October 2021

Bandai Namco released more trailers of the upcoming mobile JRPG Tales of Luminaria.

The trailers showcase more of the characters available in the game, Edouard Rouquier, Lydie Delacroix, and Raoul.

This follows more trailers introducing Leo Fourcade and Celia Arvier, one showcasing Michelle Bouquet, one featuring Maxime Hasselmans, more introducing Yelsy, Vanessa Morax, and Lucien  Dufaure, and another revealing Lisette Regnier.

You can check them out below, with both English and Japanese voice acting depending on your voice-over language of preference.

Today Koei Tecmo reached out with a press release to announce the western release date of Dynasty Warriors 9 Empires.

The game will launch on PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, PC, and Nintendo Switch on February 15, 2022.

This is only a couple of months after the Japanese release on December 23, which was announced at Tokyo Game Show.

Incidentally, the press release clarifies that the upgrade from PS4 to PS5 is free. Presumably, the Xbox versions will come with a single SKU as usual.

Below you can catch a new trailer a gallery of screenshots, and an official description from the press release.

If you’d like to see more, you can watch more gameplay from TGS and the previous video.

Since the dawn of PC mods, Thomas the Tank Engine’s menacing presence has loomed large in unexpected places – The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, Resident Evil Village, even the Mass Effect franchise. With this at the forefront of its mind, one developer set out to create a horror experience all about escaping the clutches of a humanoid locomotive. The helpless player must board their train, reconnect disjointed tracks while traversing a creepy landscape, and fire away at their multi-wheeled pursuer with a mounted minigun. Two Star Games’ Choo-Choo Charles brings our Thomas the Tank Engine nightmares to life. 

Epic Games are still in the process of getting their store and launcher hooked up with features you're used to from that other big digital games store. Next week they're adding one you might have been waiting for. Naw, it isn't the shopping cart. Not quite yet, anyway. In the nearest term, it's their achievements system that's getting its initial launch. As of next week, Epic will be rolling out Epic Achievements and XP for a handful of games including Hades, Rocket League, and Kena: Bridge Of Spirits.

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Where can you find Saltpeter in New World? In New World, Saltpeter is used to craft gunpowder, which in turn is a key component in crafting musket cartridges. Depending on your chosen character build and the weapons you favour, this could be an absolutely essential resource for you. But exploring Aeternum in search of a specific resource can be an intimidating prospect due to the sheer size of the island, so we've put together this guide to help you find the best Saltpeter spawn locations.

Fortunately, it's easy to predict where Saltpeter is going to spawn in New World. Unlike some other resources, Saltpeter isn't native to any particular region of the map. Instead, Saltpeter Ore nodes spawn in caves across Aeternum. Caves in New World tend to cluster around the coast, as you might expect, but you can find them inland as well, particularly at higher elevations.

The only real drawback to finding Saltpeter once you're inside the caves is that it looks quite a bit like any other rock. Saltpeter Ore is often slightly darker in color than its surroundings, and protrudes from the floor a bit more, but it's not hugely obvious. However, the good news is that within the confines of a cave, you should see the interaction text identifying Saltpeter appear on-screen if there's any nearby.

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If you keep even half an eye on delightful construction game Planet Zoo, you’ll know that developers Frontier tend to release a DLC pack for it every quarter, bringing a bunch of fresh animals into the game from a particular region of the globe. Whenever that happens, I tend to make what could charitably be called a concept zoo, in order to show off the new arrivals in the best possible light.

Since this week’s DLC introduces an octet of animals from North America, there was only one conceivable way to exhibit them: an awkward combination of zoo, performance art and poundshop Westworld, displaying the majesty of nature alongside recreations of sets from the legendary TV show Deadwood. Let’s have a little walk around town, shall we?

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Would you pay an extra 14-ish quid for a purely visual touch-up on a game you can already buy with ease? That’s, as Katharine found in her Alan Wake Remastered review, the biggest problem facing Remedy and D3T’s restoration project. It makes a lot of sense for current-gen consoles, which for various reasons might not have always had access to the torch-and-shoot original, but of course us PC lot could well have been playing it yesterday.

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Upcoming open-world RPG Dread Delusion is, if nothing else, a hell of a mood. Soon after starting the demo that's now available in the Steam Next Fest, I found myself just chilling with the soundtrack and watching the hot pink sun crawl across the sky, fed by tendrils swirling into it and briefly occluded by blood-red clouds. A great vibe. Like a small Morrowind, but in the sort of Hellsville where the local tavern is adorned with the giant skull of a slain god who collapsed upon it.

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Where can you find Petalcaps in New World? Petalcaps are a useful resource in New World, since they're a key component to crafting many of the game's potions. It can be overwhelming looking for resources on Aeternum, simply because there's just so much flora and fauna knocking about (and so many other players looking for the same things). Read on for everything you need to know about where Fronded Petalcaps spawn so that you can narrow your search.

Fronded Petalcaps have a few things going for them in the noticeability department. They are quite large, are a more luminous shade of green than most of the other plants around them, and overall look quite pleasingly like giant artichokes.

The Petalcap is native to the Windsward region of Aeternum, which is a conveniently central location from the very early stages of the game, since it's right in the middle of all four starting zones. Within Windsward, Fronded Petalcaps are fairly common, sprouting up in any area that could be described as remotely verdant, whether it's an open field or a more enclosed forested area. Basically, unless you're in a dry or coastal part of the region, there's likely to be some Fronded Petalcaps relatively close by.

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Far Cry games seemingly exist in the same universe, based on characters like Hurk appearing in multiple games, and their referencing past events from older titles. While Ubisoft has gone on to connect the games officially using recurring characters, fans had their own unofficial theory about a certain bad guy from Far…

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I don’t know what to say so I’ll just start with the facts. Nintendo, through its France office, tweeted an image over the weekend of Metal Gear’s Snake looking at Samus Aran from Metroid’s ass. A couple hours later it then deleted the tweet. Now we are left to pick up the pieces.

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After being pretty firm that he wasn’t immediately interested in returning to Netflix’s world-storming Squid Game, writer/director Hwang Dong-hyuk appears to have had a change of heart. Looking likely to have made the streaming service’s biggest show ever can do that for you. Speaking to The Times, he explained that …

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Epic Games will bring a new achievements system to its PC storefront next week, which awards dollops of XP for completing four tiers of challenges.

Six games will initially support Epic Achievements, including the new Alan Wake Remastered, Zombie Army 4, Kena, Pillars of Eternity, Hades and Rocket League.

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Hi everyone! Please join me in welcoming Ed Nightingale as Eurogamer's brand new news reporter.

I say brand new, but Ed has been around in the industry for some time now - both as a freelancer in places like The Guardian and Kotaku UK, then more recently on staff at PinkNews.

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Piranha Games, developer of MechWarrior Online, has apologised for forcing players to re-name a competitive team titled "Trans Fights" and "Trans Rights", after previously saying it was simply enforcing the game's Terms of Service and Code of Conduct.

Piranha boss Russ Bullock initially sparked ire on Twitter when explaining the studio's reasoning behind the move - as well as its decision to ban a user who continually posted the message "Trans rights".

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Twitch has begun testing a new paid boost feature on the streaming platform.

Boost has been available as a test since last December and allows viewers to pool free channel points to boost a streamer to a front page slot for extra promotion.

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So what exactly is the beef between Nintendo of Japan and Bloomberg? Last week, the trusted news outlet released a report stating that 11 development studios - including Zynga - had released development kits for a 4K Switch console, bringing about an outright denial from Nintendo - so what's really going on? That's the lead story in this week's DF Direct Weekly, where myself, John Linneman and Alex Battaglia discuss the news. It's a difficult story to assess because it does seem that prior Bloomberg articles seem to have grouped together the Switch OLED (a product confirmed to be in development since at least April 2020, according to the Atmosphere system software reverse engineering team) and the next-gen Nintendo machine. But at the same time, it's not just Bloomberg that's heard that development kits for a new console hybrid have made their way to game makers - we've heard about it too.

Over a decade since release, Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery EP is still a game worth pondering for how it avoids being a game at all. One of the first breakout iPad titles, it exploits the platform's multimedia cachet to wander playfully and abrasively across boundaries between artforms, genres and technologies. On some level it is Zelda, the tale of a wanderer's accidental rousing of a skull-headed spectre that must be purged by collecting the pieces of a cosmic triangle. But it is also Twitter, with inner monologues filling a scrolling feed, and writing that walks a line between decadently self-important and goofing off about lore. It's a pixelart realm of winding paths and chiselled shadows, but also a self-mythologising prog rock album - there's an alternate dimension you access by flipping the phonograph disc on the title screen. It's a rhythm game, too, with puzzles that evoke Garage Band and boss fights that recall the UFO DJ dialogues of Close Encounters of the Third Kind. It's many different, ill-matched things, but it always feels complete, thanks not least to Jim Guthrie's chirpy yet fathomless electronic score.

Funimation is now home to the Jujutsu Kaisen anime adaptation, with both the English dub and subtitle versions available to watch.

The post Jujutsu Kaisen Now Available on Funimation appeared first on Siliconera.

The Hatsune Miku: Colorful Stage English beta begins on Android and Apple iOS devices today, with over 20 songs available right away.

The post Hatsune Miku: Colorful Stage English Beta Begins Today appeared first on Siliconera.

During TGS 2021, a River City Girls 2 trailer showing off Misako, Kiyoko, Kunio, and Riki fighting new enemies in different areas appeared.

The post TGS 2021 River City Girls 2 Trailer Shows Off Its Characters appeared first on Siliconera.

Gachapon machines in Japan might now carry Bushiroad Creative Genshin Impact Vision keychains.

The post Genshin Impact Vision Keychain Collection Debut in Japan appeared first on Siliconera.

Today, EA Sports unveiled its third in-depth look into what fans can expect from the upcoming release of NHL 22 this week. For this specific video, Community Manager Clappy and Be a Pro and Franchise Mode Producer Gurn Sumal discussed the big changes that are coming to both of those game modes.

To start the conversation, Sumal emphasized that a lot of work went into making the Be a Pro mode in NHL 22 feel more like a career.

We wanted to drive home there is more than just your rookie season. There is roughly about 10 different storylines and each of them spans past one season. In some cases, some of the harder storylines span past 10 seasons. Once you unlock something like Ultimate Champion, you’re now trying to break the record for most Stanley Cups won by a player. 

There are things here that we make you try and push for and achieve that do go past that first rookie season. Some of these will unlock depending on how well or poorly you play in that first season, but most challenges will start unlocking in seasons 2, 3, 4, and beyond. 

Gurn Sumal, NHL 22 Be a Pro and Franchise Mode producer

The conversation system has also been fine-tuned, with 300 new conversations be added to NHL 22 that’ll be a part of long-term storylines that fit in with the multi-year challenges. A lot of these storylines will be unlocked and funneled through the X-Factor abilities, which vary depending on the archetype that is chosen.

Get ready, achievement hunters! Epic Games is rolling out its achievement program this week on a handful of games available in the Epic Game Store. Dubbed Epic Achievements, this system takes familiar parts from other platforms and melds them together.

Epic’s achievements are a bit of an amalgamation of what Xbox and PlayStation have for their digital rewards. Each game has a total of 1000 XP you can earn by playing, with more given upon completion. Every achievement gives a certain number of XP, and that amount determines the ranking of the award. Here’s the breakdown:

• Bronze = 5-45 XP
• Silver = 50-95 XP
• Gold = 100-200 XP     
• Platinum = 250 XP

Earning 1000 XP in a game will get you that coveted Platinum achievement, which slaps an additional 250 XP onto your Epic Games profile. The experience gained goes into a profile leveling system, kind of like what Sony does with PlayStation trophies. There’s no word on whether any of these achievements or levels grant any perks for in-game content, game discounts, or recognition outside of bragging rights between friends, but it’s nice to have included on Epic Games’ launcher.

As MMOs often do at launch, New World had busy servers and long queues to get in game last week. That's certainly not stopping folks from attempting to play though, as New World hit another concurrent player record for itself. It was already the most popular game on Steam last week with over 700,000 concurrent players. As of yesterday, New World's peak player count was nearly a million players. We don't know how many of those folks are hanging around in those server queues, of course, but they're all at least trying to play.

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Queer Genshin Impact players have been eating well this month. During the gacha game’s anniversary web event, playable character Chongyun blushed as he stood with another playable character, Xingqiu. Later during the Moonchase Festival main quest, Xingqiu offered to read a romance novel to him (despite being a…

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It was September, 2021 when it started. Kotaku editor-in-chief Patricia Hernandez asked me to handle a post, a story about a clicker game on Steam getting patched to allow cheating. What a fun, novel notion, certainly worthy of a story. No problems there. That was how my problems with Cookie Clicker began. I’ve now…

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A bunch of the Super Mario Sunshine modding community got together to make their favorite game even better. The result is Super Mario Eclipse, a massive mod that expands Mario’s Isle Delfino adventure with new moves, new worlds, new playable characters, and a whole new story. The first demo for Eclipse dropped late…

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Over the weekend, Sony rolled out some new game trials to let PS5 owners try out specific games before actually committing to a purchase. It sounded great, but players soon discovered a hitch: The trials are for a limited time, and the clock starts ticking the second you click download.

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Capcom, widely known as one of the most prominent developers of third-party console games dating as far back as the NES, appears poised to shift its focus. The company has noticed its ever-growing PC gaming audience and global sales numbers, and is planning on making the PC its “main platform.”

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Castlevania Advance Collection bundles GBA games that a lot of players revere. Is the collection for you? Let’s help you figure that out!

The post Castlevania Advance Collection Bundles GBA-Era Adventures appeared first on Siliconera.

Square Enix filed trademarks for Valkyrie Elysium in Japan, which could potentially be connected to the Valkyrie Profile games.

The post Valkyrie Elysium Trademark Could Be Connected to Valkyrie Profile Games appeared first on Siliconera.

The three latest Tales of Luminaria trailers look at the adventurers Edouard Rouquier, Lydie Delacroix, and Raoul.

The post Meet Tales of Luminaria’s Edouard, Lydie, and Raoul appeared first on Siliconera.

Today third-party developers had more goodies to share about upcoming add-ons for Microsoft Flight Simulator, on top of a new release.

We start with another video of the upcoming advanced jet trainer Hawk T1/A by Just Flight. This time around we get to see the radio equipment.

You can watch it below.

Orbx announces Hammerfest Airport (ENHF) in Noway. Known as one of the northernmost airports in the world, it’s small but interesting and challenging.

While it’s not a commercial hub by any stretch of the imagination, it does host several flights a day operated by Widerøe with its Dash-8’s.

You can check out what it looks like below, including several details beyond the borders of the airport itself.

Today PlayGround Games streamed another broadcast dedicated to its upcoming racing game Forza Horizon 5 and they had a lot to share.

The arguably most relevant feature we get to see is the character customization, which offers a ton of freedom to fashion your pilot however you want.

We also take a look at the Horizon Stories features, events, and more.

You can enjoy the full stream below.

Forza Horizon 5 will release on Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, and PC on Nov. 9.