January 2022

Pokémon Legends: Arceus is scheduled to arrive on Nintendo Switch on January 28. That’s not far away at all. Will the formula shake-up from the standard treatment prove to be a success? While that remains to be seen, a trailer unveiled today gives prospective players a taste of some of the experiences they can expect to see in the latest Pokémon entry. While it’s been already relayed that the game won’t be a “true” open world, it looks like the colorful little critters do roam free in various areas. Check out the full trailer below.

An action slant and style for the game seems to add quite a few new elements for players to engage with, while still maintaining the classic core of Pokémon. Based on the new trailer, it looks like crafting will be quite important as a mechanic, so that particular aspect is intriguing to me. Also, you can fly on a bird, which makes me wonder if the rest of the traditional HM abilities will be represented with heavy action and mobility. I’d say there’s a pretty good chance, especially since it looks like you can also surf around in the water on your favorite Gyrados.

Are you looking forward to a different direction in Pokémon for this title? Will it be a Switch smash hit to start the year? Let us know in the comments!

InnerSloth closed out 2021 with a bang as Among Us was the top PlayStation 5 and PlayStation 4 download of last month. 

PlayStation released the full list of top downloads on the PlayStation Network in December today, and as usual, it gives us a great look at what players were interested in last month. While Among Us took the top spot on both PS4 and PS5 in the U.S., Canada, and EU, a big movie release helped push an older title into the number two spot. 

It’s no surprise that when people left the theaters after Spider-Man: No Way Home, they were rearing for more Spider-Man, and what better way to experience more Spidey fun than with Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales? On top of that, Miles Morales is a fantastic holiday game, so it’s no surprise it was the second top download of December in the U.S. and Canada on PS5. 

Here’s a look at the top 10 downloads on PS5 in the U.S. last month: 

Following a few vague teases (and some decidedly more specific teases) that Sam "Serious" Stone was prepping to return for another bout of explosive FPS action in the near future, publisher Devolver Digital has finally revealed all. A new standalone expansion for Serious Sam 4, titled Siberian Mayhem, comes to Steam on 25th January.

Siberian Mayhem, as you might already have deduced, sees Sam trading the comparatively sun-drenched climes of Serious Sam 4 for some chillier action as he journeys across the Russian wilderness in search of the traitorous General Brand - an adventure featuring five "massive" new missions across Arctic coastlines, desolate forests, abandoned villages, and a ghost town.

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Today THQ Nordic and Logic Artists released another trailer of their upcoming turn-based tactical RPG Expeditions: Rome.

The new trailer focuses on introducing one of the playable characters of the game, the centurion aeso Quinctius Aquilinus.

You can check it out below. You can also see the previous trailer focusing on Africa and Gaul, another showcasing combat, and one focusing on the music.

Expeditions: Rome releases on January 20 exclusively for PC.

Here’s what you can expect from the game, directly from the developer.

“About Expeditions: Rome

The future of Rome is in your hands: what will your legacy be?

Ahead of the Pokemon Legends: Arceus’ highly anticipated release on Jan. 28, Nintendo released a new trailer teasing a bit of what players can expect in this new and unique Pokemon game.

Not a ton of new information is revealed in this trailer. The trailer does put an emphasis on the importance of gathering materials and crafting, which is interesting considering that’s never really been a thing that has ever been super crucial in any other Pokemon game to date.

Otherwise, it’s a review of the important gameplay elements that will be featured in Pokemon Legends: Arceus alongside some new footage. The game is set far in the past, and you’ll be exploring the Hisui region. You’ll be putting together the region’s first Pokedex, and the region is filled with familiar Pokemon, some with new forms, that are behaving strangely aggressive. All of those challenges will be part of the mystery and intrigue, as for what Arceus’ deal is in the story; he is the cover star after all.

Check out the full trailer below:

A Calgary-based programmer recently shared his work turning a rotary telephone into what may be the least effective video game controller of all time.

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Back in November, the head of Xbox, Phil Spencer, told staff he was “evaluating all aspects” of the Microsoft gaming division’s relationship with Call of Duty publisher Activision Blizzard following a bombshell report by The Wall Street Journal of workplace misconduct and coverups at the massive publisher. Pressed to…

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Maybe you haven’t been playing (or even thinking about) DICE’s Star Wars Battlefront II, what with the developer’s Battlefield 2042 just having come out on consoles and PC. But as rocky as BF2042’s launch has been, it turns out that DICE’s 2017 Star Wars FPS is now largely unplayable on account of a game-breaking…

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Many video games include lockpicking or unlocking minigames. Some of these are annoying, while others are memorable or even fun. And a single game, more a virtual museum, has collected all of these unlocking minigame experiences into one experience, offering players and game designers a fantastic way to re-experience…

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Nayuta is a safe choice for those who enjoyed games such as Ys Origin.

The post The Legend of Nayuta on PC Still Feels Modern appeared first on Siliconera.

I’m old enough to remember when the first Yakuza game released on the PlayStation 2 in 2006 (2005 in Japan). That initial release was treated like a joke in the U.S. Yakuza was seen as a Japanese crime curio by some and an inferior Grand Theft Auto knock-off by others. But mostly, it was just ignored. 

Over the years, creator Toshihiro Nagoshi and Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio continued to churn out one Yakuza sequel after the other. I remember a small minority in the gaming community praised the series’ combat, humor, and storytelling, but the general public broadly waved off these games. However, slowly something started to change. With each new Yakuza, that vocal minority grew until they just couldn’t be ignored. 

2021 is in the past now, but some interesting statistics are still eking their way into 2022. Today, Twitter Gaming released some numbers surrounding some of the most talked-about titles, esports athletes, events, and more in video games. 

Twitter says 2021 was a record year for gaming chatter on the social media platform, with over 2.4 billion tweets. That’s 14% more compared to the prior year and a ten-fold increase compared to 2017. As for 2021, the final quarter of the year was the biggest in gaming on Twitter. 

Alongside these stats, Twitter Gaming released some interesting lists, and here are a few that we found especially noteworthy.

If you scrolled through video game Twitter at all over the weekend then it’s very likely that you’ve seen a certain post from @DyingLightGame. If you know better than to mindlessly scroll Twitter on weekends, then the quick summary is that the official account of the game Dying Light tweeted out an image boasting that Dying Light 2 takes about 500 hours to complete. Then earlier today, the account tweeted out more clarification about how long the game truly takes to beat.

Third-party developers released new assets and information about upcoming aircraft and airports for Microsoft Flight Simulator.

We start with Just Flight, which provided some excellent screenshots of the upcoming BAE 146 regional airliner.

The visuals are now complete but there is still “a fair bit of coding” left to do. The developer to share more screenshots and videos later this month and into February.

What would a Paradox Interactive game be without a ceaseless avalanche of accompanying paid DLC? Well, today is not the day to find out as the publisher has announced Cities: Skylines' upcoming Airports expansion - which comes to Xbox, PlayStation, and PC on 25th January - will be accompanied by a four-strong batch of supporting paid DLC.

Up first is a new Content Creator Map Pack, costing £3.99/€4.99/$4.99 USD and introducing eight new terrain maps created by Sanctum Gamer - as featured in the announcement trailer.

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In Turkey, a rancher has begun putting virtual reality headsets on some of his cattle to see if the animals produce more milk when they believe they are outside in a nice, sunny field. Early results from the experiment are positive, but the actual sight of seeing a cow living in the metaverse so it can produce more…

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Godzilla wouldn’t be the king of all monsters he is today if it weren’t for his signature atomic breath, and a new YouTube video showcases the evolution of this signature move with some stunning 3D graphics.

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Talk about literally owning your brand. Top Twitch streamer Kaitlyn “Amouranth” Siragusa, who made waves last year as a prominent figure during the streaming service’s “hot tub meta,” has recently purchased an inflatable pool company, she announced on Twitter today.

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Giant sprawling MMORPGs are a rarity these days compared to when it seemed like new options were available for players every week. Lost Ark has already had success in other regions, but the title will finally see a launch in North America next month after many years. In a nutshell, Lost Ark has a ton of features and mechanics that you’d expect in a traditional MMORPG like dungeons, raids, loot, crafting, home building, and more. So what’s the hook? It’s all tied together with stylish action combat, more akin to what you’d find in a modern ARPG like Diablo, Path of Exile, or Torchlight. Check out the trailer below to get a taste of what you can expect!

With various character classes to suit most traditional archetypes and years and years of content already online in other territories, Lost Ark has a blueprint for launching heavy and hard come February 11 on PC. We’ll have to see exactly what choices Amazon Games has made to many systems, especially monetization, but we won’t have long to wait. Are you looking forward to Lost Ark? Let us know in the comments!

Over the weekend, developer Techland made waves on social media by tweeting that its upcoming open-world zombie sequel, Dying Light 2: Stay Human, would take "at least 500 hours" to fully complete. While the studio likely thought this was good messaging to showcase just how much content is in its branching-narrative story, the announcement was met with some backlash amidst the excitement, as some players bemoaned the length and worried about bloat or that they would never see the end of such a massive adventure.

One of Halo Infinite's new weapons, the Mangler, might be getting a nerf in the future. While no official changes have been announced, 343 Industries recently stated it was aware of the feedback regarding the weapon and that discussions are happening internally.

The news comes via Halo esports and viewership lead Tahir “Tashi” Hasandjekic, who recently responded on Twitter to Halo pro Snip3down's suggestion that the weapon needs to be on a longer spawn cycle. Other pros began to chime in, asking for a better flow of communication between players and 343 in regards to balance changes and feedback. Tashi stated that 343 has "definitely been seeing all of the feedback and talking about it internally (especially for big ones like the Mangler)," and stated to those in the thread that official feedback surveys were on the way "so we can capture it all in a clear and concise way."

There have been more Xbox Series X|S consoles sold at this point in their life cycle than during the equivalent periods for any previous Xbox console, Microsoft has revealed.

In an interview with the New York Times, Microsoft's Phil Spencer discussed how hard it currently is to find a PlayStation 5 or an Xbox Series console. He says it's not because supply is lower than it has been in the past, but that demand is so much higher.

"At this point, we’ve sold more of this generation of Xboxes, which is Xbox Series X and S, than we had any previous version of Xboxes. So it’s our job to get the supply there to meet that demand," explained Spencer.

The global COVID-19 pandemic accelerated interest in gaming as more people stayed home. Spencer says, "The swell in usage in gaming was a surprise to us. Back in — what would it have been — March, April of 2020 — we sold out of consoles, which we never do."

Here, Spencer is talking about the Xbox One. In July 2020, Microsoft also announced that One X and One S All-Digital Editions would be discontinued ahead of the Series X|S launch. The demand for gaming consoles has been so high that even last generation PlayStation 4 consoles have increased in price.

Not that long ago, quality PC gaming setups were confined to bulky desktop setups. Even early gaming laptops looked more like battle stations than sleek machines. Needless to say, the landscape has changed significantly in recent years, and now we're even seeing an influx of handheld gaming PCs. Perhaps influenced by the enormous success of the Nintendo Switch as a hybrid console, more and more companies are attempting to garner an audience for portable, palm-sized gaming PCs. While most people are probably aware of the upcoming Steam Deck, there are others that hit the market before Valve's handheld, including the impressive and surprisingly powerful Aya Neo.

Successfully crowdfunded via Indiegogo, the Aya Neo released last summer, but the studio behind it quickly began work on a redesign with better materials. The result is the Aya Neo 2021 and Aya Neo Pro, both of which released late last year. We got our hands on both models and have been testing them for about a month. With a premium build quality and tremendous performance for its size, the Aya Neo is a remarkable handheld PC. Though the Aya Neo is quite pricey--models range from $925 to north of $1,300--it can be thought of as an alternative to a mid-tier gaming laptop with the added bonus of being fully portable. It's too early to say if the Aya Neo is better than the still-unreleased Steam Deck (which is significantly less expensive), but it's an extremely solid piece of tech that is definitely worth considering if you're in the market for this sort of gaming machine.

Note: Since performance is similar across both devices, the rest of this review applies to both models except when otherwise stated.

Xbox and Turn 10 Studios have announced that Forza Street--the mobile Forza experience that first debuted in May 2018--will be closing for good later this year.

The closure was confirmed in a Q&A post on the official Forza support site, laying out the team's final plans for the mobile racing game. The game will remain playable until Spring 2022, but no specific month or day was confirmed.

While no specific reason for the game's closure was revealed, the post did mention that the team will be using the experience from Forza Street to build future projects. The post also mentions that anyone who purchased in-game currency in the last 30 days will be retroactively refunded, and that all remaining currency should be spent in the game or else it will be lost forever.

"Forza Street is only playable until Spring 2022," the post reads. "After its closure, the game and its features will no longer be accessible. Players who still have the game installed after this date will see an information screen after starting up the game and will be unable to play."

The final Forza Street update has gone live as of January 10, which also marks the closure of the game's in-app store. The update, per the post, includes the following:

PUBG: Battlegrounds, formerly known as PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds, will be going free-to-play on Wednesday, January 12. This applies across all platforms, including both PC and console, and follows several years of the game as a paid, premium offering. However, that doesn't mean those who bought the game already as being left in the dust, and there will still be paid options moving forward for those looking to further support it and get some extra goodies. Here's what you need to know about the free-to-play switch for PUBG, including when it begins and the rewards available to veteran players.

When does PUBG: Battlegrounds go free-to-play?

PUBG: Battlegrounds officially goes free-to-play on January 12, but the exact time when this will occur varies depending on your platform. Below, we've broken it down by when the maintenance period ends on PC and on console.

• PC: January 11 at 11 PM PT / January 12 at 2 AM ET
• Console: January 12 at midnight PT / 3 AM ET

Because the servers are undergoing maintenance prior to the free-to-play transition, it's possible there could be some hiccups. If the servers are having issues or aren't live at that exact time, you may need to check back later.

Call of Duty: Warzone has been a pretty rough experience recently, especially with pesky bugs causing various operator skins to go invisible. Developer Raven Software has tweeted awareness of the current issue, but no date is given for when these operation skins will be fixed.

Currently, players are reporting that specific operator skins for Wraith and Weaver from Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War are now going invisible in Warzone. A bug seems to be causing most of the body to disappear and leaving just a floating operator head when using either the "Disruptor" skin for Wraith or the "Dark Aether" skin for Weaver.

In a tweet on January 10, Raven Software says, "We are aware of the reports that certain skins are appearing invisible in Warzone. Please standby while we investigate this issue."

Developer Techland recently generated headlines when it revealed that it would take about 500 hours to fully complete Dying Light 2, and now the Polish studio has further clarified those remarks.

A spokesperson for Techland tells GameSpot that 500 hours is only for a "very specific gameplay style" of seeing and doing absolutely everything the game has to offer to achieve a 100% completion rate.

"According to our internal QA testing, it takes about 500 hours to see everything the game offers--find every collectible, listen to every dialogue, fetch every Easter egg, finish every possible ending, and visit every corner of the world," Techland said. "We are fortunate to have a very passionate community of fans who have been returning to the original Dying Light throughout the last seven years and we know they can't wait to truly lose themselves in our latest work."

A "focused" playthrough of the game's main story can be finished in about 20 hours. Everyone plays games differently, so for some, it might take longer than 20 hours and others, it might take less time.

Techland also clarified that, to complete all the side quests, learn about the lore, and speak with all of the game's characters, this would take around 80 hours. Again, however, this figure will fluctuate depending on play style.

Whatever size Dying Light 2 is at launch, it will grow over time. Techland said it will share a post-launch roadmap for upcoming content in the coming weeks, so keep checking back for more.

The latest patch for PlayerUnknown's other battleground, PUBG: New State, is dropping soon, bringing with it a new and faster way to drop into the world of Troi.

The biggest addition to the game from this update is the BR Extreme mode, which makes a few changes to the battle royale format: player count is dropped from 100 to 64, those 64 players will drop onto a small and randomized section of the map as opposed to the full area, players will drop from a lower altitude in order to hit the ground faster, and each match has a 20-minute time limit.

Also coming in the January patch is a brand new gun: the P90. The new gun will spawn in care packages that will drop across the island and will use 5.7mm ammo that can be found on the battlefield and in the Drone Store.

The January 2022 patch for PUBG: New State will go live sometime this week, though specific timing has not been announced. The full list of patch notes as received from the PUBG: New State website can be found below.

Xbox boss Phil Spencer has revealed that Microsoft would like to help get rid of bad actors in the online gaming landscape by creating a multi-network program whereby bans that apply to Xbox, for example, might also carry over to networks from other companies.

Speaking to The New York Times, Spencer acknowledged that this would be a "hard one" to achieve, but it's something he hopes to see someday.

"Something I would love us to be able to do--this is a hard one as an industry--is when somebody gets banned in one of our networks, is there a way for us to ban them across other networks?" he said.

Alternatively, Spencer said he would embrace a system that allows players to bring their "banned user list" to them on another platform. "And I'd love to be able to bring them to other networks where I play. So this is the group of people that I choose not to play with. Because I don't want to have to recreate that in every platform that I play video games on," he said.

Also in the interview, Spencer spoke about how Microsoft uses AI on Xbox to "monitor the sentiment of a conversation" to detect "when a conversation is getting to a destructive point." There is also a Report A User button in the Xbox UI to report bad behavior.

Activision's Call of Duty games have a multi-platform ban strategy. Players found to be cheating or taking part in other bad behavior have their Activision Account banned across platforms, even those they've never played on.

Alongside the recently revealed Star Wars: Eclipse, French developer Quantic Dream is also reportedly working on a project related to its 2013 PlayStation 4 tech demo The Dark Sorcerer.

The report comes via Twitter user AccountNGT, who previously revealed details about Star Wars: Eclipse prior to its announcement at The Game Awards 2021. Those details were then corroborated by insider Tom Henderson, who has previously reported on Quantic Dream's development woes in relation to Star Wars: Eclipse.

The Dark Sorcerer is a 12-minute long, joke-filled demo written and directed by Quantic Dream founder David Cage that served as a means of showcasing what was possible on the PS4 in real-time. At the time, the demo was stated to only be a concept and "not taken from a software title currently in development."

Grand Theft Auto and NBA 2K parent publisher Take-Two announced on Monday that it has agreed to acquire Zynga in a cash and stock deal valued at $12.7 billion. That makes it the largest acquisition in the history of video games by a large margin, the next closest being Tencent's $8.6 billion buyout of Supercell in 2016. The $12.7 billion deal is also significantly more than the $8.1 billion that Microsoft paid to acquire ZeniMax/Bethesda.

Looking outside of video games, it's three times as much as what Disney paid for Star Wars ($4.05 billion). For many, these numbers will come as a shock--the company behind FarmVille is worth almost $13 billion? But with huge growth expected from the casual and mobile gaming spaces, it's not as much of a surprise as you might think.

Making the deal all the more noteworthy is that Take-Two plans to pay a 64% premium on Zynga's stock price as of January 7, which suggests the GTA company is extremely bullish on the outlook for growth. In fact, and to put a specific number to the significance of the deal on Take-Two's bottom line, the company said this deal will lead to opportunities for $500 million annually over time that it didn't have before.

Importantly, the deal is not done, and it includes a "go-shop" provision whereby Zynga has 45 days to look for a better deal from a different company. Many may recall how Take-Two originally bid $994 million for Codemasters before rival Electronic Arts came in with a $1.2 billion bid that Codemasters ultimately accepted. During a call on Monday discussing this provision, Zynga CEO Frank Gibeau declined to comment further.

Half-Life was given a nice coat of fresh paint with the release of Black Mesa a few years ago, but if that overhaul wasn't enough then some additional ray tracing could bring even more life into the classic shooter.

Half-Life: Ray Traced is a new mod for the Valve-developer shooter which seeks to add path-traced lighting to the entire game. The teaser trailer, which you can see below, does a good job of showing how dramatic these changes can be, transforming the game's memorable opening into a much gloomier affair, while also bringing out new highlights in some of the game's outdoor sections.

The developer, sultim_t, previously worked on a similar mod for Serious Sam and is building upon some existing work that was done for ray tracing support for Half-Life. The mod won't be ready soon, however, with sultim_t writing, "these things, they take time," on YouTube.

The mod will be made available on sultim_t's GitHub repository, where many other projects have been hosted. If you're itching to dive into Half-Life again, Black Mesa is a fantastic remaster of the original shooter, while Half-Life: Alyx is the most recent entry in the series that makes great use of VR.

Members of the r/PokemonGo subreddit--the largest Pokemon Go community on Reddit with 3.5 million members--have been asked by Niantic directly to offer their feedback on the game's raiding system.

Developer Niantic--through its partnership with the Rochester Institute of Technology called the Niantic x RIT Geo Games and Media Research Lab--reached out to the Reddit community asking for volunteers to complete a short survey that asks how players feel about "raiding experiences and how raiding influences Pokemon Go gameplay and lifestyle."

Interviews for the study are conducted remotely via Zoom, with voice audio recorded and no cameras used during the session. A follow-up post confirms the first leg of the study has been filled, but more volunteers will be requested on a later date.

Volunteers for the anonymous interviews would not walk away empty-handed, however, as the post says participants will receive a code for three Super Incubators, eight Incense, and eight Lucky Eggs upon completion of the survey. Those interested in applying for future legs of the study can still apply at this link, while the team has also provided a FAQ for applicants who have additional questions.

Before the PS5 launched Sony bragged about the console's numerous accessibility features. But while the console comes with a built-in screen reader and a voice dictation system, it doesn't do anything for players who can't use a typical DualSense controller. To remedy that issue, YouTuber Akaki Kuumeri has created an adapter that straps right onto the bulky controller, letting players use all of its inputs with just one hand.

The accessory, which Kuumeri 3D printed, snaps onto the DualSense controller, placing a rubber foot right below it and a grip on the left thumbstick, which is reserved for moving around in most games. A video showing the accessory in action opens with Kuumeri playing Rocket League with just a single hand, driving the car by moving the thumbstick via the rubber foot placed on his thigh.

With his simple accessory, players can move the DualSense's left joystick by moving the entire controller, provided that the adapter's rubber foot is on a stable surface. This gives players access to all the buttons on the right side of the controller while still being able to move. As for the other buttons on the left side of the controller though, things are a bit more complicated.

The Serious Sam games are known for dropping players in huge levels, handing them a bunch of flashy weapons, then tossing roughly a zillion enemies at them. Serious Sam: Siberian Mayhem looks to continue that tradition while transplanting the action to the titular frigid Russian province. The game is set to launch on January 25.

Per the game's Steam page, Serious Sam: Siberian Mayhem will see Sam fighting the villainous General Brand and hordes of enemies across five levels. Those fights will take place in varied locales including "Arctic coastlines and desolate forests to abandoned villages and a chilling ghost town." It looks like a wintry experience for a wintry time of year. In addition to the new levels, the Steam description mentions new weapons, including the "experimental 'Perun' crossbow."

The Steam description also mentions side-missions, a feature added to the series with 2020's Serious Sam 4. And, in terms of graphical style, enemy and weapons designs, and gameplay, Siberian Mayhem looks like it will generally be quite similar to the series' last outing.

That game was met with mixed reviews at launch. We liked it, with some reservations, but it was certainly a bug-ridden experience out of the gate, with framerate hitches and texture pop-in a consistent issue during cutscenes. Hopefully Siberian Mayhem's smaller scope will allow Croteam and co-developer Timelock Studio to deliver a more polished experience. We'll know for sure in two weeks.

That smaller scale also comes with a smaller price tag. Siberian Mayhem will be $19.99 at launch, but is currently discounted to $17.99.