October 2021

Sony has announced the new additions to the PlayStation Now streaming catalog for October, and some big games are now available to kick off the month.

Coming to PS Now in October include The Last of Us: Part II, Fallout 76, Desperados III, Amnesia: Collection, Final Fantasy VIII Remastered, Yet Another Zombie Defense, and Victor Vran: Overkill Edition. These games will launch for PS Now on October 5 as part of the first PlayStation Store refresh of the month.

Of note, The Last of Us: Part II will be available on PS Now only until January 3, 2022 and Victor Vran: Overkill Edition was already available for the streaming service in Europe. The Last of Us: Part II is the only game among the new additions to specifically have an end date listed.

With Sony steadily building out PlayStation Now's library, as well as adding upgrades including 1080p streaming and select game downloads, the service has seen a surge of popularity recently.

Publisher Koei Tecmo and developer Omega Force have announced that Dynasty Warriors 9 Empire will launch on February 15, 2022, in North America and Europe. It is coming to PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, and Nintendo Switch.

The game has a new feature called "Storming the Castle", where areas around the castle turning into battlefields and players battle to take control of the castle. Players can also invade an enemy's base and use siege weapons to troops. When players break through an enemy gate, they can claim victory by defeating the commander. All enemy officers will come together in one last resistance, giving players the chance to defeat and capture them.

Secret Plans can also affect the tide of battle as well. They are selected during the battle preparation phase and are activated as missions during battles. Each plan has its own win and failure conditions, and successfully fulfilling a plan provides rewards to allies. Each different type of army unit will also have its strengths and weaknesses, much like a triangle system used in earlier Fire Emblem games. The PlayStation 5 version of the game will be a digital-only release, and players who purchase the physical PlayStation 4 disc will receive a free upgrade to it.

If you're looking for some new Nintendo Switch games to add to your library, a pair of the best exclusives of the year so far on sale for new low prices. The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword HD and New Pokemon Snap are down to $40 each at Amazon and Best Buy. Amazon just sold out of Skyward Sword, but it's possible it will be restocked soon. You can also snag Super Smash Bros. Ultimate for $40 ahead of the final DLC fighter reveal tomorrow.

With its long-awaited release date just months away, a developer at From Software has confirmed that Elden Ring is almost done being developed. Much of the game, which is set to launch on January 21, 2022, remains a mystery, with From Software keeping any and all details regarding the game close to the chest.

Elden Ring's development status was revealed during a recent Famitsu interview. From Software's Yasuhiro Kitao plainly said that the game is "at the end of development," although he didn't say when the game would likely go gold. Kitao also loosely described the game's world and difficulty, saying players could "seamlessly visit" the dungeons littered throughout the game's open world. As for the game's difficulty, well, it's still a From Software game. "High difficulties and overcoming them" are a part of Elden Ring, said Kitao.

While Elden Ring's development is just about wrapped up and it's months away from release, we still don't know much about it. From Software recently brought the upcoming title to Gamescom, where it somehow managed to win an award for Best Sony PlayStation Game despite the fact that no new information about the game was revealed to the public.

The final DLC reveal for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate is coming soon, and the game's director Masahiro Sakurai thinks everyone who loves video games should tune in, even if you don't play Smash.

Sakurai posted a comment about how this event will appeal to all video games fans via his Twitter, saying "whether you're a Smash Bros. player or simply love games, make sure to tune in!"

This is not the first time Sakurai has claimed the reveal will have a more universal appeal, calling it a "celebration of gaming" in a Tweet posted over the weekend.

While this has fueled speculation of who the final fighter will be--with names like Sora from Kingdom Hearts and Master Chief from Halo among the most-popular guesses--Sakurai gave no direct hints as to who will be joining the fight. The official Japanese Smash Bros Twitter has encouraged fans to let their imaginations "run wild" so let your voices be heard, Bubsy fans.

One of my favourite paintings in the world isn't very good. It's not actively bad, and it's far better than anything I could do, it's just not very good. It's a long way from great, comfortably non-brilliant. The gallery that owns it doesn't even have it on display most of the time. For most of its life on Earth I suspect it will be filed somewhere in the quiet dark.

I saw it when it was briefly on display, however. And I loved it immediately. Around the turn of the century - I love that I have lived through a period of time where I can just drop that phrase in - Tate Britain held an exhibition on Turner's paintings of Venice. I took my mum, for some reason. She absolutely hates Turner. Sadly, the exhibition didn't give me much ammunition to change her mind. Turner's paintings of Venice at their very best are merely odd: he occasionally captures something weird in the mixture of a radioactive sunset, distant buildings rising from the water covered with glittering lights, and people moving around on delicate boats, and for a second in these instants, you get to see the human race from the outside, as it were. In these moments we look elegant, dimly alien, serene and fantastical. I don't know if that was his intention. Most of his other paintings of Venice - and I say this as a big fan of Turner - are a bit dull.

Read more

For years, fans have speculated that Far Cry 2's villain The Jackal and Far Cry protagonist Jack Carver are one and the same. Now, 13 years after the sequel was released, the game's creative director has confirmed the theory to be true, even though it's never been corroborated by any in-game material.

In an interview with IGN for a documentary on the Far Cry series' villains, Far Cry 2's creative director Clint Hocking confirmed that Jack Carver was definitely The Jackal.

"The Jackal is actually supposed to be Jack Carver from the original Far Cry," Hocking confirmed. "Jack Carver in the original Far Cry was this shifty, smuggler, gun runner kind of crook. The idea was [the Jackal] is just him, 10 years later or something, after he's seen whatever he saw on this island. Maybe it was drug induced, maybe it's post-traumatic stress disorder, or maybe it's real. But the idea is, a decade later, he has levelled up his smuggling game, and he's gotten embroiled in this conflict."

The confirmation is sweet vindication for all the fans who believed The Jackal theory, having pieced it together from a number of clues left by the dev team. The theory was already a very credible one, after data miners revealed that all of The Jackal's texture files have "jackcarver" in the name. Others had suggested the link after noticing the two characters had similar backgrounds, with both having served in the US Navy, and being involved in illegal arms trading.

The Windows 11 rollout officially starts today, meaning current Windows 10 users with compatible machines will be prompted to upgrade their operating system for free over the next few months. Microsoft blog posts about the new OS have boasted that it's "the best Windows ever for gaming"--here's what that'll mean in practice for PC gamers.

The biggest change in Windows 11 for gamers are two features that were initially developed for the Xbox Series X|S--Auto HDR and DirectStorage. Both require certain hardware to fully take advantage of the benefits, but if you've already got a proper gaming rig, you should be in the clear.

Auto HDR

As the name suggests, Auto HDR is a feature that will automatically upgrade game graphics to High Dynamic Range, given you've got a display that supports HDR. The feature is compatible with "over 1000 DirectX 11 and DirectX 12 games," improving the range of colors that are displayed, as well as enabling higher-quality contrast and brightness.

DirectStorage

The other feature that has been migrated from the Xbox Series X|S is DirectStorage, which enables gaming PCs to load games quicker, and render the kinds of expansive or detailed game worlds that would usually trip up lower-specced PCs. The feature does require your PC to include an NVMe solid state drive and a DirectX 12 GPU to run, however.

EGX 2021 kicks off this Thursday at London's ExCel, and RPS will be there doing what we do best: interviewing developers and uncovering lots of brand-new indie games for you to enjoy. In particular, we're going to be talking to the creators of Sable about the game's art and inspirations, as well as Inkle's narrative director Jon Ingold about the making of their nautical murder mystery game, Overboard. It's going to be a fun time, so if you're making the trip down, be sure to stop by the EGX Theatre stage while you're there. Read on for the full rundown of all things RPS at EGX.

Read more

Sony has announced the latest games to be added to subscription service PlayStation Now.

Seven games are being added from 5th October, including The Last of Us Part 2, Final Fantasy 8 Remastered and Fallout 76, as announced on the PlayStation Blog.

Read more

Facebook boss Mark Zuckerberg has apologised for last night's lengthy downtime which hit the social network and all its connected services.

Oculus games and apps were left unavailable to access, while games which use Facebook as a login method (such as Pokémon Go) were also hit.

Read more

Other special guests that will appear on upcoming broadcasts include the Japanese voice actor for G'raha Tia.

The post FFXIV Radio Mog Station Special Guest is Hololive Usada Pekora appeared first on Siliconera.

The Limited Edition set includes an exclusive artbook, soundtrack, and poster, as well as a DLC outfit for Sophie.

The post NIS America is Selling Atelier Sophie 2 Limited Edition Physical Copies appeared first on Siliconera.

Monster Hunter has fast become Cacpom’s most lucrative franchise over the past few years, which has been highlighted again this week with the announcement of yet another impressive sales milestone. Monster Hunter Rise, the Nintendo Switch exclusive that launched back in March of 2021, has now exceeded 7.5 million units shipped worldwide.

The news comes by way of a press release recapping both Monster Hunter Rise and Resident Evil 3’s winning of two different awards during the Japan Game Awards: 2021. Monster Hunter Rise was awarded the Grand Award in the Games of the Year Division of the Japan Game Awards: 2021 (held by the Computer Entertainment Supplier’s Association), while Resident Evil 3 was honored with an Award for Excellence. The prizes were announced at Tokyo Game Show 2021 Online, which was held from September 30 through October 3.

The press release reads in part:

Monster Hunter Rise, winner of the Grand Award, is a Monster Hunter title released in March 2021 for Nintendo Switch. The game was developed to provide a new, accessible Monster Hunter experience that can be enjoyed anytime, anywhere and with anyone. In addition to new monsters and locales, the game provides a completely fresh take on the hunting experience through a host of new, exhilarating hunting actions made possible with the Wirebug as well as with the debut of new “canyne” hunting partners called Palamutes, all of which garnered acclaim from players, resulting in shipments of more than 7.5 million units worldwide.

Which is the best starting zone to get in New World? Unfortunately, at the time of writing, you can't choose or change your New World starting zone. Once you've joined a server and created your character you play through a brief prologue, and then the game randomly spawns you into one of its four starting locations.

Read more

Ahead of the multiplayer open beta test starting this week, you can now preload the Battlefield 2042 client to be ready as soon as war breaks out. The BF2042 open beta starts Friday, though pre-orderers and EA Play members will get early access from Wednesday. It's been three years since Battlefield was last in the near-future, so how do you fancy its return?

Read more

The rumours were true: Asus and cooling specialists Noctua have co-created a new GeForce RTX 3070 design. The underlying GPU already makes for one of the best graphics cards, and Noctua claims their gargantuan custom radiator design and dual 120mm fans make the Asus GeForce RTX 3070 Noctua Edition - to use its full name - “the quietest air-cooled graphics card in its class”.

Read more

The Akihabara-based bar will also sell merchandise related to the classic RPG title.

The post Tokyo Video Gamers Bar Will Have a Temporary Grandia Theme appeared first on Siliconera.

Desk mats featuring artwork from several other mainline Final Fantasy titles are available to pre-order as well.

The post Final Fantasy Desk Mats Include FFVII Remake Designs appeared first on Siliconera.

The Panzer Dragoon Voyage Record Twitter account falsely shared that the developer's CEO had died.

As shared by VGC, the now-deleted tweet stated that the game had been cancelled due to the death of producer Haruto Watanabe, though hours later friends reported he was still alive.

Read more

Nintendo will reveal Super Smash Bros. Ultimate's last DLC character this afternoon at 3pm UK time, and you can watch it all live via the stream below.

The presentation will be hosted by Smash Bros. boss Masahiro Sakurai, and is due to last 40 minutes.

Read more

A new Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon project will be announced tonight, Ubisoft has said, as part of a livestream celebrating 20 years of the franchise.

The long-running brand has encompassed more than a dozen games over the years, with various different focuses. The popular Wildlands, released in 2017, took the series open world. 2019 follow-up Breakpoint was less favourably received.

Read more

I have a lot of nostalgia for Bungie's classic Halo games, they're great. I loved the epic music, the funny alien grunts, and playing co-op campaign was pretty much the only time seven-year-old-me wouldn't argue with my siblings. Despite all of this, it was always the series' multiplayer that was so enduring. A lot has been said about the brilliance of Bungie's Halo multiplayer: the incredible level design, the unique suite of vehicles, the perfectly balanced weapons. But, for me, it was just a good laugh. Halo's physics-driven sandbox led to some irreplicable moments that still make this nerd smile inside, a decade after playing. So, when I saw fans proclaiming that Halo Infinite's multiplayer is a return to form for the series, my first question was, "Is it funny?"

The first thing 343 had to get right was the sandbox - were Halo's iconic guns, grenades, abilities, maps and vehicles fun, and more importantly did they all interact with each other? A physics-driven sandbox in the past led to moments where a grenade you threw would accidentally hit a teammate and bounce right back into your face... oops. Or it would allow you to do things like fire a rocket into a gravity lift, have it fly all the way to the top and kill whoever was unfortunate enough to be waiting up there. Even using the gravity hammer to send vehicles flying off the map was enough to elicit a chuckle. Moments like these were so fun because they were unexpected. These weren't features that were advertised, and most of the weird physics tricks you could pull off were only useful in certain situations. This meant every time something goofy happened it was a shock and a discovery.

Read more

Following the official reveal at Tokyo Game Show 2021, Koei Tecmo released a new trailer for Atelier Sophie 2: The Alchemist of the Mysterious Dream.

We get pretty much what it says on the tin, with an animated cutscene starring Sophie herself and Plachta.

You can check it out below.

Atelier Sophie 2: The Alchemist of the Mysterious Dream will release in North America and Europe on February 25, 2022, for PS4, Nintendo Switch, and PC. Japanese gamers will get it a day earlier, on February 24.

Below you can read how Koei Tecmo Officially describes the game:

Another weapon skin bundle arrives in tandem with Valorant’s Patch 3.07 tomorrow, and for the first time ever it features a kill counter that tracks how many enemies you’ve eliminated in a match. The bundle is called the GX 11Z PRO and is designed around a futuristic theme that includes a unique transparent appearance.

Here’s an overview of what’s featured in the bundle and its cost in VP:

RGX 11Z PRO Bundle

• Features Green, Red, Blue, and Yellow Variants.
• 5 Upgrade Levels instead of the Typical 4
• Contains a Kill Tracker as an Upgrade
• Whenever you inspect, the lights change color
• Price: 8700 (around $87)

As is typical for the release of new weapon skin bundles, Riot Games has granted early access to a YouTube content creator, which is where today’s images come from. This time around, LuxXz has the honor, and you can check out his video below (Spanish):

Today Sega hosted a livestream focusing on the future of Phantasy Star Online 2 New Genesis, and this time the information was a lot broader compared to similar broadcasts in the past.

There was quite a bit of apologizing involved, and Sega addressed the fact that many players feel that the game doesn’t have enough playable content.

In order to fix this, the development team is working to accelerate the production of new content for upcoming updates after December.

We also hear that starting tomorrow, urgent quests will be announced ahead of time for one week. Also, when new urgent quests or expansions to current urgent quests are implemented, they will randomly happen at a higher rate for the first week. Developers will gauge the results of these changes to design the future direction for the feature.

A transfer function for weapons of the same name is coming alongside an expansion to the MAG sonar function to find materials more easily.

Options to toggle display for each chat category and symbol arts will come with the October 13 update as part of an ongoing effort to counter toxic behavior in chat and symbol arts from certain players.

A player survey will come in late October to let players express how they’d like to see the game improve.

Another juicy reveal is the first look at the new desert region named Retem that will come with the major update in December, which will also continue the story. You can take a look below.

It’s update week for Valorant, and while Patch 3.07 doesn’t make an especially long list of changes, there are one or two that should come as a welcome surprise to fans of the game. In particular, Jett’s knives now finally reset at the shooting range after a practice bot is killed, which always used to occur but suddenly stopped working six or so months ago. Now you can finally practice your knife taps without hearing ‘watch this!’ over and over. Hallelujah!

Other notable changes in today’s patch include the correction of a bug that would see players avoid decay when passing through the top of Viper’s wall, and another annoying bug that awarded a ‘Team Ace’ without members of the team being involved. Here is the full list of changes:

Agent Updates

Viper

• Passing through the highest portion of Viper’s wall now correctly applies instant decay to
• high-flying Agents.
• Updated the visuals for the dissolving effect seen while inside Viper’s smoke to better
• match the visuals seen from the outside, in an attempt to remove any type of peeker’s
• advantage when playing from within the smoke.

Jett

• Jett’s Blade Storm kunai will now recharge after killing a training dummy or defuse
• practice bot.

Social Updates

● Penalties removed for leaving Deathmatch early
○ Full game participation is required to earn XP.

Performance Updates

New setting, in Beta, “Raw Input Buffer” improves the performance of input device processing.

In 2016, Night School Studio struck gold with Oxenfree, as their debut supernatural adventure game was a hit with fans thanks to its quirky characters, unique dialogue mechanics, and enthralling mysteries. Five years later, the studio hopes to pick up right where it left off with Oxenfree 2: Lost Signals.

Recently, I attended a preview event for the game that detailed all of the features and gameplay elements players can expect in Oxenfree 2: Lost Signals. Across that hour and a half, it was clear that the sequel wants to build upon the success and foundation laid by the original while also trying to set itself apart via new mechanics.

Five years after the first game’s events, Oxenfree 2: Lost Signals follows Riley, an environmental research returning to her hometown of Camena to investigate mysterious radio signals. It isn’t too long before she figures out that a sinister group known as Parentage is trying to open up portals similar to the ones that Alex encounters in the first game.

To stop them, Riley has to plant radio transmitters throughout the town that’ll keep these beings from escaping. The demo build that was shown occurred a little bit into the game, as our protagonist has not only run into Parentage but has also found some help of her own in the form of an old high school acquaintance, Jacob.

Together, the pair explore Camina while also talking a little about the events of the game so far while also reminiscing about high school. The dynamic dialogue bubbles from the original is front and center during this adventure, again giving players the option to interrupt or listen to conversations at their own pace.

Atlus is continuing to release its long 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 Lilith, which has been part of the series since Shin Megami Tensei in 1992.

You can watch her in action below.

Rather than learning how to play the game, the school will use Pokemon Unite to teach critical thinking and communication skills.

The post Aeon Fantasy Will Offer Pokemon Unite Classes for Children appeared first on Siliconera.

This move will effectively disable digital purchases of CERO Z-rated games on the platforms in Japan.

The post PS3 and Vita Stores Will Remove PayPal and Credit Card Payment Methods appeared first on Siliconera.

Further details about the event will be revealed at a later date.

The post Tokyo Game Show 2022 Will be Held in September appeared first on Siliconera.

Oxenfree II: Oxen Free Or Die Hard (known to squares as Oxenfree II: Lost Signals) was announced earlier this year, a sequel to the much-loved spooky coming-of-age adventure Oxenfree. Did you like the naturalistic conversations and dialogue options you got in the first game? The story of self discovery? The spine-tingling creepiness that is inherent to half-tuned radios? Then I have some good news for you about Oxenfree II.

Read more

We still don't know when Hollow Knight's long-awaited sequel Silksong is coming out, but the demo for upcoming Metroid-like Haiku The Robot has been scratching that Hollow Knight itch for me like nobody's business this week. Available now as part of the Steam Next Fest, this challenging, side-scrolling action-adventure game sees your little bot pal Haiku explore a vast, apocalyptic scrap heap that's been corrupted by possessed machinery and other nasty robots - all without a single squishy bug in sight. Lovely stuff.

Read more

I thought Storyteller seemed promising when I first heard about the puzzle game way back in 2012, after it won the Nuovo award at the IGFs. Now that it's finally almost finished, I am delighted to play a demo in the Steam Next Fest and report back that yes, it's clever and quite delightful. Each puzzle presents you with a cast of characters, a few verbs and nouns, and an outcome which you must achieve by arranging everything in comic strip panels. Simple, clever, satisfying, and surprisingly funny.

Read more

Windows 11 is now out and about, gradually making its way to Windows 10 users as an optional free update. Sadly, Microsoft’s latest operating system isn’t have the most auspicious of starts: besides headline gaming features like DirectStorage not technically being usable yet, cloud gaming platform Shadow is actively discouraging users from updating their systems.

Read more

The final character for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate is Sora from Kingdom Hearts, who joins the game on 19th October.

Smash Bros. series boss Masahiro Sakurai revealed today that Sora actually won the fan poll for Nintendo to explore future character DLC options back in the Wii U/3DS era - though the results have been kept secret until now.

Read more

First there was Calculator. Now another non-game app has arrived on the Nintendo eShop: a clock.

AAA Clock from RedDeer.games will be available from 8th October priced initially at $1.99 / €1.99 before jumping to $9.99 / €9.99 (thanks, Nintendo Life).

Read more

Far Cry 6 is still several days from release, but already some of its secrets are spilling out all over the internet. In particular, a pair of in-game QR codes have surfaced which tease other, related Ubisoft projects.

The details come from YouTuber JorRaptor, who has a reliable history detailing Assassin's Creed leaks.

Read more