Netflix has partnered with Canadian games company RocketRide Games to bring more title to its burgeoning games library.
The company says in a recent press release that the partnership shows that streaming service Netflix "entrusts RocketRide Games to deliver quality games to its gaming platform".
Publisher Saber Interactive and developer Boss Team Games have confirmed that their upcoming co-op PvP shooter, Evil Dead: The Game, has received yet another delay pushing it back to May 13, 2022.
The chainsaw-’em-up was announced at The Game Awards back in 2020 and was originally scheduled to launch in 2021. However, the game was later delayed to this February, 2022. Now, it’s been pushed back yet a few more months in a bid for the developer to “deliver the best possible experience.”
The news comes by way of a recent tweet from the Evil Dead: The Game’s official Twitter account, which you can check out for yourself below:
New co-op shooter The Anacrusis has clocked up over 200,000 players since it was released on 13th January.
While the game remains in Early Access and is also available as part of Xbox's Game Preview programme for Xbox consoles, developer Stray Bombay confirmed the milestone in a recent update. It also revealed that, collectively, players have taken down over one billion aliens. Not bad for a week's work, eh?
DLSS support for DirectX 12 mode is coming to Microsoft Flight Simulator on PC "later this year".
Confirmation came via a recent developer Q&A. While members of the Asobo Studio development team stopped short of confirming when, precisely, DLSS will arrive for PC players, they did update us on what's coming to the excellent flight sim game in the first half of 2022.
Sunrise and Japanese broadcaster TBS announced Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch From Mercury will air starting October 2022. Each episode will air weekly on TBS' Sunday 5 p.m. time slot, and will appear across its network of 28 stations across Japan. There is still no confirmation on an English or Western release. [Thanks, Famitsu!]
Notably, the Witch From Mercury airing will mark the return of the Sunday time slot, which TBS ended back in 2016. Other Gundam series have also occupied the same time slot in the past. These have included Mobile Suit Gundam 00 and Mobile Suit Gundam AGE. Additionally, it was previously home to countless other popular anime series, including My Hero Academia, Seven Deadly Sins, and Fullmetal Alchemist. The last anime series to air in that time slot was Mobile Suit Gundam: Iron-Blooded Orphans.
TBS uploaded a tribute video that covers all of the time slot's past series, which you can check out below.
https://youtu.be/9pgqOflFwME
After tackling Metroid in Season 1, the second season of Game Informer's Video Gameography podcast moves on to one of the biggest shooter franchises in existence: Halo. This week, we’re taking a look at the controversial Halo 5: Guardians, widely considered to be the most polarizing entry in the series.
Halo 5: Guardians launched on the Xbox One on October 27, 2015, and was the tale of two Spartans. The campaign told a dual narrative centered on Master Chief and Jameson Locke, a soldier tasked with apprehending Chief after he goes AWOL to recover a rampant Cortana. Speaking of everyone’s favorite AI, her mission to subjugate the galaxy positions her as the main antagonist. Halo 5’s narrative didn’t universally land with fans and the game overall served as an unintentional poster child of the Xbox One’s flawed philosophy during its early years. How, you might ask? You’ll have to listen to find out.
Join hosts Ben Reeves (@BenjaminReeves) and Marcus Stewart (@MarcusStewart7) along with Wirecutter lead editor Arthur Gies (@aegies) as we unpack the history, impact, and lasting legacy of Halo 5: Guardians.
An "alternate" trailer for the upcoming wrestling game, WWE 2K22, has reportedly leaked online.
Shared earlier today by a YouTube channel called WWE Attire and Shows, the new teaser - entitled "It Hits Different" - gives us almost two minutes of WWE action. However, it stopped short of revealing where the trailer had come from.
Developer 343 Industries believes it has finally rectified the problem that's been causing all ongoing matchmaking issues in Halo Infinite's Big Team Battle playlist.
Though we're seemingly not going to see a hotfix deployed until 3rd February "at the earliest", it should be good news for larger groups of friends who have been struggling to connect to a lobby with their fireteam intact.
Megahouse is releasing a new Precious G.E.M. figure of Rei Ayanami from Evangelion 3.0+1.0 Thrice Upon a Time. Fans should be warned, however, as the figure's appearance itself is a major spoiler for the events of the latest movie. The figure will cost ¥17,380 (about $150) and ship sometime in September 2022. This is the first appearance of the figure's painted prototype.
The figure itself stands at 225 mm tall (about 8 inches) including the base. The figure shows Rei Ayanami in her iconic white plugsuit, but with one major difference. While Rei's hairstyle is typically cut short, the figure instead features the character with long, waist-length hair. She also sits on what looks to be a stone structure. Her appearance is based on a scene towards the end of Evangelion 3.0+1.0 and is a major plot point for the Rebuild of Evangelion film series.
[gallery columns="2" ids="914466,914467" link="file"]
Megahouse also uploaded a video showing a 360-degree view of the figure, which you can check out below.
https://youtu.be/pGN0-nz5AXw
The internet’s favorite Simpsons scene, often referred to as “Steamed Hams,” has been recreated in hundreds of strange ways over the years. Now someone has turned the whole thing into a playable point-and-click adventure game, not unlike classics like Monkey Island.
Microsoft has announced that February 2022's Xbox Games with Gold are Broken Sword 5: The Serpent's Curse, Aerial_Knight's Never Yield, Hydrophobia, and Band of Bugs.
As detailed by Xbox Wire, all of these Games with Gold will be available to those with Xbox Live Gold or Xbox Game Pass Ultimate, and the first two - Broken Sword 5: The Serpent's Curse and Hydrophobia - arrive on February 1.
Broken Sword 5: The Serpent's Curse, which will be available from February 1-28, puts players in the shoes of American George Stobbart and "sassy French journalist Nico Collard" as they follow the trail of a stolen painting and a "murderous conspiracy" that has "roots older than the written word."
The Broken Sword series began in 1996 with Broken Sword: The Shadow of the Templars and the games are point-and-click adventures that have followed the stories of Stobbart and Collard for years now.
Aerial_Knight's Never Yield will be available from February 16 to March 15 and puts players in the shoes of Wally, a "mysterious character always in motion as you run, jump, slide, or dash to the soundtrack of Danime-sama." The game also boasts a "runtime of an action movie," meaning it's perfect for those looking to find a new game that won't take hundreds of hours or those who may want to find their next speedrunning challenge.
Today 2K Games released a brand new trailer of the upcoming wrestling game WWE 2K22.
The trailer shows many fan-favorite wrestling superstars in action, also providing a look at the improved visuals compared to previous chapters of the series.
You can check it out below.
WWE 2K22 will release on March 11, 2022 for PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, and PC.
If you want to learn more, you can check out the previous trailer and the release details, and read an official description below.
REDESIGNED GAMEPLAY ENGINE. NEW CONTROLS. ALL THE FEATURES YOU CAN HANDLE.
Get ripped out of the stands and hit with complete control of the WWE Universe.THE GAME THAT MAY HIT TOO REAL
Hitting this hard has never been so easy. Everything from the controls to the stunning graphics has been redesigned, and feels as real as being ringside at WrestleMania.
Pokemon Legends Arceus isn’t just a copy-paste of the last few Pokemon games set in an open-ish world. While yes, the core of the gameplay that has defined the series for years is still there, there are still a lot of things that you want to know first before you get going in Pokemon Legends Arceus. Here are some tips & tricks to kick off your marathoning this weekend.
This is one that is going to shock longtime fans of the series. Evolution does not work the same as it did in past Pokemon games. Keep the pitchforks low, though, because while it’s different, unless you’re a purist, it’s hard to argue that it isn’t just a straight up objective improvement.
aNCHOR has revealed the backstory and new images for the upcoming mobile game Immortals: Muv-Luv Alternative.
The game is basically a spin-off of the popular visual novel series, as the worldview has both familiar elements and departures from the original.
You can read a translation below:
This is the story of a battle unfolding across the countless probability of time and space…
Humans are waging war against the extraterrestrial species named “BETA” using Tactical Surface Fighter (TSF). In one of these parallel worlds, the year is 20XX, the present day.
The extraterrestrial species appears in XXXX. In Yokohama, Sadogashima, Kokura – the silence is broken and the tragedy begins anew.
The PMC (private military company) “Immortals” founded by influential people from all over the world and established by XXXX includes a tactical officer named XXX who is on a desperate mission to reclaim Yokohama, where a Hive has appeared…
As you may very well imagine, the parts marked with “X” are spoilers and the developer encourages fans to play the game to find out what they are. It’s worth mentioning that the original is in Japanese, so the “X” represents Japanese characters. This should at least provide a pretty solid hint to veterans about who the protagonist is, considering that there’s a certain relevant character whose name is written with three kanji.
We also get to take a look at two new images. One appears to portray Meiya Mitsurugi in front of a group of TSF, while the other shows a Hibe while it’s being bombed with a G-Bomb.
Steam's Lunar New Year Sale is now live.
From now until 6pm UK time on 3rd February, PC players can "save on tens of thousands of titles", including heavy discounts on games like Dead by Daylight (50 per cent off), Sekiro (50 per cent off), Rainbow Six Siege (60 per cent off), and Red Dead Redemption (50 per cent).
Superstar pro wrestler and Dead or Alive franchise alum Tina Armstrong is going back to the island. Dead or Alive Xtreme: Venus Vacation has added Tina as its newest playable character. As previously announced, Tina's inclusion comes as part of the franchise's 25th anniversary celebrations.
Koei Tecmo also included a trailer promoting Tina in Dead or Alive Xtreme: Venus Vacation. You can view it here.
Tina Armstrong is an original Dead or Alive character. She has appeared in every main DOA game since 1996. She also appeared in the original Dead or Alive Xtreme Beach Volleyball, the original spinoff that formed the template for Venus Vacation. She's the daughter of DOA character Bass Armstrong. She continually enters DOA tournaments as a way to boost her celebrity profile. In DOA 5, she becomes a mentor to the character Mila.
Tina is the second mainline Dead or Alive character to be added to Venus Vacation post-release. Leifang joined the roster in 2018. Otherwise, the development team has mainly focused on adding new original characters like Koharu, Elise, and Nanami in the post-release period.
You might think you are good at Wordle, with your favorite starting word and all that. But a real Wordle expert can complete puzzles using the worst starting word as determined recently by a computer and TikTok user.
aNCHOR has announced via press release that the mobile version of Muv-Luv which is coming soon will be available to some before release.
Not only those who backed the series’ localization on Kickstarter and opted to receive the Android versions will be able to get access to this pre-release launch, but also 100 additional players on top of that numbers.
If you backed the series on Kickstarter, you can check Backerkit to check if you’re eligible. If you did not, further information on how to be included in those 100 mentioned above will be provided on social media at a later date.
We already know that Muv-Luv Extra/Unlimited is coming to iOS and Android this spring.
Originally released in 2003 by legendary developer âge as an adult game (with rather limited adult elements that have faded away with the console releases), Muv-Luv Extra and Unlimited represent the beginning and middle chapter of what is considered by many the best visual novel series of all times.
At the moment, the third chapter of the series, Muv-Luv Alternative, doesn’t yet have a release window for mobile platforms.
Of course, if you don’t want to wait, the whole trilogy (alongside a bunch of other titles from the series) is available on Steam. Incidentally, now it’s the best time to jump into the series since pretty much everything is majorly discounted via the Steam Lunar New Year.
Today third-party developers had quite a few reveals to make about upcoming airport add-ons for Microsoft Flight Simulator.
Orbx announced Václav Havel Airport Prague (LKPR) in the Czech Republic, including quite a few screenshots.
Being one of the most relevant airports in Europe, it’s definitely a valuable addition to the simulator’s lineup. Here’s what you can expect:
“Welcome to the capital city of the Czech Republic, Prague, also known as “the City of a Hundred Spires,” with its Romanesque chapels and cellars, Gothic cathedrals, Baroque palaces and gardens.
Prague Airport was described as one of the largest in Europe when it was completed in 1937, and has since been through a few transformations, including the renaming of the Airport to Václav Havel Airport Prague in 2012.
Ring in the Lunar New Year with the “Festive Celebration of Flowing Hues” web event for Genshin Impact. Players can create Liyue-themed greeting cards to send to friends or share on social media. Prizes include Primogems, Mora, Hero’s Wit, and Mystic Enhancement Ore. In order to obtain them, you must complete Festive Popularity Quests and obtain Popularity Points.
Similar to websites that allow you to make custom eCards, the Genshin Impact web event has you collect “Inspirations” in order to create a pop-up greeting card. There are three types of Inspirations: backgrounds, companions, and decorations. With the exception of the male and female Travelers, all of the companions you can obtain to place in the card are characters from Liyue. This is due to the fact that the Lantern Rite event, which is related to this web event, is focused on Liyue.
Aside from creating your own card, you can also look through ones that other people made and mark them as favorites. If there is a particular Inspiration you want that you see in someone else’s card, you can click on it and make a wish. Coocoo will then bring you that Inspiration the next day. You can get up to three Inspirations a day using this method.
If there’s one genre Experience knows, its the first-person, party-based dungeon crawler. It’s been working on them for years. One of its first titles to appear outside is Demon Gaze. Well, now it’s back! Demon Gaze Extra is a remastered and expanded version of the original for the Switch and PS4. The good news is, people who played the take on it that appeared on the Vita worldwide in 2014 will still get experience everything good about it again. The better news is, a number of quality of life adjustments make it even more inviting.
You wake up alone in a dungeon. It’s a serious situation. A demon is loose. You manage to find your way through, only to learn you are a Demon Gazer. You can defeat these demons, lock them away, then use them later to aid your cause. Though said demons can also rampage out of control. Upon your success, you’re given a place at the Dragon Princess Inn. Your new goal is to visit areas around it to fight the demons there. As you do, you’ll add them to your roster, as well as get a chance to create custom party members who will join your cause. While it initially seems like it could be about money and peace, players will eventually learn secrets about their avatar, the demons, the world, and the Dragon Princess Inn residents.
Stop me if you’ve heard this one before: An NFT project sells a ton of tokens, making a shit ton of cash in the process for a thing that probably will exist in the future. Then the project and folks involved disappear with the money, leaving those who bought into it screwed. Well, it’s reportedly happened again, this…
A bug in Genshin Impact is keeping the back of the new Ningguang skin from looking the way it should. MiHoYo announced in-game that an issue keeps “Orchid’s Evening Gown” shading from appearing properly. It also noted that the problem will be fixed when the 2.5 update arrives. That is expected to appear in mid-February 2022.
In order to see the notice, people will head into the game. They can head to Notices from the in-game menu. The update about the new Genshin Impact Ningguang skin appears under "Update Summary." The following report appeared there.
There is an issue whereby the shadowing on Ningguang’s back is displayed abnormally after changing into her outfit “Orchid’s Evening Gown.” This issue will be fixed in Version 2.5.
Other issues that will be fixed in 2.5 include an issue in “Where the Heart Finds Rest where Lumine will incorrectly appear to be Aether during a cutscene.
To compare, here is how the two Ningguang skins available look from the back. Part of her shoulder blades can be seen under the straps of her Gold Leaf and Pearly Jade dress. The Genshin Impact bug with Orchid's Evening Gown can be seen with the blue dress.
[gallery columns="2" ids="914490,914489" link="file"]
We Are OFK has a really cool premise. Mixing together the notes of a visual novel and a biopic, it is the origin of a band known as OFK--their first single, Follow/Unfollow, debuted during The Game Awards 2020 while the rest of the group's first EP will release over a five-week period later this year.
OFK is a real band, albeit one that features virtual members. This isn't a case where developer Team OFK is making a music-based game and subsequently releasing the soundtrack. The team has designed OFK in the same vein as other virtual music artists and groups, like Hatsune Miku or K/DA. We Are OFK is the "televised" biopic of how the group's four members--pianist Itsumi Saitō (Ally Maki), singer/songwriter Luca Le Fae (Teddy Dief), audiovisual artist Carter Flores (Syhaya Aviel), and producer Jey Zhang (Fiona Rene)--became a group in the first place.
"[We Are OFK] started as a game project that was meant to be about what we know--a story about people making things and trying to just get shit done in Los Angeles, with focuses on friendships and relationships," creative director Teddy Dief told me. Alongside being the voice for OFK's lead singer, Dief also helms the creative direction of the studio behind the band's biopic.
Pokemon Legends: Arceus is all about capturing and battling wild Pokemon, but there's also a heavy crafting element in the game. You'll be making your own Poke Balls in the field as well as lots of different types of bait to attract wild Pokemon so you can distract them for a catch or make a quick getaway. One of the first sidequests, Mushroom Cake Marketing (Request 6), asks you to find a particular fungus called a Springy Mushroom so you can make a little Pokemon treat. Here's how to get a Springy Mushroom.
To start the side quest you'll need to talk with Morel, a villager who hangs out near the Fieldlands Camp in the Obsidian Fieldlands area. You'll need to have completed a handful of main story quests before he'll show up. Once you do, he's on a small hill just next to the camp, and he can be easy to miss since he's standing symmetrically to a Galaxy Team guard. From behind, you might think they're just dual sentries standing watch, but Morel is in fact a quest giver.
Morel wants you to bring him a Springy Mushroom so you can craft his special Mushroom Cake recipe. You may already have a Springy Mushroom in your inventory, since they're not too hard to find as you explore and farm for materials in the regular course of the game. If, however, you haven't encountered a Springy Mushroom yet, there's an easy (and cheap!) shortcut to completing the quest.
Just turn around and head back into the village, and find the crafting vendor Anvin. If you're facing out from Galaxy Team HQ, Anvin occupies a shop to the right side, which has its own crafting table next to a wood pile. Anvin sells Springy Mushrooms for just 200g apiece, and you only need one to complete the quest.
While it could be argued that part of the allure of Wordle--the five-letter word game that's taken hold of the internet the past month--is its exclusivity, we don't blame anyone who just can't get enough. Luckily for players looking to lose themselves in the art of letter deduction, there are actually a few ways you can keep the game going without having to wait 24-hours.
As reported by Lifehacker, Devang Thakkar, a fourth-year doctoral student in Computational Biology and Bioinformatics at Duke University, has developed an archive that allows players to test their might at all previous Wordles. Over at Remembrance of Wordles Past, users are given an interface that looks a lot like Wordle with a few additional options: “First,” “Previous,” “Choose,” “Next,” and “Last.” These buttons allow players to cycle through puzzles and try ones they might have missed out on.
However, Thakkar isn't the only Wordle fan to develop a way for players to relive past puzzles. Noah Metzger is another fan who has developed a similar archive, albeit with a slightly different layout. In Metzger's archive, users are able to scroll through a list of puzzle options--complete with their original release dates--until they find the one they're looking for. Just like Wordle, it also keeps track of what puzzles players have solved and in how many guesses, allowing you to add up these past puzzles to your current score and maybe even bolster your right to brag.
According to recent reports, Microsoft is looking into creating an Xbox-exclusive game similar to the Monster Hunter series.
VentureBeat's Jeff Grubb first brought up the project, noting that Certain Affinity--which helped develop Halo Infinite and Doom--are likely behind it. Windows Central since has corroborated his claims. According to Windows Central, Certain Affinity's game with Microsoft is codenamed Project Suerte.
The report states Project Suerte has been in development since Summer 2020 and is likely slated for reveal in 2023 with a release in 2024. However, the game might launch sooner if the development goes smoothly. Additionally, as co-developers on Halo Infinite, Certain Affinity is reportedly working on a new game mode for the title. It's currently unknown whether it's a battle royale mode or something entirely different.
Last year, Certain Affinity announced a new IP of its own and then later hired Halo developer veteran Dan Ayoub. It's possible that the studio's new IP is Project Suerte, but we'll have to wait at least a year to find out for sure.
Monster Hunter is a globally popular franchise, with its most popular entry, Monster Hunter World, having released on Xbox One and PC back in 2018. The game has sold over 20 million copies as of October 2021 and is Capcom's highest-selling title ever.
Capcom's Mega Man series was one of the best and most formative action franchises of the NES era, and it has inspired countless spin-offs and imitators. The original series still holds up for fans of old-school challenge, and some of the newer games have honored that legacy with their own twists. Mega Man has been mostly dormant lately, but the series is still easily accessible on modern platforms through the Mega Man Legacy Collection games and the (relatively) recent Mega Man 11. We decided to rank the entire mainline series. Read on to find out our pick for the best Mega Man game.
For more franchise rankings, check out our lists of the best Mario games, best Zelda games, and best Castlevania games. For Nintendo Switch game suggestions, we have roundups of the best Nintendo Switch games and best Switch games for kids.
Following the reveal of Ubisoft Quartz last December, the company known for its work on the Ghost Recon, Assassin's Creed, and Rainbow Six series faced a lot of consumer backlash over incorporating NFTs into its gaming ecosystem. Ubisoft has since addressed these complaints and concerns, explaining it anticipated this reaction and chalk up the less-than-warm reception to misunderstanding--something they hope to fix as they delve even deeper into NFTs.
In an interview with Finder, Ubisoft Strategic Innovations Lab VP Nicolas Pouard and Ubisoft Blockchain Technical Director Didier Genevois weighed in on the controversy surrounding Ubisoft Quartz. According to Pouard, while the team is frustrated with the negative reception the program received, he understands it, and appreciates fans expressing "how passionate they are about their hobby and gaming in general." Pouard then added that regardless, the company still "strongly believes" in what it is doing and they will continue to find ways to keep integrating.
"We know it's not an easy concept to grasp. But Quartz is really just a first step that should lead to something bigger," Pouard said. "Something that will be more easily understood by our players. That's the way we think about it and why we will keep experimenting. We will keep releasing features and services around this first initiative."
Pouard continued, explaining he thinks gamers "don't get what a digital secondary market can bring to them."
The tech-savvy Killjoy, a character in Riot Games' tactical shooter Valorant, was recently shown in a tweet enjoying a piece of NFT art, which raised some eyebrows among more than a few fans. Riot quickly deleted the tweet and has since issued an apology of sorts.
The tweet was made by the official German Valorant Twitter account as a way to highlight Killjoy's hometown of Berlin and spotlight computer-generated art. According to Riot's apology, the team didn't realize that the artwork featured in the tweet, by artist Martin Houra, was an NFT.
— VALORANT (@valorantde) January 27, 2022
"Since Killjoy loves programming, we wanted to introduce you to computer generated art from around the world," a statement tweeted out by the German Valorant Twitter account reads. "However, we were not aware that the selected work was an NFT. In no way did we intend to include NFTs as part of Killjoy's work and hobbies."
Fans in the responses to the clarification tweet seemed to be relieved that one of the game's fan-favorite characters was not into NFTs, but it's currently unclear what Riot's overall stance on the technology is.
With only weeks standing between the highly-anticipated Elden Ring and its ravenous fans, game director Hidetaka Miyazaki has opened up about the difficulty discourse that has long surrounded From Software’s games.
Discussions regarding difficulty in games aren’t anything new, of course. In recent years, a community push toward accessibility has brought about significant analyses of difficulty and how it can be tailored for inclusiveness. From Software frequently draws the ire of some gamers who feel its popular role-playing games, which include the beloved and demanding Dark Souls series, provide too steep a challenge and should include difficulty options.
Some fans of the aptly-named Souls-like genre disagree with the assessment that such games need a difficulty setting, feeling strongly that the games benefit from their cryptic design choices and precise, punishing combat. From Software itself has long stood by this stance, too, imploring all gamers to embrace the challenge so that they can feel an equal sense of reward by overcoming it.
Despite this, speaking in an interview with PlayStation Blog, Miyazaki made it clear that he believes the conversation is still one worth having. “It’s a valid discussion,” he said. “I feel like our approach to these games, not just Elden Ring, is to design them to encourage the player to overcome adversity. We don’t try to force difficulty or make things hard for the sake of it. We want players to use their cunning, study the game, memorize what’s happening, and learn from their mistakes.”
Everyone's got their go-to starting word to kick off their daily Wordle challenge--for some reason 'Pssst' and 'Myrrh' always eat up my chances at victory--but the best word to use is later according to Tiktok user Crvlwanek.
In a response to another user claiming that the best starting word is irate, Crvlwanek decided to put that theory to the test by going through Wordle's entire word list and creating a custom script program to use frequency analysis on each letter. Each word was also scored on the frequency of each letter and then an optimal starting word was chosen from the data.
From that research, 'later' rose to the top and it's not hard to see why. With two vowels and three consonants in its construction, it goes through some of the most commonly-used letters in the alphabet and clues you in what the word of the day is without you having to slyly browse the Free Dictionary website.
In case you were wondering, the worst starting word to use is Xylyl according to Crvlwanek's research.
Elden Ring is a brand-new IP for From Software, but it is clearly rooted in the developer's past work. That includes its story, which director Hidetaka Miyazaki said takes influence from Sekiro for a greater focus on drama and "human elements.
In an interview with the PlayStation Blog, Miyazaki acknowledged that Sekiro had more direct storytelling than the Dark Souls series, which were often intentionally cryptic and told in odd ways, such as through item descriptions. With Elden Ring, there will be a return to a "fragmented narrative" to give the world more mystery, but Sekiro hasn't been forgotten.
"...there's more focus on human elements and drama than before," Miyazaki said. "We definitely took some inspiration from how Sekiro handled that and tried to apply the good parts to Elden Ring."
Just how far that goes remains to be seen. Sekiro is, assuming you pay attention during the cinematics, not terribly difficult to understand. Dark Souls, on the other hand--as well as Bloodborne--is pretty much (and intentionally) incoherent without digging into the lore the game provides outside of the obvious methods. Even still, not everything would be clear, as Miyazaki likened the approach to filling in a difficult book's gaps with your imagination as a child.
Miyazaki's interview goes into several other aspects of Elden Ring, including why he thinks more players will be able to finish it this time. The game comes to Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, PS4, PS5, and PC on February 25.
One of the best perks of Nintendo Switch Online is the ability to play dozens upon dozens of classic Nintendo games on Switch. At the time of writing, there are more than 100 SNES and NES games on the Nintendo Switch Online (NSO) service ($4/month, $8/3 months, $20/year), and an additional batch of Nintendo 64 games and Sega Genesis games in the NSO Expansion Pass ($30/year), with more on the way. The service also includes helpful features like optional save states for all the games available, rewinding your gameplay for NES, SNES, and Genesis, and unique versions of some games that start you out with end-game stats and gear so you can blast through each level.
A collection of more than 135 retro games (and counting) means there's a lot to parse. While many of the included titles are among the best games ever, there are some clunkers in the mix, too. For anyone wondering which of these games are worth your time, we picked a bunch of titles across the service's four available console libraries that we think represent the best on the service.
That said, just because your favorite isn’t listed doesn’t mean we think it’s unworthy. There are so many amazing retro games available on NSO, more than we have space to list. So think of this as a starting point for anyone unfamiliar with Nintendo’s (and now Sega’s) legacy catalog.
Sega has exited the Japanese arcade business, bringing an end to a run that lasted for more than 50 years in that entertainment sector. When the coronavirus pandemic put almost every social gathering on pause in 2020, Sega's arcade division was hit particularly hard and eventually resulted in its parent company Sega Sammy selling 85% of its arcade and amusement center business to Genda Inc.
This included assets such as amusement machines and associated prizes from Sega, and as of this week, Genda Inc. has purchased the remaining arcades from Sega.
While Sega isn't the only operator in the arcade space to see big losses, it is one of the most iconic. A mainstay of the Japanese arcade business, Sega was forced to close its Akihabara Building 2 arcade in September 2020 due to the expiration of the fixed-term building lease contract where it operated from and uncertainty surrounding the future of such businesses in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Once the rest of Sega's arcade shares are completely offloaded to Genda, Sega Entertainment will be renamed to Genda GiGO Entertainment, and all Sega branding at these locations will be changed to GiGO.
"Sega stores across the country will be switching their store names to GiGO, to express our gratitude for Sega's 56 years of history and our desire to be an oasis that quenches people's thirst for real entertainment," Genda GiGO chairman Hisashi Kataoka said in a statement spotted by VGC. "We will start with Ikebukuro, Akihabara, and Shinjuku. Then to the whole country."
Less than a month remains until The Witch Queen expansion launches for Destiny 2, and with several big changes to the game on the horizon, fans of the weekly Nightfall Strike can look forward to the return of the Silicon Neuroma sniper rifle and the Duty Bound auto rifle.
Duty Bound hasn't been obtainable since the Savathun's Song Nightfall Strike to earn it in was removed in the Beyond Light expansion, and with both weapons sunset all the way back in Season 12, the hard limit on their power cap rendered them useless in certain activities when compared to other guns.
Trials of Osiris players can also battle it out for a chance to earn The Summoner auto rifle--which has been missing in action for several seasons now--and a brand-new weapon that won't be revealed prior to its release.
Neuroma and Duty BoundFor Nightfall runs on Heroic difficulty and above, boss-specific damage modifiers will be removed and replaced with the "Acute" modifier. This tweak increases damage taken and dealt with a specific element, and Nightfalls will also list the elemental shields that enemies are equipped with so that players can prepare accordingly. In its latest blog post, Bungie noted that Acute modifiers will increase player damage taken from a specific element by 50% and increase player damage done by 25%.
Destiny 2's grind is set to become easier once The Witch Queen expansion launches, as developer Bungie outlined new changes to how the game's reputation system will function from February 22. Reputation can be earned from a variety of sources within Destiny 2, and once enough has been accumulated to earn a new rank, players can unlock rewards such as seasonal ritual weapons from an activity's associated vendor.
In the latest Destiny blog post, Bungie broke down details on how the grind will essentially be shortened in ritual Strike playlists with reputation gains increasing if a player starts a streak within a specific activity.
On the PvP side of Destiny 2, Trials of Osiris will also benefit from these changes based on how many rounds a player wins in a match. Bungie explained that this will incentivize its players to jump into the multiplayer mode, which has been heavily overhauled over the last few months.
For the rest of the Crucible though, Bungie is satisfied with the speed at which players earn rankings and reputation. While this may change in the future, Guardians can also look forward to revamped versions of the Iron Banner and Gambit in the near future, with feedback from those events also informing Bungie of any potential changes that might benefit other Crucible modes.
If you watched this year's Awesome Games Done Quick charity speedrunning event, then you likely tuned in for its headliner: a blindfolded run through Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice. It seems like it shouldn't be possible, but the dedication runner Mitchriz did to memorize and train made it a reality, and he spoke to GameSpot about just how he did it.
In the breakdown, Mitchriz explained that prior to doing blindfolded runs of the game, he had been trying to do all the challenges he could find, but it got to a point where everyone had basically done all there was to do in Sekiro. Since others had done individual blindfolded runs, he decided the next step would be for someone to try doing the whole game that way.
You can see his strategies for all the bosses in the video above. As he had to rely on sound alone during the live run, he wasn't able to hear what the commentators were saying and didn't communicate with the audience, so this is a great chance to hear directly from him on why he made certain decisions.
Spoilers for Sekiro to follow.
One of the most iconic boss fights in the game is the Guardian Ape, a fake-out fight that sees you having to battle the boss after already cutting his head off. For this fight, Mitchriz explained that the boss is designed to run away after taking the final hit in a combo attack. However, by purposely not doing the final attack, he will not run away and this phase can be completed very quickly.
For the second phase, things get a little more hectic. This phase is ridiculously tough, even without a blindfold, so his strategy consisted of using every item he has while using the jumping Mortal Draw attack to finish the Guardian Ape off as quickly as possible.