January 2022

Hey, here's an article that you can use to find all of our GOTY content this year!

GOTY Podcast Archives

• GOTY Day 1: We begin Day 1 of Game of the Year Deliberations with "Best Letter", "Chillest Game, Brah", "Best Time Loop Game", and "Best Music"!
• GOTY Day 2: On Day 2 we deliberate 2021's "Best Styyyyyyyle", "Best Looking", "Best Switch Game That Isn't On Switch (Yet)", and "Most Disappointing"! We also briefly glance at what our collective Top Ten could be!

Staff GOTY Lists

The Crusader Kings series has long supported same-sex relationships in certain forms, but thanks to the way so much of the games have been built around historical ideas of marriage and succession, if players wanted gay characters to get hitched, they had to use mods.

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We can all agree that NFTs suck, right? They chew through energy like termites eating wood and shit out a ton of greenhouse gas emissions, destroying our world one crypto sell at a time. On top of that, you don’t get anything physical, just a digital certificate of blockchain ownership. Thankfully, the internet is…

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Following a bit of a delay at the end of last year, Steam Deck is almost upon us, with Valve now confirming its highly anticipated portable gaming PC will begin shipping on 28th February.

Given the manufacturing constraints that continue to dog the tech industry amidst the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, Valve will be disseminating Steam Deck - as it confirmed when its reservations system opened last July - in waves throughout 2022 and beyond.

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The reviews for Pokémon Legends: Arceus have started to hit today, and if you haven't read Brian Shea's review yet, give it a look right here. Legends: Arceus is a significant change to the traditional Pokémon formula, which is a big deal for a series that hasn't strayed far from its roots in over 25 years. Instead of a fairly focused JRPG adventure, where you stroll from town to town, catching and building teams of Pokémon to challenge Gyms and eventually the Elite Four, Legends takes another route.

Legends: Arceus is very different, in fact. It lets trainers explore large open areas and catch monsters in the wild, a years-long dream of mine when thinking of the future of the series. I couldn't stop grinning when I first saw the player character sneaking up on an unsuspecting Wurmple and tossing a Pokéball at it. I had the same reaction when Game Freak showed you could start Pokémon battles by choosing which team member to toss out towards the target, just like Ash Ketchum would in the anime. Then I found out that gathering and crafting would be a big component of the game, and I was relieved the last few years of mastering a similar loop in Monster Hunter seems like it's going to pay off nicely. 

Yu-Gi-Oh! Master Duel reminded me that putting yourself out there is challenging. Whether you duel on the regular or are dusting off the deck for the first time in years, pouring your heart and soul into constructing a deck and pitting it against a stranger online is surprisingly nerve-wracking. What if my card synergy isn’t any good? Is my opponent snickering at me because my cards aren’t up to the hottest meta? What if … I lose? That fear can be surprisingly crippling and prevent you from enjoying the best aspect of the game: testing your skills against fellow duelists. Even worse, it keeps you from getting better.

Battling this mindset is something I’ve continually coped with. From 2003 to 2009, I was a competitive Yu-Gi-Oh! player. I never strutted into the hallowed halls of a world championship tourney or anything, but I was a regular at my local comic/toy stores. I remember how nervous I was testing my deck, which I only played against a small friend circle; I assumed strangers would obliterate me. Even though I was proud of what I created, I couldn’t afford all the top-tier cards, and having that exposed felt embarrassing. The anxiety almost made me want to avoid public play in the early days. But my friend’s support and my passion for the game got me over the edge.

If you love the Danganronpa series, Good Smile Company has a treat for you coming down the line.

The Akihabara-based manufacturer made a new figure portraying Nagito Komaeda from Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair available for pre-orders.

You can find it at the company’s Japanese shop or at the American one for 3,900 yen and $38.99 respectively. The release window is May 2022 for Japan and July for the US.

The pricing is quite affordable because this is part of Good Smile’s Pop Up Parade brand, which aims to provide figures that won’t break the bank but still made with an acceptable level of quality.

The prototype was sculpted by Ikurie and it’s approximately 170 mm tall.

You can check out what it looks like below.

Earlier today, Team17 announced it will be working with Polish game dev creative house, Covenant.dev, led by former Witcher 3 producer Stan Just, to bring its single-player dark fantasy strategy game, Gord, to PC.

In Gord, players will lead a group called the Tribe of the Dawn as they try to establish new settlements and explore forbidden lands. To survive the horrific creatures and deities, inspired by Slavic folklore, you’ll have to earn supplies via quests in order to build and fortify settlements that’ll protect you from invaders.

You can check out the official teaser trailer “The Prayer” below:

Key features for Gord are listed below:

The Uncharted movie is coming close, and Sony Pictures Entertainment is continuing to release small trailers and videos.

Tom Holland’s stunts appear to be quite the selling point. Following the video from a few days ago on this very theme, we get another one, perhaps a bit more comedic.

Of course, this includes the iconic cargo plane scene, which is basically lifted from Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception. You can watch it in a previous video that was revealed during Sony’s press conference at CES.

Check out the new video below.

In December 2021, a team of archaeologists working in Oman made the only type of discovery that would get their work covered on a site like this: they dug up a board game dating back approximately 4000 years. It’s thought it could be an ancient ancestor to Backgammon.

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According to a report by Deadline, the 2021 film reboot Mortal Kombat was successful enough to warrant a sequel.

Moon Knight lead writer Jeremy Slater has been tapped to write the script for Mortal Kombat 2. Slater has also been involved with the James Wan produced adaptation of Stephen King’s The Tommyknockers, and helped develop the graphic novel series The Umbrella Academy for Netflix. Outside of Slater’s involvement, not much is known about the greenlit Mortal Kombat 2 quite yet.

Mortal Kombat was released simultaneously in theaters and on HBO Max in April 2021, raking in $22.5 million its opening weekend, an impressive number in the early months of moviegoers returning to theaters during the ongoing pandemic. However, that strong start was a significant portion of the $83 million total it grossed worldwide after a sharp decline in the following weeks. The film stars Lewis Tan as series newcomer Cole Young along with, Jessica McNamee (Sonya Blade), Josh Lawson (Kano), Joe Talsim (Bi Han/Sub-Zero), Mehcad Brooks (Jax), and Hiroyuki Sanada (Scorpion).

Dying Light 2: Stay Human is slowly shambling closer to its February release date, and Techland has been offering up more details on how the game’s world and city is built. In a new video, Dying Light 2 environment art director Katarzyna Tarnacka talks about the little details of the world, including the street art and murals we see in-game, the street signs and advertisements, and how they breathe life into the City itself.

You can check out the video for yourself down below:

As you’ll be spending most of your time exploring the City, parkouring around in first-person view, it’s important to build a sense of immersion and the idea of this place looking and feeling like it’s been lived in. The in-game art helps to reinforce the lore and story of the game, while also giving players insight into the game’s social climate.

Dying Light 2 is set to be released for PC and consoles on Feb. 4, and we’ll have our official review for the game out by then.

The post Dying Light 2 Environment Art Director Talks Street Art, Graphics, & Building Immersion appeared first on Twinfinite.

It’s been a whole four years since the release of Celeste, 2018’s indie darling and one of the toughest 2D platformer games we’ve played in recent years, and also one of the most uplifting. In celebration of the game’s fourth anniversary, creator Maddy Thorson has published a blog post thanking fans for their support and also acknowledging the discourse surrounding the game over the years, including discussion of its queer undertones.

“If the discourse around Celeste hadn’t become so focused on its queer undertones, I don’t think I would have come out publicly for a long time. It felt like people needed to know whether Madeline was trans, and I felt a responsibility to engage with that conversation. Once I started trying to do just that, I found it impossible without talking about my own now-apparent transness.”

Thorson goes on to state that it is important for trans people to be visible in media, but at least for the time being, she’s decided to step away from social media and her own public persona for now.

“The size and breadth of the platform is alluring (addictive even) but it ultimately has begun to feel empty. Who I am is changing, or wants to change, and this public persona has become an obstacle to that change. It doesn’t feel like I have room to be the messy, growing human I am in this kind of position. I’m not ready to be a symbol in the way that social media demands- I’m still just a girl who’s trying to figure her shit out.”

Celeste is now available on PC and consoles.

The Mortal Kombat franchise got a movie adaptation last year (no, not the 1995 one with the awesome music), and was released to critical acclaim. While the movie deviated slightly from the games by introducing a brand new and original character, Cole Young, as the main protagonist, it was still deeply rooted in the lore of the games and delivered on a high-octane action-packed movie experience.

The movie has since been greenlit for a sequel, and according to a report from Deadline, it looks like Jeremy Slater will be brought on to the project to work on the script. Slater worked on Disney+’s Moon Knight TV series adaptation, starring Oscar Isaac and Ethan Hawke, and is set to air in March.

With all the little teases and hints towards a possible continuation of the story in last year’s Mortal Kombat movie, it’s no surprise that we’re getting a sequel especially considering its reception. There are no other details on the sequel just yet, but we’ll keep you updated as more info comes our way.

The post Mortal Kombat Movie Greenlit For a Sequel, Brings In Jeremy Slater as Scriptwriter appeared first on Twinfinite.

People can call dibs on a new Hades figure, as the Zagreus Nendoroid pre-order kicked off. Good Smile Company is now accepting orders. Those will close on March 9, 2022. ¥5,500/$54.99. He'll come to Japan first sometime in October 2022. Then in December 2022, he'll appear in North America.

We've seen the Zagreus Nendoroid progress since its September 2021 announcement. The unpainted prototype showed he'd come with a Stygian Blade. There's a Bloodstone as well, so he can be posed performing a Cast attack. He also can offer Nectar. He's smiling in both face plates, though in one he's grinning so widely that you can see his teeth.

Here's a closer look at some possible Zagreus poses.
[gallery columns="4" ids="914208,914209,914210,914211" link="file"]

The JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure Stone Ocean Nendoroid has its release date window, as Good Smile Company confirmed Jolyne will come to Japan in July 2022 and North America in September 2022. She’ll cost ¥5,478/$54.99. People who order directly through the company’s storefront will get a blue translucent base with Jolyne’s butterfly symbol on it and an attack effect.

When people get the Jolyne Nendoroid, they’ll only be getting her. There’s no decorative stand depicting Stone Free/Stone Ocean to go with her. However, she does come with hand parts that show her strings in motion. You also get a small Chorokichi to go with her. She has three face parts, with one smiling, one stoic, and one shouting. Medicos, the manufacturer, already teased all of those ahead of the pre-order phase.

Here's a closer look at some of the poses.
[gallery columns="6" ids="914198,914199,914200,914201,914202,914203" link="file"]

Skul: The Hero Slayer launched via Steam Early Access back in 2020, and then saw its official launch just a year ago in January 2021. Since then, the game has gone on to sell over one million copies, which is a pretty impressive statistic for an indie rogue-lite game.

The developers continued to push out updates for Skul after the official launch, and they’ve also outlined some of their future plans going forward. Most notably, there has been a rework of the game’s hard mode, as the devs have stated that they don’t just want hard mode to be a higher level of difficulty where enemies hit harder. Instead, they want the mode to be a little more interesting than that, and even potentially surprise players.

“Old skulls will be renewed, boring skulls will be more fun, and it will become meaningful to use skulls that were weak. 
Through the upcoming Skull reform update, we would like to bring forth a new sense of enjoyment and experiences while laying down the foundation for hard mode content.
In addition to skulls, items and Inscriptions will also be reformed, and adjustments to level design made along with the hard mode update. The direction of this reform is the same as the skull reform.
The goal is so that even more diverse combinations can be powerful and enjoyable to prevent certain items and combinations from becoming overused.”

Steam

Skul: The Hero Slayer is now available on PC and Switch.

The post Skul: The Hero Slayer Surpasses 1 Million Copies Sold appeared first on Twinfinite.

Today Square Enix and Nintendo released a new trailer of the upcoming HD-2D turn-based strategy game Triangle Strategy.

The trailer focuses on introducing one of the main characters of the game, Benedict Pascal, steward to House Wolffort and advisor of the hero Serenoa Wolffort.

This follows the previous character trailers for Frederica Aesfrost and Roland Glenbrook.

You can watch him in action below.

Today SNK released a new trailer of its upcoming fighting game The King of Fighters XV.

This time around we get to see something different from the usual character reveal, and specifically a DLC costume that will be offered as early purchase bonus.

It portrays Terry Bogard in his costume from the 1999 fighting game Garou: Mark of the Wolves.

If you get the downloadable version of the game, you’ll have to pick it up by March 9 if you want the costume.

You can check out the trailer just below and see it in action, alongside the fact that it appears to be visible in cutscenes.

If you love Nendoroid figures and video games, today Good Smile Company had quite a few treats for you.

The Akihabara-based manufacturer made three Nendoroids available for pre-order today Zagreus from Hades (Japanese Store & US Store), Geralt Ronin inspired by The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt spinoff manga The Witcher Ronin (Japanese Store & US Store), and Arthur from  Ghosts ‘n Goblins Resurrection (Japanese Store & US Store).

Zagreus will be available in October 2022 in Japan and in December in the US, priced respectively at 5,500 yen and $54.99.

Taiwanese indie gaming has come a long way in a short time. It's only five years since Red Candle released Detention, a surreal and harrowing expedition into the 'white terror' of political purges and martial law that dominates the island's 20th century history, and - I'm pretty sure - the first game of Taiwanese origin I'd ever played. Since then, I've discovered that more and more of the indie games I've been enjoying have been made in Taiwan. Detention now feels like a spark that led to a quiet explosion.

The growth has been equally evident to those in the midst of it. "When I first attended the indie game section at Taipei Game Show five years ago," Scott Chen, co-founder of Taiwanese developer SIGONO, tells me. "There were only around 15 Taiwanese booths, and this was the biggest game convention in Taiwan! Now there would be over 50 local teams showcasing their work among the 100 or so booths, and the overall quality has gone up significantly."

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Koei Tecmo announced Atelier Online: Alchemist of Bressisle will end service in Japan on March 31, 2022. Additionally, leading up to the end of service, paid currency purchases will be disabled. This will take place after February 28, 2022. Consumers will then have until June 30, 2022 to request and receive refunds. However, they will need to retrieve their refund code and attached password to file for a refund. This can be found in-game. Boltrend Games, the North American and European publisher of Atelier Online, has yet to announced an end of service for the title in those regions. [Thanks, 4Gamer!]

Additionally, Atelier will not receive an offline version of the game. A statement made through the official website states that when end of service arrives in March, players will no longer be able to access the game. Additionally, in-game currency purchases for new players are now immediately cut off. The development team also thanks users for their support and hopes that players will continue to enjoy their remaining time with Atelier Online.

Due to the recent increase in COVID-19 cases in Japan, Good Smile Company has cancelled WonHobby 35 two weeks ahead of the event date. The company initially planned to host the event during Wonder Festival 2022 Winter, on February 6, 2022. The pre-order dates for figures that were planned to be available during the event will be adjusted accordingly.

While WonHobby 35 is cancelled, it doesn't necessarily mean that it won't be held at all. In the announcement, Good Smile Company states that it will be adjusting its plans for the WonHobby 35 event internally. This could indicate that the company may choose to hold the event entirely online or reschedule to a later date. Accordingly, Good Smile Company will update fans on further details in the near future.

Furthermore, the cancellation means that fans will have to wait a little longer to get their hands on the Snow Miku figma and Nendoroid. Originally the figures would have opened for pre-order on February 6 along with the start of the event, in addition to a series of Nendoroid More heart bases. The company will adjust the sales dates of the two figures and heart base.

Good Smile Company will provide further updates regarding the future of WonHobby 35 in the coming days. For more information, you can also check out the official WonHobby 35 website.

With the imminent release of the first batch of Steam Decks to the public, Valve has quietly been working behind the scenes to optimise the experience to make gaming on the handheld machine as accessible as possible.

Those optimisations appear to go as far as updating older titles. Valve has released a beta update for Half-Life 2 that gives the game's user interface a facelift.

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Wolfstride reminds me, in a powerful but rather hard to pin down way, of Invitation to Love, the make-believe soap opera that everyone's watching in the first season of Twin Peaks. I've heard the game described as an anime like Cowboy Bebop, or even an actual soap opera, and that's true. But there's a freedom here, a willingness to contain chaos and clashing elements, that outstrips even the wilder animes or least rigorous soap. It feels like the anime that someone watches inside an anime. Each time you catch a glimpse it's a bit zanier, a bit more willing to go there. It has the wonderful power of the raised eyebrow. Everything is serious, but nothing is too serious.

You may have caught a glimpse of Wolfstride and thought: cool! A game about turn-based mech battles. Half right. Wolfstride is half that game. The other half of the time it's a game about what it's like to be in the business of turn-based mech battles. You patch up your crappy mech as best you can. You earn money for bigger repairs. You train your pilot to learn new skills. You choose a load out to take into battle after learning as much as you can about your opponent. And you also bomb around a town, a greyscale pixel burg built of a few locations - a bar, of course, a scrapyard, of course. A hospital, a convenience store. You know the deal.

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PlayStation's London Studio is working on a new PS5 online game.

The studio is best known for its work on Singstar and Blood and Truth, which utilised the microphone and VR peripherals respectively.

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eBay has extended its Authenticity Guarantee service to trading cards.

Now individual cards sold over $750 in the US will be authenticated, with a plan to expand to include graded, autograph and patch cards sold for over $250 by mid-2022.

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UPDATE 28/1/21: Microsoft has now said that the changes to Xbox Live Gold and Game Pass agreed with the UK's Competition and Markets Authority will be rolled out worldwide. "Changes to inactive subscriptions will initially roll out in the UK and will be available globally soon," a Microsoft spokesperson told The Verge.

Details of all the changes are listed below in our original report.

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The infamous, long-ago cancelled Star Wars 1313 has surfaced again, this time via a chunk of previously-unseen gameplay featuring Boba Fett.

A fresh video featuring footage of the bounty hunter was uploaded to YouTube today - well timed with the ongoing release of The Book of Boba Fett show!

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Same-sex marriage is being added to Crusader Kings 3 in its next update.

While the base game allows players to express same-sex attraction, it's not possible to formalise this in marriage.

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SayGames, the company behind a widely-criticised clone of top indie game Unpacking, has apologised.

"Unpacking Master", as its rip-off was titled, hit the headlines this week after it topped app store download charts - despite it being a microtransaction-fulled asset flip of the original.

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The recent Mortal Kombat movie is getting a sequel, Deadline reports.

Jeremy Slater, head writer on the upcoming Disney+ series Moon Knight, is on board to write the film.

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Tell you what's the opposite of cosy: watching the world crumble from your bedroom window. Tell you what is cosy: playing as a fox who repairs quirky machines and eats nice meals cooked by furry friends. That's FixFox for you, an upcoming sci-fi adventure game developed by Rendlike which looks like the video game equivalent of a soothing balm.

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Official support for same-sex marriages will arrive in Crusader Kings 3 as part of Update 1.5, launching alongside the first expansion in February. It'll come as both a game rule for everyone and new options for modders to work with. It's taken longer than expected, but Paradox adding an option for same-sex marriage without using mods is more than they had initially planned, so that's nice.

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Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp has received a new 5.0 update. Nintendo shared just how extensive this update is, and a new quality of life feature that accompanies it. Through the new Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp 5.0 update, players can now invite a total of 16 villagers to their camp. Additionally, a new Diary feature has arrived. The Diary feature will allow for players to check the event schedule in-game and see when certain items will be available to purchase. Players can also add stickers to their Diary. [Thanks, Famitsu!]

Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp will soon have new items for players to obtain. In February, seasonal items will arrive, along with entirely new item sets. This includes a "Detective" inspired set, which includes new outfits. Additionally, players will be able to receive dog themed items. This includes a special skin for your caravan.

To coincide with the release of the update, Nintendo has uploaded a trailer to its official YouTube channel and Twitter account. You can watch the trailer below.

[embed]https://twitter.com/Pocket_Camp/status/1486519327784382464[/embed]