Amazon’s colonialist resource extraction MMO, New World, is currently the hottest new game on Steam, quite literally in some instances. More than a few players are reporting loud fans and high graphics card temperatures while running the game, and occasionally even just while queueing for it. And then there are the…
Though it’s been barely a month since its official release, Netmarble’s multiverse-spanning mobile Marvel Comics MMO just received its first major update, giving players a new mystical realm to explore, 10 more experience levels to gain, and a dread ruler of the Dark Dimension to smack down for gear and glory.
Paradox Interactive's sweeping historical grand strategy title Europa Universalis 4 is the latest freebie to grace the Epic Games Store.
Released back in 2013 and still tottering along today (its most recent expansion, Leviathan, was so disastrous its director issued an apology), Europa Universalis 4 gives players control of a country somewhere between 1444 to 1821 and lets them shape it into global significance through trade, diplomacy, colonisation, and war.
If you’re a Bandai Namco fan, it's time to start saying your goodbyes to the red, orange, and yellow logo that has graced titles such as Scarlet Nexus, Tales of Arise, Little Nightmares II, and countless other hits. The company has unveiled a new corporate logo alongside a new mission statement: Fun for All Into the Future.
The new logo adopts a more, shall we say, minimalist philosophy. The company's name is penned in a simple black font situated within a thick magenta border shaped like a speech bubble. According to a press release announcing the change, the speech bubble specifically signifies the brand’s potential to connect with its audience while also tipping a cap to manga culture. Bandai Namco states that while the old logo represented the fusion of Bandai and Namco, the new one better fits the spirit of their new purpose.
Square Enix is leaning on the creator of the Active Time Battle (ATB) system from Final Fantasy to create a new, unique RPG experience set to come out in two weeks. Hiroyuki Ito, known for ATB and directing Final Fantasy XII The Zodiac Age, leads this minimalist dungeon crawler called Dungeon Encounters.
Dungeon Encounters tasks players to explore grid-based labyrinths where, along the way, you’ll find allies, fight monsters, and earn abilities. Traversing these barren maps look to be a big part of Dungeon Encounters. Each square you move is counted, with total map completions rewarding ability points. Abilities can strategically shift enemy or player placements in the dungeon to dodge a conflict or travel to a hard-to-reach segment of the gameboard.
Click here to watch embedded mediaCombat plays out with, you guessed it, the Active Time Battle system. Adventuring in the mazes, you’ll come across a variety of characters to add to your party. The trailer above shows off a ton of potential friends take along grid spelunking. These party members aren’t exclusive to humanoid adventurers but also include a sword-wielding dog, a panther, and my favorite so far, a sizeable Totoro-like character named Sir Cat.
Indie extravaganza Steam Next Fest is back for another edition today, showering us with hundreds of upcoming game demos to try over the next week. Running from today, October 1st, until Thursday October 7th, the latest Steam Next Fest is positively packed to the rafters with things to play, and we've picked out some personal highlights to help you get started.
Summer's in the bin, which means it's time to stop looking back at those E3 showcases and start thinking about the end of year shows. The Game Awards, the December-ly bonanza of world premieres interspersed with the occasional trophy, is back on again. After going online in December 2020 due to the Covid-19 pandemic, show host Geoff Keighley is getting the band back together on stage this year for an in person show that's been scheduled for December 9th.
Where can you find Briar Branches in New World? Harvesting from Briar bushes in New World can yield a number of different resources including Briar Branches, which are needed to complete the Windsward quest A Prickly Request. But with so much greenery around the isle of Aeternum, sticking your face into every shrub to see if it's the one you're looking for is a time-consuming prospect. On this page, we save you (at least some of) the trouble by explaining where you can find Briars in New World.
Puzzle game Bonfire Peaks is probably a metaphor about emotional baggage and closure. But I know writers who use subtext and they're all cowards. Published by Draknek (wot did the equally puzzly A Monster's Expedition), Corey Martin's new voxel Sokoban-style game features a man slowly making his way up a mountain and totemically burning all of his stuff. Secretly, though, it is a story about a man who has the only superpower people in their 30s actually want: being able to pick up and move any number of boxes at any time.
Today is another Bandcamp Friday, when the splendid DRM-free music shop waive their cut of sales to give artists more money. It's a good time to buy music from a good place but a bit overwhelming when the store is so big. Last month, I had some slightly esoteric game music recommendations of my own. This month, I've had everyone in the RPS treehouse recommend a huge spread of video game soundtracks and music on Bandcamp, from Paradise Killer to Skyrim covers. Come, see what we're hearing!
When Epic unveiled their first Unreal Engine 5 tech demo last year, its ultra-realistic geometry systems and dynamic lighting effects looked impressive and all, but the resulting Tomb Raider-esque sequence left me feeling a little cold. To my eyes, Epic's tech demo didn't really look that much different to what games look like now.
After playing a new UE5 tech demo from Japanese studio Historia, however, I am fully converted to the merits of Epic's new game engine. At 20GB-odd, The Market Of Light is a hefty download for its 15-20 run-time, but this freeform exploration game is absolutely worth a look if your PC meets its surprisingly reasonable tech requirements - especially if you're a fan of games that feature cooking. Seriously, Epic's Tomb Raider lady can get stuffed. For me, Unreal Engine 5 is all about delicious-looking next-gen food.
Today third-party developers had a lot of goodies to share about upcoming aircraft add-ons for Microsoft Flight Simulator.
First and foremost, acclaimed developer PMDG finally decided to pull the Boeing 737 out of the hat, showcasing some really fetching screenshots on top of an extensive development update.
If things go according to plans, it should release this quarter. Without further ado, I’ll let PMDG boss Robert Randazzo take the stage and deliver the speech. You’ll find the screenshots under the wall of text, so don’t go anywhere.
“As we start 4Q21, we finally feel that the PMDG 737 for MSFS is beginning to look and feel like a product rather than a science experiment gone awry. Developing the 737 on the MSFS platform has been a difficult road thus far, in part because the platform is so very different from what we are used to, it is still very much in motion and we are heavily reliant upon the Asobo development team finding time in their already jammed agenda to implement the things that we need to get the airplane operable within the sim. Often what we need done doesn’t line up well with their development agenda and this leaves us working to find ways to ensure functionality while simultaneously prioritizing our requests to get attention to important items without clouding their environment with unrelated or meaningless requests that might only be beneficial to PMDG and not the platform as a whole.
During Sega & Atlus’ livestream from Tokyo Game Show, the house of Sonic revealed the previously-teased new mobile JRPG. The title is Sin Chronicle.
At the helm is producer Jun Matsunaga, known for his work on Chain Chronicle, World Chain, and more.
The new game is indeed the successor of Chain Chronicle. That being said both the story and the gameplay systems are completely new.
The concept of the game is that the fate of the characters is decided by the player’s choices. Every chapter (which lasts 10 hours of gameplay) has a climax in which you make an important choice and you only have one chance to make it. You cannot ever redo that choice.
The composition of your party will also influence that choice and the options provided. You also have to choose between two heroines, Sarah and Chloe, both of which are voiced by Aoi Yuki.
The world of the game is disappearing, plagued by a gradually enlarging “Abyss.” Fighting against this threat are the Boundary Knights, among which are the playable characters.
The battle gameplay itself is turn-based JRPG style. Most of the music is composed by Kevin Penkin, mostly known for his work on Made in Abyss.
Pre-registration for Japan is available today and the local release date is December 15. Nothing was mentioned about a possible western release.
You can check out the reveal trailer below, alongside a video introducing the world, and another showing story gameplay. The fourth video shows live gameplay.
The one-year anniversary of Genshin Impact is upon us, and despite there being a few reasons to criticize how miHoYo is celebrating, we’ve decided to look back on some of the better moments from the past year. Here are the top five best events from the first year of Genshin Impact.
Energy Amplifier Initiation might’ve been the weakest of all the flagship events to date. It didn’t offer up much in terms of notable character interaction or interesting storytelling.
The main gameplay pull for this event came in the form of multiple Domain challenges and exploration locations in which enemies were significantly buffed. These battles were tougher than expected, but it was a nice change of pace for those who put tons of hours into building up their characters.
During Level-5’s livestream from Tokyo Game Show, the developer introduced new gameplay of its upcoming mecha action JRPG Megaton Musashi.
First of all, the developer showcased a trailer showcasing a variety of gameplay situations. Then we get an extensive video showcasing mecha customization, which affords the player with a ton of options.
We also get to see multiplayer battle gameplay all the way to a couple of boss, which looks like a lot of fun.
The Heal-type Itachi is now available in Naruto to Boruto: Shinobi Striker to assist your team. There's also a trailer showing him.
The post The Naruto to Boruto: Shinobi Striker Itachi DLC is Out Now appeared first on Siliconera.
Koei Tecmo's Fatal Frame: Maiden of Black Water trailer released during TGS 2021 talks about a "true account" of Mt. Hikami's horrors.
The post Fatal Frame: Maiden of Black Water Trailer Offers a ‘True Account’ appeared first on Siliconera.
In the latest update of our Top N64 Games list, originally written more than 21 years ago, we continue to celebrate the N64 games that have left the biggest mark not just on our lives, but on the industry as a whole.
As always with any kind of list like this, it’s important to establish our criteria to explain as best as we can why some games made the list and others didn’t. First, while we didn't have a hard rule on only including games that were exclusive to the Nintendo 64, we also didn’t want to include games that are just simply better on other platforms of that era, like Resident Evil 2 and Rayman 2.
Second, we tried to consider a number of factors, including historical significance, how good it looked and played at the time, in addition to how well it holds up today, y’know, just in case you’re still able to dig your old N64 out of the closet. The games toward the top of this list are the ones that we feel have the best combination of those three criteria, while the ones towards the bottom, or the ones that didn't make the cut, might be strong in one of those aspects, but lacking in the others. Honorable mentions include Conker's Bad Fur Day, Mario Party 2, Excitebike 64, Pilotwings 64, Rocket: Robot on Wheels, Mario Tennis, Turok, Wrestlemania, No Mercy, BattleTanx, Episode I: Racer, Snowboard Kids, Mischief Makers, ISS98, and many, many more. There are just too many greats to fit into a list of 25.
Finally, one last note, because our staff is mostly made up of people who played Nintendo 64 games released only in North America, we decided to keep this list import free.
Rosario Dawson, the actress known for her portrayal of Ahsoka Tano in The Mandolorian, has been revealed to be joining the cast of Dying Light 2. She will play a major character within the survival-horror sequel.
As reported by Gamespot, fans were updated with news of the actress's involvement in the game as part of the development team's recent Dying Light 2 Dying 2 Know stream.
Just a heads up, this article contains some minor spoilers linked to the characters in Dying Light 2.
Don't miss the fourth episode of Dying 2 Know! We'll tell you more about the vast open world of Dying Light 2 Stay Human, and reveal some characters which you will meet in the game.https://t.co/wk7KDX5hET pic.twitter.com/ZGyTgA5V5G
— Dying Light (@DyingLightGame) September 30, 2021
Dawson will be playing a character known as Lawan in Dying Light 2. Described as a "warrior of sorts," the actress says that her character is a "very tough woman who is fighting her past and looking to seek revenge on the people who wronged her."
Well here we are again. I could copy and paste my review like last year, but unlike some of the folks at EA I don’t take much satisfaction in reusing material.
For the THIRD year in a row, EA Sports has released a virtually unchanged edition of FIFA onto the Nintendo Switch.
As stated on the game’s official website, “FIFA 22 Legacy Edition will feature the same gameplay innovation from FIFA 21 without any new development or significant enhancements.”
As a reminder, here’s what was written there for last year’s game: “FIFA 21 Legacy Edition will feature the same gameplay innovation from FIFA 20 without any new development or significant enhancements.”
Oh, and the year before: “FIFA 20 Legacy Edition will feature the same gameplay innovation from FIFA 19 without any new development or significant enhancements.”
And let me remind you that FIFA 19 on Switch wasn’t exactly great in the first place…
February is typically a slow month in the video game release cycle, but that's not the case for February 2024. A number of high-profile remakes and remasters are out this month, including Persona 3 Reload, a Tomb Raider 1-3 collection, and a souped-up Star Wars: Dark Forces. Also out this month are heavy hitters like Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League, Skull and Bones, and Final Fantasy VII Rebirth. Below, you'll find release dates for all the biggest games that have been announced so far. Whether you have a PS5, Xbox Series X|S, Nintendo Switch, and/or PC, you can find something worth playing in February 2024.
The following list is divided by platform; you can jump to any one using the shortcuts below. And if you're someone who likes to preorder, you can click the buy link to make sure it arrives on launch day.
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NFTs (Non-Fungible Tokens) have exploded in popularity in 2021. This sucks. NFTs use blockchain technology to allow artists and creators to sell a “special type of cryptographic token which represents sgomething unique”, so each token is one-of-a-kind. Though to be clear: only the token itself is certified as unique. …
At the Tokyo Game Show yesterday, Bethesda’s creative director Todd Howard told an audience that upcoming space-faring RPG Starfield will have more than 150,000 lines of dialogue. If that sounds like a lot, that’s because it is. In response to the announcement, some developers at other AAA studios expressed shock at…
Paradox Interactive, the developer behind the likes of Crusader Kings 3 and Stellaris, has cancelled "several" unannounced projects so it can focus on its "proven game niches".
"Paradox Interactive was born and raised in strategy and management games," said Paradox CEO Fredrik Wester as part of the announcement. "It is where we have our heart and our mind and we are passionate about making games that our players can enjoy over a long period of time. Therefore we have sharpened our pipeline further to ensure that the projects with the highest potential have the resources necessary for the best possible development."
Next Fest, Steam's semi-regular online event - in which PC players are invited to slowly drown in an unceasing deluge of demos for upcoming games - returns today, 1st October.
Originally titled the Steam Game Festival, this eighth outing for the indie-focussed event (which gained the Next Fest moniker back in June), spans seven days - it concludes next Thursday, 7th October - and promises "hundreds" of new demos and "oodles" of developer livestreams.
SNK used Tokyo Game Show as the perfect stage to debut the next two fighters for next year’s King of Fighters XV. Newcomer Isla and returning combatant K’ join the roster of 39 fighters vying to see who's the best in the world.
As previously mentioned, Isla is a graffiti artist that is brand-new to the world of King of Fighters. She’s clearly too-cool-for-school by spending half of the time fighting with her hands in her jacket pockets, letting her kicks do the talking. Sure, she busts out the fists when necessary but Isla also settles for conjuring floating hands to attack opponents up close and from afar. Yes, that means she can quite literally throw hands. Watch Isla in action in the gameplay trailer below.
Click here to watch embedded mediaMeanwhile, K’ (actually pronounced “Kay Dash”) is a fighter dating all the way back to King of Fighters ‘99. He’s an augmented human spliced with genes from KOF’s main character, Kyo Kusanagi. Thus, he serves as a darker version of the series’ poster boy and has the power to manipulate fire. He’s also kind of a jerk. Watch him set his opponents ablaze in the trailer below.
Click here to watch embedded mediaThe final presentation for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate is days away. If we’re getting only one final SSBU character, who do you want to see?
The post What Should the Final SSBU Character Be? appeared first on Siliconera.
Get ready to hack up some rabites!
The post Echoes of Mana TGS 2021 Trailer Shows Off Gameplay appeared first on Siliconera.
A new semester awaits.
The post Blue Archive Global Pre-Registration Begins in October appeared first on Siliconera.
During TGS 2021, Bandai Namco showed Lisette, the last of the Tales of Luminaria Jerle Federation characters, and shared a trailer for the whole group.
The post Last of the Tales of Luminaria Jerle Federation Characters is Lisette appeared first on Siliconera.
October is shaping up to be a busy month on Steam. Earlier today the latest game demos event kicked off (here are the 13 best Steam Festival Demos) and later this month they'll be running another Digital Tabletop Festival. Like last year, it's a sale and livestream celebration of games inspired by and adapted from board games. This year the event will lean into RPGs, including a chat with the folks behind both Disco Elysium and Baldur's Gate 3 when it kicks off later this month.
Welcome back to IGN Game Scoop!, the ONLY video game podcast! This week your Omega Cops -- Daemon Hatfield, Tina Amini, Sam Claiborn, and Justin Davis -- are discussing Game of the Year contenders like Deathloop, Resident Evil Village, Hot Wheels Unleashed, and more. And, of course, they play Video Game 20 Questions.
Watch the video above or hit the link below to your favorite podcast service.
Listen on:
Square Enix has revealed a new "dungeon exploration RPG" called Dungeon Encounters, and announced it will be released in just two weeks on October 14, for PlayStation 4, Steam, and Nintendo Switch.
During a special video presentation at Tokyo Game Show 2021, Square Enix producer Hiroaki Kato and director Hiroyuki Ito revealed a game that does not resemble the JRPG format which Square Enix helped make famous worldwide. Players march along a narrow grid, as if they are exploring a dungeon map rather than the dungeon itself. On-screen counters indicate players' coordinates in the dungeon, as well as how many squares they have uncovered. Exploring a complete floor unlocks the next one and grants the character additional "ability points."
We've already gone hands-on with Dungeon Encounters, saying that some will be turned off by the low frills looks, but "if you are the type of player drawn to battling it out in simple yet deep ways, you should definitely give this one a try."
Movement through the dungeon is not necessarily linear, as characters can use abilities to jump off the path. The trailer showed one character leap two squares to the left across a gap, while another could move like a knight does on a chessboard, ignoring walls and jumping in an "L" shape.
Dungeon Encounters is directed by Hiroyuki Ito, involved in the creation of titles including Final Fantasy IV, V, XII, and Tactics. I started sweating a little bit as I began playing because not only is he well known for his work designing battle systems, but I was told that it was first and foremost about its systems, so naturally, I prepared myself to have to take a lot on board. Some of you may also be interested to know that Cattle Call, known for the Metal Max series and The Legend of Legacy, handled its development.
Not a game with lush visuals and effects or a deep, engrossing story, but a turn-based, numbers-focused, bare-bones RPG of sorts. IGN Japan had the opportunity to try it out before release, so here are our initial impressions.
This dungeon crawler RPG involves forming a party of up to four characters and delving into the depths of a board-game-style square grid map. Though the dungeon is divided into squares, you're able to focus on exploring and fighting your way across maps without having to worry about systems like stamina or hunger. As you progress down floors, the maps get bigger and the enemies get tougher.
If you’ve spent any time on Twitter recently, you may have noticed Kingdom Hearts’ Sora has been trending. That’s thanks to the ever-vocal Super Smash Bros. Ultimate community once again debating the potential of Square Enix’s big-shoed hero joining the already-packed fighting game as its final new combatant.
Way back in 2011, the very first “Nintendo Direct” featured then-Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aimé in a white, echo-y room promoting the struggling 3DS by talking about how it was getting Hulu Plus and could record 3D videos. “Up to 10 minutes of 3D video can be recorded of anything you want,” he said.…
The latest two SMT V demon videos look at Titania, the queen of the fae, and Cerberus, guardian of the Underworld's gates.
The post Today’s SMT V Demon Videos Show Off Cerberus and Titania appeared first on Siliconera.
Ever want to know how long you’ve been jamming on a game? Xbox users are one step closer to readily available information as part of the console user interface. The feature is still in testing, but certain Xbox Insiders can use the feature with a new update, which is still in the testing phase.
Xbox consoles enabled for Alpha updates as part of the Xbox Update Preview program should see the UI update today. This update brings some bug fixes and a new Guide menu feature to see how much time you’ve been spending playing a game, along with other game-specific statistics. Here’s where to find the new Stat’s page, according to a blog post from Xbox:
“Check out the Game activity tab while playing a game and see not just the classic Achievements list, but also a newly added Stats page that tracks things like playtime and more, depending on what game you’re playing.”
Founded in 2002, Turtle Rock Studios got its start working on the Counter-Strike and Half-Life series alongside Valve. However, the studio truly made its name through its first all-original game, a cooperative zombie shooter called Left 4 Dead. Valve was so impressed by the project that it acquired Turtle Rock in 2008 and released the game later that year. Left 4 Dead was a smash hit for the developer, and both paved the way for the co-op shooting genre and contributed to a zombie explosion in gaming.
Following the studio’s split from Valve in 2009 (where Valve retained the Left 4 Dead IP), Turtle Rock began work on what would eventually become the asymmetric multiplayer shooter Evolve. Valve put out a second Left 4 Dead developed in-house, and countless other studios replicated the formula to varying results. Still, few captured the magic of that first Left 4 Dead. Now, the studio that popularized the genre is back with a new effort that not only carries on the tradition of its most popular game but expands the formula in new directions.
Up until recently, the only EA game you could find on GeForce Now was Apex Legends; however, the publisher is now stretching its legs a little further into Nvidia's game streaming service with the addition of four new titles.
GeForce Now, which lets subscribers stream and play games they've purchased from the likes of Steam and the Epic Store on a range of different devices (provided Nvidia has secured the rights), is adding a total 14 new titles the service this month.