazing quizzes we have to offer as well, including everything from video games to movies to anime.

The official ToeJam & Earl Twitter account shared a post today asking fans for their opinions: what types of games would you want for the franchise for its upcoming 30th anniversary?

The ToeJam & Earl series turns 30 years old this week; the first game originally released back in October 1991 on the Genesis. The most recent game in the franchise, ToeJam & Earl: Back in the Groove, released back in 2019.

Now, the creators want to know if fans would rather see a new rogue-lite addition to the series or a new platforming game. They invite fans to share their thoughts in a survey, which can be found right here.

Tokyo Game Show 2021 concluded over the weekend, and we’re still learning great nuggets of information from the various streams and interviews during the event. One highlight was a Famitsu-hosted interview with Naoki Yoshida and Hironobu Sakaguchi, two developers who represent the present and past of the Final Fantasy series, respectively. Yoshida is currently heading the development of Final Fantasy XVI and has been the driving force behind the resurrection of Final Fantasy XIV Online since A Realm Reborn. Sakaguchi is, of course, the creator of Final Fantasy and has most recently released the mobile RPG Fantasian.

Some news slipped about Final Fantasy XVI when the topic switched to why Sakaguchi and Yoshida were drawn to the RPG genre. Yoshida questions what to even call Final Fantasy XVI since so many games have RPG elements. He reveals that Final Fantasy XVI has an “expansive” skill tree. After mentioning the one present in Fantasian, a skill tree that gives players the sense of the game opening up for character growth, Yoshida says XVI has something similar.

Accessibility options for games, big and small, have become a more frequent topic of conversation in the last few years. Even just recently, Destiny 2 is adding a full-auto mode while EA are sharing their accesibility feature patents. Depending on what features you need access to though, it can still be a chore to find out exactly what options a game will support. The recently launched Accessible Games Database aims to help catalog games by a list of different accessibility features. It's launched with over 140 games logged so far, and the creators say they're planning to add more every day.

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Steel Assault seems almost engineered to catch your eye the second it crosses your feed. Each pixelated scene looks at once like generic retro-gaming fodder while also bursting with vibrant colors, as if someone smashed a gumball machine and then used the pieces to craft a side-scrolling action game for the Game Boy…

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Facebook could not be more down right now. As the world gets a taste of the alternative reality where Mark Zuckerberg played sports in college, we’re also learning just how much of our lives are entangled in the Facebook empire. As far as gaming goes, if you were hoping to pick up that new game on Oculus VR, you might…

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Last week, Square Enix released yet another trailer for Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin, its upcoming Souls-like prequel to the original Final Fantasy. And while the project continues to look great, English-speaking fans apparently missed out on some more aggressive references to Chaos, the Stranger of…

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Within my first two deaths I was certain Halo Infinite was doing something right. In that short span of time I identified the nearest power weapon, the skewer (which is also the best gun ever put in a video game), and ran for it. I jumped into one of Halo’s signature man-cannons, which launched me across the map…

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Atlus' latest two SMT V videos show off how Cybele and Aitvaras will look and fight in the newest entry in the series.

The post Cybele and Aitvaras Show Up in SMT V appeared first on Siliconera.

Sure, some of those players are probably sitting in a queue, but the Steam Charts for Amazon Games’ New World show that the game’s peak concurrency is somewhere around 913,000 players. What does that mean, exactly? That means 900,000 people are playing New World – at the same time.

That’s a whole lot of boar hunting, lumber chopping, and blueberry bush picking. Can it go higher? There’s no doubt that tons of people are hopping into the crafting, gathering, player-vs-player soiree. You can read a whole lot more about what I think of the game right here, but it’s also fairly interesting to see New World rocket past many of the staunch Steam standbys like Counter-Strike and Dota 2. 

You may have been introduced to the studio by Dark Souls, but Tokyo's From Software has a lengthy history in the game industry. While visiting the studio for our October cover story on Dark Souls III, we spoke with senior managing director Masanori Takeuchi about his 20-year career within From Software's walls.

Throughout the interview, Takeuchi stresses the internal consistency of the studio despite their recent explosion of western attention: "In the past, our games have been treated as sh--ty games... now they respect what we've been doing all these years." We also talk a bit about how they see Dark Souls III as a "turning point" and are eager to tackle brand new, smaller projects in the future. We should point out that, much like our video profile on working with Dark Souls creator Hidetaka Miyazaki, the translator's audio has been replaced by Game Informer's Jeff Cork to improve the audio quality. To learn even more about the history of From Software and the legacy of games like Bloodborne, check out Dan Tack's feature from earlier this year.

As it goes with Elden Ring, information is sparse between infoblasts by FromSoftware. We're at an in-between phase right now as that January 2022 launch date is still a few months away yet. In the meantime, one of Elden Ring's producers Yasuhiro Kitao did a quick interview during the Tokyo Games Show over the weekend to reiterate that yes, the game is difficult and also that it's nearly finished. You'd imagine so, at three months out. Kitao also talks just a bit about Elden Ring's map, too, and how the game doesn't use quests to drag you around its open world.

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WELCOME BACK EVERYONE. It has been over 18 months since we were last able to run a proper cosplay showcase from a major convention, but with vaccines and Covid-safe policies in place, Dragon Con 2021 was able to take place in Atlanta last month.

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Having launched in 2018, it’s only now, in October 2021, that the Epic Games Store is getting around to implementing proper achievements in the games being sold and played there.

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We’re almost a year out from the releases of both the PlayStation 5 and the Xbox Series X/S, and the prevailing topic for the generation isn’t the games you can play on the new hardware but how hard it is to get your hands on a console. According to an executive at AMD, the chip supplier for Sony and Microsoft’s gaming machines, the drought is not quite at an end. Though, there is light at the end of the tunnel.

John Macaraeg is an artist at Mr. X, a visual effects studio that has recently worked on stuff like Foundation and Raised By Wolves.

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Atlus is continuing to release its extensive 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 Hecatoncheir, which debuted in the series with Shin Megami Tensei II in 1994.

You can watch it below.

The mobile game is adding seasonal dragon units to celebrate Halloween.

The post Fire Emblem Heroes Shared Bounty Event Adds Rhea, Robin, Sothis, Kurthnaga appeared first on Siliconera.

Crafting is a huge part of Amazon's MMO New World. There are 17 crafting-related skills in total, ranging from logging and mining to weaponsmithing and jewelcrafting. While actually crafting large quantities of items can be done relatively quickly, gathering the necessary resources can be time-consuming. To cut down a tree, you'll have to hack away at it with your axe. To skin an animal, you'll have to watch a long skinning animation. The whole process can be made faster and easier simply by having better gathering tools. It might not sound like much, but having better tools makes farming runs for necessary resources far less of a chore. Here's how to equip yourself with progressively better tools as you work your way through the world of Aeternum.

To Craft Better Tools, Gather Better Metals

Amazon Games' New World is an MMORPG of the old-school variety, where players will be leveling up their characters by completing quests, battling foes, and gathering resources. As one might expect from an MMO, this can take some time. Leveling up a character goes quickly at first, but begins to take more and more effort as players reach higher levels. That's where this guide comes in. From making sure to do at least three faction missions per day for the daily bonus, to simplifying completing quests efficiently, here are some of the best tips for your journey to the max character level of 60 in New World.

Check The Town Project Board

Each town has quests that, when completed, help progress certain projects, determined by whichever company (guild) is currently running the town. These quests usually involve turning in raw materials and crafted items, hunting specific animals, or exploring certain locations. Before heading out to quest, be sure to always check out the town project board at the nearest settlement to see if there are any quests you can complete easily. If you're feeling lazy, you can oftentimes simply buy the resources or items needed for a town project board quest from other players at the settlement's trading post (auction house) for cheap.

Both AMD and Xbox boss Phil Spencer expect the chip shortages affecting console availability to continue into 2022. The PS5 and Xbox Series X|S consoles have been difficult to purchase since launch due to supply constraints, although both console manufactures have touted record sales figures for the new consoles.

As reported by CNBC, AMD CEO Lisa Su said that the global chip shortage will continue to be a problem through the first half of 2022 but will begin to become less severe in the second half. The reason for this is that manufacturing plants that were planned for last year are expected to begin producing chips in the coming months. AMD produces the chips for both the PS5 and Xbox Series X, so this could help to reduce console shortages.

Xbox boss Phil Spencer has also said that the manufacturing issues will continue into 2022. Speaking to The Wrap (via GamesIndustry.biz,) Spencer said that the manufacturing issues limiting console production go beyond just the chip shortage, with the whole manufacturing and distribution process having multiple "pinch points."

"​​I think regretfully it's going to be with us for months and months, definitely through the end of this calendar year and into the next calendar year," Spencer said. "We're working hard to bring them to market but it's going to be a challenge that we'll work through for quite a while."

Tribes of Midgard's Saga mode sends you through your own Norse story as you and your team of up to nine other vikings struggle to protect Yggdrasil seeds and fend off giants. During the game's first content season, the Wolf Saga culminates in a battle against the colossal mythological wolf Fenrir. On October 5, developer Norsfell is releasing a variant version of Fenrir for players to take on, and GameSpot got an early look at the boss and what it'll bring to the battle.

The new version of Fenrir players will take on is called Wolfmancer, and it brings a few more friends to the fight. Though Wolfmancer Fenrir still does direct attacks, its modus operandi is more about summoning minions to distract and overwhelm, bringing in wolves through various portals around the battle arena. Once you've knocked out 50% of its health, the boss summons two more, deadlier wolf buds to hassle you, called Sköll and Hati.

Halo Infinite's Big Team Battle beta took place over the weekend, and it allowed players to embrace the chaos of Halo's biggest, most frenetic multiplayer mode.

With the beta now wrapped up, we're rounding up some of the best plays and moments we came across from the beta--and there were plenty to choose from. Despite only being a beta, players quickly learned the ropes and showed off some impressive skills.

Be warned that some clips shared here contain strong language.

In this clip, Andy Cortez successfully grabs onto a Banshee with the Grappleshot and performs what the game calls a "Grapplejack." This is when you hijack the Banshee with the Grappleshot. It's a difficult move to pull off, but Cortez makes it look simple.

In this next clip, Brendan Lowry shows off another creative and effective use of the Grappleshot. Lowry uses the Grappleshot to latch onto an escaping Warthog and then pound it with a Gravity Hammer. "Where do you think you're going," Lowry captioned the video.

Steam is filled with hundreds of indie horror games that do little to stand out. Choo-Choo Charles does not have that problem.

That's because Choo-Choo Charles stars a carnivorous spider-train, as in a train that is, somehow, also a spider. His name is Charles (naturally), and he has long terrorized a remote island by feeding on human flesh. It's up to players to operate their own antique train--complete with a mounted machine gun-- and go out on salvaging missions, all while attempting to evade the terror that is Charles. Players can then use the acquired resources to increase their train's armor, speed, and offensive capabilities and attempt to defeat Charles once and for all.

If that sounds terrifying and more than a little ridiculous, that's because it is. It doesn't help that Charles also has a red and white, clown-like appearance. It's not everyday you see a game that combines a fear of clowns, spiders, and trains into one convenient package, but here we are. At least you have a machine gun to defend yourself with.

Choo-Choo Charles looks like exactly what you would get if you combined various Thomas The Tank Engine mods made for games like Resident Evil and Skyrim over the years with, well, an indie horror game. The game comes from solo developer Two Star Games, whose Steam page says it specializes in "artistic, atmospheric horror games." This is far from Two Star Games' first horror game, but something says that Choo-Choo Charles will be the one that helps the developer make a name for themselves. The game is set to release sometime in early 2022.

Halo Infinite's Big Team Battle mode was the focus of this past weekend's beta test, and I came away from it feeling like it's among 343's strongest steps forward in the multiplayer space since it took over the series from Bungie. It is complete chaos--but in the best way.

Halo 5's Warzone mode was an exciting concept, but it didn't stick the landing and the Req pack system and the MOBA-style concept in general did not resonate with me. Thankfully, Halo Infinite's overall ambition to seemingly return to the basics of Halo also applies to Big Team Battle, and as with 4v4 Arena Slayer, the bones are good here.

Fragmentation Feels Like Valhalla 2.0

In Halo Infinite's BTB, the player cap is raised from 8v8 in past games to 12v12. To accommodate the bigger player count, 343 created what seems to be the biggest map in Halo history--Fragmentation. It feels like a spiritual successor to Halo's iconic Valhalla, but with a much larger playable space and many new and exciting elements and lanes. Most exciting to me with Fragmentation is its verticality. There are many hills, ridges, rocks, and other surfaces to climb in between bases and other structures, and these all help you find unique lines of sight. There are many trees and other tall objects, and I thought this was a welcome design choice to help players move around without getting shot from too far away. Snipers will still be happy, though, as there are plenty of places with long lines of sight and opportunities to send a player rag-dolling backwards after a well-placed shot. The map also has cute little space-prairie dogs, and that's pretty cool.

New World players have discovered ways to skirt around the game's automatic AFK detection system, enabling them to step away for long periods of time without being kicked back to the main menu. But that looks like it will soon be changing, with Amazon Games looking to take action to both implement better AFK detection as well as punish "bad faith AFK players."

Amazon Games' MMO has seen more than 900,000 concurrent players on Steam over the weekend, making it the most-played game on the platform. That has resulted in long queue times for some of New World's most populous servers. It's no surprise then that players are using every tool at their disposal to stay in-game and avoid waiting in line.

In a post on the game's official forums, community manager Henry Stelter writes that Amazon will be rolling out changes to New World's AFK detection system to better find instances of players artificially remaining active.

"We have seen a lot of frustration around individuals who may be artificially remaining active enough in servers to avoid the automatic AFK mitigation that is built into New World," Stelter writes. "We certainly agree that this is not acceptable behavior, especially when there are droves of individuals who are waiting patiently to get into a world. We have created a new solution to help us identify and [take] action against bad faith AFK players."

Stelter goes on to write that Amazon will not be disclosing how the new detection system works, but that players who are playing the game normally should not experience any issues. The AFK detection changes won't be immediate, but will be rolled out over a period of time, HardcoreHenry writes.

Epic Games has announced that it is rolling out the Epic Achievements system on its Epic Games Store. Starting next week, players can begin earning XP by completing Epic Achievements in select titles.

These select titles include Rocket League, Hades, Pillars of Eternity, Kena: Bridge of Spirits, Zombie Army 4, and Alan Wake Remastered. Epic is also sending out a set of tools for developers to easily and quickly implement Achievements for the Epic Games Store platform, so more games will be supported later this year.

There are four tiers of Epic Achievements with an XP range value attached to each. The Platinum Achievement is awarded upon earning 1000 XP in a game. Bronze achievements provide an additional 5-45 XP, Silver gives 50-95 XP, Gold earns 100-200 XP, and Platinum gives 250 XP.

NetherRealm boss Ed Boon, who co-created the Mortal Kombat and Injustice game franchises, will attend this month's DC FanDome event. This development has sparked unfounded rumors that the studio might have something lined up for the showcase. If that is the case, don't get your hopes up for Injustice 3, one reporter says.

The lineup of attendees for FanDome was announced on Monday, and Boon's name is featured among the many, many other attendees. These include Sefton Hill, the game director of Rocksteady's upcoming Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League, and Patrick Redding, the director of Gotham Knights. Both games are confirmed to appear during DC FanDome, but as of yet, no project directly connected to Boon or NetherRealm is.