February 2022

***The following contains major spoilers for The Book of Boba Fett, The Mandalorian, Clone Wars, and all of the Star Wars movies. If you haven’t seen one of these, and want to avoid spoilers, come back later.***

The Book of Boba Fett Chapter 6 just aired, and boy howdy did this episode ever provide fans with all of the Star Wars and Western content they could possibly handle. The latest chapter featured a return, a debut, and lots of hints at where the future of the entire franchise would be headed.

And just like every other episode, Disney was nice enough to encapsulate everything that was great about the episode in an awesome end-credit sequence that featured all the concept art for the episode. You can check it all out right down below.

Apex Legends Season 12: Defiance goes live in a few short days, on Feb. 8, so Respawn is releasing trailer after trailer, as usual. This one focuses on Mad Maggie’s abilities so players can get a sense of what the new Legend has to offer before jumping into the next season.

Her Passive Ability allows her to temporarily highlight enemies she has damaged while giving her a speed boost when she holds shotguns. Mad Maggie’s Tactical is a drill that can attach itself to barriers like Gibraltar’s dome and Rampart’s walls, then send fire through those barriers to attack enemies.

Finally, her Ultimate is a small wrecking ball that drops speed-boosting pads on the ground and detonates near enemies.

You can check out the gameplay trailer right here to see what Mad Maggie can do with her abilities in the Apex Games.

It looks like Mad Maggie will be a huge offensive threat, even when going up against Legends who are known for their great defensive capabilities.

Today Idea Factory International announced the western release date of the upcoming Nintendo Switch version of Neptunia x Senran Kagura: Ninja Wars.

The port will release on April 19 in North America and on April 22 in Europe. At the moment, the launch date of the PC version coming via Steam is still pending announcement.

To accompany the reveal, we also get a gallery of screenshots of the localized Switch version. You can check them out below, including a look at the new difficulty options in the menu.

Today Electronic Arts and Codemasters released a new trailer of the upcoming racing game GRID Legends.

The trailer focuses on the features and modes that we can expect in the game, from the extensive Driven to Glory Story mode to the many vehicle classes and the drop-in multiplayer.

You can check it out below.

Grid Legends will release on PS5, Xbox Series X|S, PS4, Xbox One, and PC (both on Steam and Origin), on Feb. 25, 2022.

If you’d like to see more, you can enjoy the previous trailer, another one, plenty of gameplay, and read an official description below.

When Koei Tecmo and DMM added Tina to the Japanese version of Dead or Alive Xtreme Venus Vacation, English-speaking fans prepared for a long wait.

Usually, the English versions of the game on Steam and Johren are behind in content by about a year, which means that long a wait to receive a new lady after she has been added to the Japanese version.

Yet, Tina Armstrong will not be made to wait, and she has been added today to both platforms.

This doesn’t mean that the English versions are now fully up-to-date with content. Koei Tecmo simply decided to skip a year of new girls and jump directly to Tina, likely due to her popularity among Dead or Alive fans as an established character for the series.

At the moment, what will happen in the future remains a mystery, but this certainly makes things less predictable for those who play in English and were used to pretty much knowing the content of every update in advance.

As usual, you should not expect to get Tina immediately (or even in the near future) unless you’re willing to pay. Her gacha will be exclusive to paid V-stones. Even if you are willing to open the wallet, the game’s terrible percentages won’t help you. The usual 1.1% SSR chance will likely be diluted down to 0.78% by a bunch of useless old SSR outfits thrown in the mix to make things unnecessarily difficult.

Nintendo released its quarterly results today alongside some year-over-year numbers for its Switch and first-party software and in doing so, revealed that it sees the console as just in the middle of its lifecycle. 

Yesterday, both EA and Sony released their quarterly financial results so it’s no surprise Nintendo’s arrived today. What is a surprise, though, for some is that we might still be another five years away from a new Nintendo console.

“Switch is just in the middle of its lifecycle and the momentum going into this year is good,” Nintendo president Shuntaro Furukawa said during the results, as reported by Bloomberg. “The Switch is ready to break a pattern of our past consoles that saw momentum weakening in their sixth year on the market and grow further.” 

Horizon Forbidden West is out in just a few weeks, and Guerrilla Games has released another trailer to showcase some of what we can expect in the sequel. 

The studio recently released some images and gifs of Horizon Forbidden West running on a PlayStation 4 Pro and a neat “meet the cast” trailer. Today, it released new footage about the challenges within the expansive game world. 

Aloy’s friend Petra says it’s essential for Aloy to check out every shop in the settlements she visits to ensure she has the best armor, weapons, and upgrades possible. She then suggests that Aloy visit the Melee Pits to learn new spear mechanics and hone her skills. 

After checking out the Melee Pits, Aloy can give the Hunting Grounds a go, where she’ll have to take down specific machines and more. If that’s not enough, Aloy can pick up Salvage Contracts to earn some extra currency. Of course, returning challenges include ruins, cauldrons, machine arenas, and more. 

Those of you who have been glued to Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty leaks prior to previews may have spotted our exclusive preview card, but I can assure you this is the best quality you have ever seen for it. Better yet, you can actually read every bit of text and stats on the card. Take that, early pack openers with terrible potato cameras!

Art by Ekaterina Burmak

Let me introduce you properly to Risona, Asari Commander. She’s a legendary Human Samurai creature in the Boros/Lorehold colors that costs 1RW to cast. Bringing a solid three power and three toughness and Haste to the board, Risona is bringing a decent body for her cost, ready to rush in for an attack. Where Risona makes her mark is her rules text which says, “Whenever Risona, Asari Commander deals combat damage to a player, if it doesn’t have an indestructible counter on it, put an indestructible counter on it. Whenever combat damage is dealt to you, remove an indestructible counter from Risona.” That second clause is key to keeping Risona alive. Make sure you're board is prepared to defend so Risona can remain to slay safely.

If you’ve ever wanted more of Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson in your life, Fortnite may be your way to go because you can now play as him, or at least one of his characters, in the battle royale. 

More specifically, you can now unlock The Foundation in Fortnite through its Chapter 3 Season 1 battle pass. If you’re unfamiliar with The Foundation, he’s one of the ongoing protagonists in Fortnite’s overarching narrative. He was last seen breaking Jonesy free from Dr. Slone’s grasp at the end of Season 2 and while a massive statue of The Foundation stands on the island, he’s been more of a lowkey character since. 

Something tells us you’re going to be seeing a lot more of The Foundation in Fortnite. Before you and others can play as Johnson’s character, you’ll need to conquer his recruitment test in order to collect his outfit, styles, emote, and other items in The Seven set. Here are the quests you’ll need to complete:

Some Genshin Impact players refuse to play the game the way that it’s meant to be played, and I respect that. Yesterday, Reddit user Ezmankong posted a video in which they used playable character Ningguang to spectacularly bounce off two cliffsides and avoided dying of fall damage, and it’s a marvel to see.

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Wordle continues its gentle taking over of the world. In the days following the surprise announcement that the New York Times is buying the game for at least a million bucks, the head of the UK secret intelligence service, MI6, tweeted complaining about people’s results from the word game appearing on Twitter…

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When Sony revealed its surprise $3.6 billion deal to buy Bungie, it was clear the PS5 manufacturer was paying a premium for the original creators of Halo and now Destiny 2. Now the company has revealed roughly a third of that price tag is actually just to pay Bungie developers so they don’t immediately leave the…

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The Honkai Impact 3rd 5.5 update is on the way in February 2022, and it will bring with it the Durandal Palatinus Equinox battlesuit. To help people prepare for the new IMG-type S-rank battlesuit, miHoYo shared a video looking at how the team made it. In particular, it goes over the Guardian and Knight forms of it.

With Palatinus Equinox, players can swap between two roles for Durandal. In her Guardian form, she carries the shield and uses it when fighting. It is said to be better equipped to fight enemies with strong attacks. Specifically, “aggressive” ones were mentioned. When she shifts into Knight, she'll ride atop a horse and use both it and her lance to attack. That form is the more agile of the two. It's designed to deal with faster enemies, or perhaps even more of them.

Here's the latest Honkai Impact 3rd making of video for Durandal. Note that it begins by looking at her backstory and motivations, so there will be spoilers if you aren't caught up with the game. (English subtitles are available if you turn on closed captions.)

In addition to the new look at the 5.5 battlesuit, miHoYo also shared Honkai Impact 3rd music. The Paradox Original Soundtrack is available to stream now.

As December 2021 came to a close, Idea Factory International announced Neptunia x Senran Kagura: Ninja Wars would appear on the Nintendo Switch. At the time, only a March 2022 release date was offered for Japan. Now, it’s confirmed it will appear worldwide. Folks can expect it in April. It will show up first in North America on April 19, 2022. Then, it will come to Europe on April 22, 2022. People will be able to get a digital or physical copy.

As a reminder, the Switch version of the game will be a bit different. There will be two extra difficulty levels. People can head to the Options to choose Easy or Hard. The Easy mode will apparently increase the amount of damage player characters deal. However, Hard will increase the strength of enemy attacks.

There will also be free Alternate Costume DLC. This offers eight costumes for Neptune, Noire, Blanc, Vert, Asuka, Homura, Yumi, and Miyabi. There's also a screenshot showing those off.

There’s a new milestone for Animal Crossing. Nintendo shared its Financial Results Explanatory Material 3rd Quarter of Fiscal Year Ending March 2022 report. As expected, it went over all sorts of sales figures so far. Most notably, it revealed new Animal Crossing: New Horizons sales figure made it Japan’s best-selling video game.

The reveal came up when the company discussed software sell-through between October 2021 and December 2021. Worldwide, its sales passed five million between April 2021 and December 2021. It then noted that during that period, the title passed 10 million units moved in Japan. This resulted in it passing Super Mario Bros. on the NES.

Here’s the exact quote regarding Animal Crossing: New Horizons sales in Japan making it the best-selling video game.

Incidentally, total sell-through for Animal Crossing: New Horizons has exceeded 10 million units in Japan alone, far surpassing the record 6.81 million units of 1985’s Super Mario Bros, and it is the single best-selling video game ever in Japan.

I have played Vampire Survivors twice - that’s two (2) times - in total. In only that short space of time, the arcade-style game has sunk its teeth into me. You swat away hordes of monsters with weapons and magic that fire automatically. All it needs from you is one hand on the wheel. You are, in essence, the pale captain of a battleship that must weave its way through demons and bats. The garlic and holy water cannons will take care of the rest.

Not only do I crave more vampiric survival, but I also wish it had been released years ago. This is the perfect pre-lesson huddle. The perfect after-school treat. A nerdy talk generator for those locker chats.

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Epic has announced the next free game to grace its store as part of the company's ongoing quest to hoover new customers into its clutches, with sailing-focused open-world survival game Windbound readying to step into the freebie spotlight.

Windbound is the work of developer 5 Lives Studios and serves up a visually striking blend of survival, crafting, and exploratory open-world sailing as players travel from island to island, attempting to unravel the mysteries of the world.

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Soclap, the developer behind Absolver and the upcoming martial arts game Sifu, has described its next title as the martial arts movie we’ve always wanted to play. Well, today, just ahead of its big launch, the studio has flipped the script, teaming up with director Christopher Clark Cowan (youtube RivenX3i) to actually produce a live-action adaptation of Sifu.

If you haven’t heard of Sifu, it’s a third-person action game featuring intense hand-to-hand combat that puts you in control of a young Kung-Fu student on a path of revenge.

Check out the adaptation below.

Twinfinite previewed Sifu toward the end of last year and was thoroughly impressed, concluding:

“The art style in Sifu is somewhere in between polygonal and realism. The character models generally look like humans but contain some large flat surfaces that you wouldn’t think would work yet end up looking incredible with the fantastic lighting in the game.

Today Paradox Interactive released a new video about the upcoming major expansion to Crusader Kings 3, Royal Court, which was announced back in May.

The video focuses on showcasing the inspiration feature and how you can sponsor various projects among your courtiers (or NPCs from outside your court) to gain precious and powerful artifacts.

You can watch the video below, alongside the previous one on cultural divergence, another on artifacts and one on the basics.

Royal Court is going to launch on February 8, 2022, and below you can check out a summary of its features.

To quote The Iron Bull, “Oh, would you look at that! That is magnificent!” That is exactly what Dragon Age fans will say when they feast their eyes on the beautiful statuette that Dark Horse Direct has just made available for pre-order.

Standing in at 8 inches tall, with a base measurement of 4 by 4.25 inches in diameter, this figure shows off everyone’s favorite Qunari captain from Dragon Age Inquisition in all his glory. You can check out the official description and some photos of Dragon Age: The Iron Bull Statuette below:

Following the announcement of Sony’s financial results, Osaka-based financial analysis firm Ace Securities posted its report on the results, discussing its expectation for the PS5.

The report, penned by analyst Hideki Yasuda, mentions that the 3.9 million units shipped by Sony during the Holiday quarter were well below the firm’s expectations.

While Sony’s CFO Hiroki Totoki mentioned that it’s theoretically possible to achieve a shipment target matching the 22.6 million units record in the next fiscal year (between April 2022 and March 2023), Yasuda-san expects it to be challenging.

Since the shipments of silicon wafers have hardly increased, the impact of the shortage may still be significant next year, and Yasuda-san believes PS5 shipments to reach around 15 million units.

Yasuda also points out that while the monthly active users on PlayStation Network have increased since the previous quarter, they have dropped by 3 million year-on-year. Yasuda-san argues that the scarcity of PS5 units during the holiday season has made it challenging to retain active users.

Since the firm believes that the stagnation of hardware supply will continue next year, it’s concerned that sluggish hardware sales may cause software sales to decline as well.

Anyone paying attention to the video game landscape over the past month might feel like companies are in an ongoing war to buy up independent studios that make great products. 

The acquisition ball has pretty much always been rolling – it’s part of a companies growth – but Microsoft’s $7.5 billion acquisition of Bethesda really upped the ante. Then, earlier last month, Take-Two Interactive purchased Zynga, the company behind FarmVille and Words With Friends, for a massive $12.7 billion. 

In this week's episode of The Game Informer Show, the crew discusses our Elden Ring cover story and how the game will likely be From Software's best game yet. We also dive into our Dying Light 2 review and offer varying perspectives on which aspects resonated with us (and those that didn't). Lastly, in the Listener Questions segment, we share tips for folks jumping into an MMO for the first time – specifically Lost Ark, which releases in less than two weeks.

Follow the crew on Twitter: Alex Stadnik (@Studnik76), Alex Van Aken (@itsVanAken), Andrew Reiner (@Andrew_Reiner), Dan Tack (@DanTack), and Blake Hester (@MetallicaIsRad)

The Switch is now the third best-selling console from Nintendo after surpassing 103 million units sold. 

More specifically, in Nintendo’s latest round of quarterly results, the company revealed that 103.54 million Switch consoles have been sold. That means it has officially surpassed the Wii, which sold 101.63 million in its lifetime. Before these results, the Switch was at 92 million units sold and behind the Wii, Game Boy (118.69 million), and the DS (154.02 million). 

Nintendo’s president also revealed that the Switch is only in the middle of its lifecycle, suggesting it might be on its way to passing the Game Boy at least. The DS’ massive 154 million seems like more of a stretch but that doesn’t mean it’s not possible. 

When the Nintendo Switch launched in 2017, it promised to marry console-quality games with the convenient portability of a handheld device. For the most part, that promise has borne out, changing how we play games in ways both big and small. It’s certainly made air travel less tedious.

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Chevy fans who also love Halo, rejoice. Finally, your day has arrived. A talented modder has added a Chevy Tahoe into Halo 3 after being inspired by the SUV’s recent appearance in a new Halo TV show trailer.

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The cast of characters in the English version of DOAXVV is growing, as Koei Tecmo announced Tina Armstrong is already available in the game. She's available in the Star Outfit Gacha. It will run until February 17, 2022 and uses V-stones. She wears the Dream Chaser (Tina) SSR swimsuit.

This is something of an unusual addition. Normally, there is a delay between DOAXVV characters being added in Japan and worldwide. However, Tina joined the Japanese version of the game at the end of January 2022. She's also among the few mainline DOA heroines added after launch. Typically, original characters are added.

New sales data is in for Super Smash Bros Ultimate, which means new insight into the Super Smash Bros series as a whole. The Nintendo Financial Results Explanatory Material 3rd Quarter of Fiscal Year Ending March 2022 report noted new sales figures for the Switch entry. It is now at 27.4 million copies sold worldwide as of December 2021. This is following 3.3 million in sales between April 2021 and December 2021. As Niko Partners Senior Analyst Daniel "ZhugeEx" Ahmad pointed out, this means the series passed 69 million copies sold.

Here is the graph Ahmad shared. It covers every entry since the original Super Smash Bros’ debut on the Nintendo 64 in 1999. Melee followed on the GameCube in 2001. In 2008, Brawl showed up on the Wii. Six years later, Super Smash Bros launched on the 3DS and Wii U in 2014. Ultimate followed in 2018. (As a reminder, Super Smash Bros Ultimate set a sales record for the series at launch when 1.23 million copies sold in its first three days in Japan.)

The Super Smash Bros. series hits a new milestone this year with 69 million units sold in pic.twitter.com/fpIJx2ntbR

Joseph: Collapse, the third and final paid DLC episode for Far Cry 6, will launch next Tuesday, 8th February on Xbox One, Xbox X/S, PlayStation 4, PS5, Stadia, and PC.

Far Cry 6's paid post-launch content has focused its aciton on some of the series' most infamous villains, and Ubisoft is capping off its previous two DLCs, Vaas: Insanity and Pagan: Control - which built adventures around Far Cry 3's Vaas Montenegro and Far Cry 4's Pagan Min - with a final outing centred on Far Cry 5's Joseph Seed.

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Risk of Rain 2's Survivors of the Void paid expansion finally has a launch date, and will be heading to PC on 1st March, with a console release to follow. And to celebrate the news, developer Hopoo Games has offered a closer look at the Railgunner - one of two new Survivors joining its enormously successful co-op rogue-like shooter sequel as part of the expansion.

Survivors of the Void brings a significant heft of new content to Risk of Rain 2 - ranging from new bosses and enemies to new items and stages - but the unifying theme (as its name does rather suggest) is The Void. The gateway to this mysterious realm has opened, spilling its innards all over Petrichor V. "For millennia, The Void Creatures have grown dominant by taking artifacts from our realm to theirs," Hopoo explains. "Now they look to add you to their collection."

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Rocket Panda Games released a new trailer of the upcoming 2D fighting game Phantom Breaker: Omnia showcasing a playable character.

This time around we take a look at Sophia, following another trailer featuring Mikoto, one showcasing Itsuki, one featuring Waka, one starring Yuzuha, one showcasing Ren, one focusing on Ria, and one revealing Maestra and Artifactor.

You can check her out in action below.

The city that never sleeps is as dangerous as it's ever been, but Harlem's friendly-neighborhood Spider-Man does it all, from saving helpless bodega cats to dismantling nuclear time bombs. And like any modern-day celebrity, Spider-Man always makes time to respond to Twitter followers or take goofy selfies with adoring fans. Yes, the new web-slinger is as dependable and personable as they come, but I know his greatest secrets. Miles Morales, the young man behind the mask, loves playing video games, producing groovy hip-hop beats, and conducting elaborate science experiments. He agonizes over his hair in the bathroom mirror and has a weak spot for dulce de coco. But, more importantly, he looks like me. 

Elden Ring is From Software’s latest offering in a line of dark fantasy action-RPG fare that has been continually refined and reinvented since Demon’s Souls landed on the PS3 back in 2009. While previous worlds have been immersive and captivating to explore, Elden Ring represents a grandiose shift.

From Software brings everything it’s achieved in the last decade of releases into this singular, massive entity that brings the best bits of its previous creations into a vibrant open world. As always, From Software’s honed duality of challenge and triumph go hand in hand, and players will find themselves continually tested against brutal opponents and unforgiving environments. With perseverance, any opponent can be felled. However, with the vastness of a gigantic, multi-biome universe to explore, players can enjoy an experience where they won’t ever feel that taking on the next titanic enemy is the only course of action at any given time. There are always new secrets to discover and abilities to find.

In addition, From Software has added conveniences that don’t interfere with its signature style but take away some frustrations, like adding respawn locations near bosses to help get right back into the battle after death instead of running back under harassment. To me, these games have never been about the perceived difficulty. Instead, they are about the sense of unparalleled adventure through atmospheric environments and the rush of victory that comes with overcoming the impossible.

Why does October get to have all the fun? We’re in the mood for a good scare almost any day of the year. With that in mind, we compiled a list of our most anticipated horror games of 2022 arranged in chronological release order. And since anticipation is a crucial element to horror, the more you look forward to these fright fests, the scarier they’ll be, right? … Boo!

While we’re getting six more weeks of winter IRL, Halo Infinite’s most frigid cold snap is coming to an end. Today, developer 343 Industries rolled out a hotfix for the multiplayer shooter’s long-troubled Big Team Battle playlist. Don’t look now—and I sincerely hope writing about it doesn’t jinx things—but it seems to…

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The railgun is the best weapon in the Quake series, and so I am excited that it's coming to Risk Of Rain 2. The class-based looter-shooter is getting its first paid DLC, Survivors Of The Void, which adds two new classes - including the Railgunner. You can watch a trailer for the expansion below in preparation of its release on March 1st.

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