October 2021

Here's something. One word stories. One-word stories? One Word Stories! Anyway, Jacob has been walking through the darkness for quite a while and it's starting to get to him. The mood starts to get to him, the atmosphere, oppressive and enclosing. So he suggests to his friend Riley: let's play one-word stories? Each of us says a word in turn, and then the words make the story.

They play for one round - a silly kind of sentence emerges - and it makes him feel better. And this gets at the heart of Oxenfree 2 for me, I think. On one hand, there's that dizzying complexity going on behind the scenes, because as Jacob's friend Riley, you get to choose which word to say, which in turn must impact which word Jacob then chooses as a response. I close my eyes at that and see the decision tree branching out, its bright leaves filling the space above my head. What a thing! A marvel.

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 Nintendo has revealed that Sora is the final fighter joining the roster of Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. 

This news was announced today as part of the final Sakurai Presents, and the reveal came as a major surprise, but not because fans didn't want Sora. In fact, Smash. Bros. Ultimate director Masahiro Sakurai revealed that Sora has been the most requested fighter to date. 

When Nintendo sent out the Super Smash Bros. fan roster request survey back in the 3DS and Wii U Smash days, Sora was the fighter fans wanted the most. It took six years, but the day is finally here: Sora is now a fighter in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.

He'll be available for purchase on October 18, the same day the game's three new Mii Fighter costumes become available. Like previously-released fighters, Sora can be purchased individually for $5.99 or as part of the Super Smash Bros. Ultimate Fighter Pass Vol. 2, which costs $29.99. 

Ubisoft has confirmed that the villain of Far Cry 2, the Jackal, is Jack Carver from the first Far Cry game. 

This news comes by way of IGN, which interviewed Far Cry 2 creative director Clint Hocking about the game. Far Cry fans have long believed that Far Cry 2's Jackal villain is Jack Carver, the protagonist of the first Far Cry, but nothing in-game confirmed this theory. Now, Hocking has revealed that this theory is correct. 

"The Jackal is actually supposed to be Jack Carver from the original Far Cry," Hocking said. "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 (in Far Cry)." 

Hocking says that perhaps Carver's Jackal transformation was drug-induced or the result of the trauma and stress endured on the island in Far Cry. 

As for how fans determined Carver must be Jackal, it stems from two critical pieces of information about the two characters: Jackal's background and the texture files of Jackal in Far Cry 2, as noted by IGN. 

Well, for every person who’s thrilled, ten more are pissed. Probably. During a digital presentation this morning, Masahiro Sakurai at long last unveiled the final fighter for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. It’s Sora, from Kingdom Hearts. He’ll be available October 18.

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The leaves are changing color. The weather is getting cooler and crisper. You know what that means? That’s right, fall anime.

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Turns out Castlevania Advance Collection is real, and it’s excellent, collecting three of the best Castlevania games of all time as well as a fourth pretty darn good one. While the emulation quality is excellent—courtesy of the experts at Japanese studio M2—like many official re-releases, I find Advance Collection…

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Sora was just revealed as the final Super Smash Bros. Ultimate character, and near the end of Masahiro Sakurai’s presentation, he also announced that the Kingdom Hearts series will be coming to Nintendo Switch.

Kingdom Hearts 1.5 + 2.4 Remix, 2.8 Final Chapter Prologue, and Kingdom Hearts 3 (along with its ReMind DLC) are Coming to the console via the cloud gaming feature. This means that all of these games will be available to play as long as you have a stable internet connection to keep the cloud gaming feature running smoothly.

The three titles listed above contain several of the games in the series outside of the main trilogy so that players can get the full story. These games include Kingdom Hearts Re:Chain of Memories, 358/2 Days, Birth by Sleep, Re:coded, Dream Drop Distance, and X Back Cover.

Additionally, the Kingdom Hearts Union X story can now be viewed for free in Theatre Mode through the app on the App Store and Google Play Store. And Union X: Dark Road will be released all at once this winter.

You can check out the trailer below to see the Kingdom Hearts 20th anniversary celebratory announcement video that was released separately from the Smash Ultimate stream.

While Sega and Creative Assembly have recently delayed Total War: Warhammer III to early 2022, the flow of reveals is continuing.

Today the developer released a new trailer focusing on the Grand Cathay Faction, and more precisely on the majestic Terracotta Sentinel unit.

If you’re not familiar with Cathay, it has always been part of the Warhammer lore (and I mean the real, old-school Warhammer, which is the only relevant fantasy Warhammer), but most of its lore was buried in the decades-old depths of Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay.

You can check it out below. As a bonus, you can also catch a trailer showcasing the faction as a whole that slipped through the cracks last Friday due to the Tokyo Game Show onslaught. I’m only human, after all.

On top of that, you can also watch an earlier cinematic trailer.

The time has finally come for the final Super Smash Bros. Ultimate character presentation stream. Masahiro Sakurai has just revealed that Sora from Kingdom Hearts will be joining the Smash Ultimate roster later this month on Oct. 18.

Sora is able to use many moves that fans will be familiar with from the Kingdom Hearts series, including fire, thunder, and ice magic. He’ll be doing all this while moving just like he would in his games. He’s a floaty character that’s even lighter than Isabelle or Young Link, which is a weakness even though he can recover fairly easily.

The Rising Falls stage with Hollow Bastion in the background will also be coming to the game. Just like new stages in the past, this one will contain characters and references to the game that the DLC character comes.

Additionally, the Mii costumes this time around include Octoling, Judd, and Doom Slayer for $0.75 each. They’ll be coming to Smash Ultimate on the same day as Sora.

You can check out the presentation for yourself below to see exactly what Sora can do in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate as Sakurai goes in-depth with his moveset.

While Ridley Scott’s Prometheus was met with a fairly lukewarm critical reception on release, it’s hard to not at least admire the sheer ambition and visual splendour of the pic. Indeed, though the quasi-prequel to Alien pulled in an impressive box office of $403.4 million back in 2012, the sci-fi feature proved to be pretty divisive amongst fans.

Of course, while the film received a follow-up in 2017 with Alien: Covenant, it’s fair to say that Prometheus has seen a more positive critical reassessment from fans, especially through a modern lens. Long story short: we think that it’s a pretty damn underrated movie that is totally deserving of your time thanks to its unparalleled visuals, ambitious philosophical story and its clever connection to the Alien mythos.

With all that out of the way, we thought that now would be the perfect time to revisit Scott’s underrated sci-fi horror prequel in Twinfinite’s latest movie trivia quiz. That’s right, over the course of 12 questions, it’s time to separate the wheat from the chaff by proving how well you remember Prometheus.

So, without further ado, don your space suits as we prepare to journey back to LV-223 in Twinfinite’s latest Prometheus trivia quiz. Let’s get into it, shall we?

Today Developer SimulaM announced that its upcoming Jesus simulator I am Jesus Christ will hit Kickstarter next month.

More precisely, we learn that the campaign will start on November 15, 2021.

It will be accompanied by the launch of a new demo on Steam so that you too can turn water into wine and walk on water.

In the meanwhile, we get to see a work-in-progress version of the trailer that will advertise the Kickstarter campaign.

As part of the Kingdom Hearts 20th anniversary celebration, Square Enix announced a final Dark Road chapter, Switch ports, and merchandise.

The post Kingdom Hearts 20th Anniversary Updates Include Final Dark Road Chapter appeared first on Siliconera.

People will be able to play the Cloud versions of the games in the future.

The post Kingdom Hearts Switch Ports Cloud Versions Inbound appeared first on Siliconera.

During the Sora SSBU, Masahiro Sakurai went over the Kingdom Hearts songs that will join the collection of music in-game.

The post SSBU Kingdom Hearts Songs Revealed appeared first on Siliconera.

Sora will have tons of references to his appearance in Kingdom Hearts, including a special winning scene.

The post Here’s the Sora Super Smash Bros Ultimate Move Set appeared first on Siliconera.

Kingdom Hearts receives some representation in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate with the inclusion of Sora.

The post Sora is the Final Super Smash Bros. Ultimate DLC appeared first on Siliconera.

The Doom Slayer is coming to SSBU as Mii Fighter DLC. It and two Splatoon-themed items will be a part of the final releases.

The post SSBU Doom Slayer and Splatoon Mii Fighter DLC Shown appeared first on Siliconera.

To celebrate the Tales of Arise launch, Bandai Namco shared art from the Code Vein and God Eater artists of various characters.

The post Tales of Arise Character Art From Code Vein, God Eater Artists Appears appeared first on Siliconera.

With Far Cry 6 launching later this week, what a great time to dredge up old arguments and declare once more that Far Cry 2 was the best one. Also dredging up old thoughts, Far Cry 2 creative director Clint Hocking has confirmed an old fan theory: the man we hunt in FC2, the Jackal, is indeed meant to be the fella we played in the first Far Cry. So despite the wildly different tone and seemingly unconnected plot, it really was a sequel after all.

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The main Kingdom Hearts trilogy is coming to Nintendo Switch - but via cloud streaming.

Nintendo made the announcement during today's final Super Smash Bros. Ultimate character confirmation - which was Sora, the main star of the Kingdom Hearts franchise.

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EA has simplified its various offerings of Battlefield 2042 when it launches on November 19th, with standard digital versions of the game on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series S and X now offering 'dual entitlement' which opens up versions for both generations of hardware.

It seems a fairer way of doing things than the original proposition, which locked cross-gen behind more expensive editions of Battlefield 2042 - though given the wording of EA's announcement, it does seem you'll still have to pay the £10 premium associated with next-gen versions if you want 'dual entitlement'.

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Xbox has announced the latest additions to Game Pass, led by Back 4 Blood.

The zombie co-op shooter will rise fresh from its recent beta on 12th October, available on Game Pass from day one on console, PC and cloud.

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Where do you stand on separating the art from the artist? Maybe you've mulled this over when considering whether to watch a Roman Polanski film or listen to a Michael Jackson album - and Lord knows, the history of art would be impoverished indeed if we stripped it of all its monsters. There's never an easy answer. In the wake of the appalling recent revelations about the studio's "frat boy" culture, this is now a question we have to ask ourselves about Blizzard games, too.

In some respects, this beautifully produced remaster of Diablo 2 is unlucky to be Blizzard's first release since the state of California filed suit against the studio. Much of the work on it was done by Vicarious Visions, a blameless outfit only integrated with Blizzard earlier this year. (Indeed, its former studio head Jen Oneal was recently named co-leader of Blizzard, a new broom presumably intended to lead reform there.) What's more, the original 2000 game was made by Blizzard North, an autonomous studio quite distinct from the SoCal mothership. Diablo 2 is an adopted child of the Blizzard culture at best. But Diablo helped set the Blizzard tone, too, with its none-more-metal aesthetic, kitchen-sink lore, cutting-edge online multiplayer and endgame of abyssal depth and complication.

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Is this truly "4 real" as the tagline says? Last week, a video of motorbiking sim Ride 4 went viral - with many millions of Twitter and YouTube views on an upload by YouTuber Joy of Gaming. On the face of it, it's easy to see why, when you consider the beautiful, dynamic, near photo-realistic footage playing out in first-person 'helmet' view. Based on Unreal Engine 4, the combination of the camera, physics, motion blur, lighting and materials all impress - but to what extent does it push back the boundaries or rendering technology. Does the game live up to the hype, or have we seen it all before with DriveClub Bikes?

There are a couple of key points with Ride 4 worth stressing. First of all, it's not a new game - it came out last year and its next-gen patch arrived a little after launch. It's just that the viral video has done a remarkable job in bringing the game to the attention of the audience some time after the fact. Secondly, in terms of the presentation itself, what we're seeing here is a combination of factors that combine to create something magical - and a key aspect of that isn't actually the technology at all, but rather the gaming ability of the player. The truth is that Ride 4 is a brutally hard, unforgiving and occasionally unfair game. Part of that is because of the simulation angle - motorcycles are less forgiving when travelling at speed over uneven ground and this translates to the game. Beyond that, rival bikes can crash into you from behind with the AI occasionally getting a bit overzealous at the starting grid. Some races simply open out with the player being clattered at the green light.

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The Saints are back! Following its reveal in August, Saints Row is on the cover of the next issue of Game Informer, and we have so much information to share with you! The reboot from the development team at Deep Silver Volition promises to carry on the spirit of the original games while setting the table for a new story featuring a new cast of characters. For our cover story, we played several hours of the new game and spoke at length with key team members.

We played through two mainline story missions, two side missions, and participated in two Criminal Ventures, all-new mission chains that let the Saints earn extra cash performing illegal activities behind legal fronts. Not to mention all the spare time we spent exploring the various districts of the city. In the cover story, you'll learn all about the characters, the new city of Santo Ileso, the rival factions the Saints will face off against, the upgraded car combat, and plenty more. In our conversations with Volition, we learned why the studio decided to reboot the series, what elements were most important to carry over from previous games, and lots more. And that's only scratching the surface of what you'll learn in our 12-page cover story.

Nintendo has revealed that all of the Kingdom Hearts games are coming to Switch, but they’ll only be available as cloud versions. 

All three titles – Kingdom Hearts HD 1.5 + 2.5 Remix, Kingdom Hearts HD 2.8 Final Chapter Prologue, and Kingdom Hearts 3 – will hit the Switch at a later unannounced date. With all three titles, players will be able to experience the entire Kingdom Hearts saga. 

Kingdom Hearts HD 1.5 + 2.5 Remix features Kingdom Hearts 1, Kingdom Hearts 2, Kingdom Hearts Re: Chain of Memories, and Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep as playable games. It also features HD remastered cinematics from Kingdom Hearts: 358/2 Days and Kingdom Hearts Re:coded.

Kingdom Hearts HD 2.8 Final Chapter Prologue features a remastered version of Kingdom Hearts: Dream Drop Distance, Kingdom Hearts 0.2: Birth by Sleep – A Fragmentary Passage, and the Kingdom Hearts χ Back Cover cinematics. Kingdom Hearts 3 is just Kingdom Hearts 3 in its entirety, excluding the Re Mind DLC released in 2020. 

Nintendo has finally done it. It’s brought the Smash Brothers Ultimate party to a close with the reveal and release of the final Smash character, Sora. And with his reveal comes a new set of Mii Fighter costumes to be released alongside the much-requested Kingdom Hearts protagonist in a couple of weeks.

Talk about requested characters; the Doom Slayer (!!!!) is making his way into Smash by way of an upcoming Mii Gunner costume. Players can rip and tear through the cast of Smash Ultimate with this incredible space marine getup.

Click image thumbnails to view larger version

HBO has released the first teaser trailer for its Game of Thrones prequel series, House of the Dragon. The show takes place 200 years before the events of the original series and puts a spotlight on a yet-to-implode House Targaryen. 

House of the Dragon is partially based on author George R.R. Martin’s 2018 book, Fire & Blood, and tells the story of the decline of the Targaryens. By the time Game of Thrones began, the family had already collapsed, with Daenerys Targaryen as one of its few survivors. House of the Dragon lets fans see the silver-haired dragon tamers closer to their peak and witness the events leading to the civil war that ultimately destroyed them. 

Writer and producer Ryan J. Condal (Rampage, Colony) and George R.R. Martin serve as principal showrunners. The show’s cast includes Matt Smith (Prince Daemon Targaryen), Emma D’Arcy (Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen), Eve Best (Princess Rhaenys Velaryonand), Olivia Cooke (Lady Alicent Hightowerand), and Paddy Considine (King Viserys I Targaryen). 

House of the Dragon premieres in 2022 and will only be available on HBO Max. 

What do you think of this first look at House of the Dragon? Let us know in the comments.

Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl has been out for less than a day, and players already think they may have found clues about which additional characters will be joining the platform fighting game in the future. According to an apparent datamine leak, the game’s files include references to Shredder, Garfield, and other Nick…

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I’ve been collecting Hot Wheels cars for nearly three decades. I’ve never had as much fun with the toys as I have playing Hot Wheels Unleashed.

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Sora might be coming to Super Smash Bros. Ultimate later this month, but that won’t be the spiky-haired hero’s only foray on the Nintendo Switch. The Kingdom Hearts trilogy is coming to the popular hybrid console via cloud streaming, Nintendo announced in a digital showcase today.

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Like every day, third-party developers have showcased new screenshots and assets of upcoming aircraft and scenery add-ons for Microsoft Flight Simulator.

 We hear from IndiaFoxtEcho, which showcased the Sukhoi SU-31 with new screenshots. The aircraft is basically ready for release but the developer decided to wait for the next Sim Update in late October as it’ll include improvements for aerobatic aircraft.