March 2022

RimWorld pulled from sale on Steam in Australia, as an affront to public morality, decency, and propriety

2 years 2 months ago
Sci-fi colony management survival sim RimWorld is a cracking thing, with your efforts built upon on (and stymied by) a deep simulation of everyone's minds and bodies. It's a game which generates great stories, often delightful, often horrifying. This appears to have got it in trouble. Australia's classification board last week gave RimWorld a rating of RC—Refused Classification. As a result, the game is no longer available to buy on Steam in Australia, though folks who already own it can still play.

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Author
Alice O'Connor

Train Life dev's next game is a taxi tycoon simulator

2 years 2 months ago

Simteract, the studio behind Train Life: A Railway Simulator, have announced their next project: a taxi tycoon sim called Urban Venture. In it, you'll be taking to the streets of Barcelona as a professional driver, picking up customers and obeying traffic laws to get them from A to B. That's the taxi bit. The tycoon bit comes a bit later, letting players build up their own business until they've got enough cars and staff to do the driving for them. It's coming to early access on Steam toward the end of 2022, so let's hail down an announcement trailer, shall we?

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Author
Katharine Castle

Soul Hackers 2 Characters’ Details and English Screenshots Shared

2 years 2 months ago

Soul Hackers 2 Characters and English Screenshots Shared

When Soul Hackers 2 appears, it will get a near simultaneous worldwide release. To help provide a better idea of what to expect, Atlus shared new details about it. To be specific, the company offered an array of English Soul Hackers 2 screenshots and details about characters people will see.

Soul Hacker 2’s heroine is Ringo, who will be aided by characters like Figue, Arrow, Milady, and Saizo. Ringo and Figue are both Aion digital sentient beings who are attempting to help and save humans. While people will play as Ringo, Aion will be a supporter who provides assistance to the Devil Summoners. Ringo uses soul hacking to revive the recently deceased to help assist in achieving goals.

Each of Ringo’s allies are humans Ringo brought back via soul hacking to fight alongside her. They tend to represent different sides. For example, Saizo is a freelancer who isn’t affiliated with any faction. However, Milady belongs to Phantom Society and Arrow is connected to Yatagarasu. If Ringo and her allies team up with their demons and hit foes’ weaknesses, they can trigger a Persona-style all out attack called a Sabbath.

And here are the new Soul Hackers 2 English screenshots showing off characters, story segments, and battles.
[gallery columns="5" ids="919144,919145,919146,919147,919148,919149,919150,919151,919152,919153,919154,919155,919156,919157,919158,919159,919160,919161,919162,919163,919164,919165,919166,919167,919168,919169,919170,919171,919172,919173,919174,919175,919176,919177,919178,919179,919180,919181,919182,919184,919185,919186,919187,919188,919189" link="file"]

Author
Jenni Lada

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Granblue Extra Fes and Granblue Fantasy Fes 2022 Confirmed

2 years 2 months ago

Granblue Extra Fes and Granblue Fantasy Fes 2022 Confirmed

Two Granblue Fantasy Fes events will appear in Japan this year. First, Cygames offered a reminder that Granblue Extra Fes will appear in multiple cities from June 2022 to August 2022. After that will be Granblue Fantasy Fes 2022. While Cygames didn’t announce any dates for that event, it typically is held in December.

First, here’s the Granblue Extra Fes announcement. It will appear in Fukuoka between June 25-26, 2022. On July 2-3, 2022, it will appear in Sendai. The Osaka stop will appear on August 6-7, 2022. Finally, things end in Nagoya between August 13-14, 2022. In April 2022, an official website will open for the event with details about what attendees can expect. Odds are, there will be details about the mobile game and new merchandise available at each stop.

Author
Jenni Lada

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A One Piece Card Game is in Development

2 years 2 months ago

One Piece Card Game

One Piece tipped its hand, as a new collectible card game based on the popular manga series is in development. According to an announcement released by Shonen Jump, the game doesn't have a formal title yet, but is set to go on sale in July 2022 [Thanks, Hobby Watch!]

The One Piece card game will be different from existing One Piece-themed card games like One Piece Kizuna Boost. The URL for the Kizuna Boost official website now redirects to the Japanese official site for the new game. It also appears to be planned for a global release. Shueisha opened official websites for the One Piece card game covering Japan, China, Taiwan, Southeast Asia, North and Latin America, and Europe.

The sites also hosted a teaser video for the project featuring art from the manga. Little information about how the game plays was available, but some of the card designs showed off characters, point values, and art resembling panels, scenes, and even sound effect text from the manga.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T7COvFlB3As

Author
Josh Tolentino

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The Cruel King and the Great Hero Tells A Touching Story

2 years 2 months ago

Cruel King Great Hero review

Following in the footsteps of The Liar Princess and the Blind Prince, The Cruel King and the Great Hero is another storybook tale from NIS. Fully narrated and set in a picturesque world, this endearing journey promises another endearing adventure.

Yuu, daughter of the Great Hero, lives with her adoptive father the Dragon King in his cavern outside the Monster Village. Every day, he helps Yuu train to follow in her father's footsteps. Every evening, he tells her another chapter detailing how the Hero defeated the Demon King. When Yuu encounters a young sno cub searching for aid in the village, she offers to help. The Dragon King agrees to let her help, but stays close by just in case. And so, Yuu's path to becoming a Great Hero like her father truly begins.

Cruel King Great Hero review

Author
Annette Polis

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Forspoken Delayed by Almost 5 Months

2 years 2 months ago

Developer Luminous Productions has delayed open world action-RPG Forspoken from May 25 to October 11.

In a statement on Twitter, the dev team said the delay would let them "focus all of our efforts on polishing the game." The game had only received its original release date in December of last year.

The PS5 and PC game was announced in 2020, and has been relatively quiet ever since. In a hands-off preview last year, we said that the game – which is being created primarily by Final Fantasy 15 developers – has an "off-kilter take on the JRPG formula," and "looks more like an open-world RPG in the vein of Assassin’s Creed and The Witcher than anything I’ve previously seen from Square Enix."

The team has high hopes for its unexpected project, too, from aiming for the "highest quality visuals ever" in an open world game, to bringing in Rogue One writer Gary Whitta and Uncharted creator Amy Hennig at different points of the development process.

Author
Joe Skrebels

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Microsoft Says Mouse and Keyboard Support for xCloud is Coming

2 years 2 months ago

Mouse and keyboard support is finally coming to xCloud, according to the head of Microsoft Flight Simulator.

In a developer Q&A spotted by Windows Central, Jorg Neumann confirmed the feature was coming to Microsoft's cloud streaming platform likely within the next few months.

Mouse and keyboard support has been a long-requested feature of xCloud, which currently only natively supports playing with a gamepad, or with touch controls on mobile.

When asked if the new control options were coming to Microsoft Flight Simulator following its release on xCloud last week, Neumann said it was up to Xbox itself to implement the support and wasn't something they could do as an individual developer. Thankfully, it seems to be on the way.

He said: "The next step for us is mouse [and] keyboard. This is platform level support so it has nothing to do with us. The platform team is working on this, and no I can't give a date because it's the platform team.

"I don't know their date, but it's coming. I would say it's in the next months. It's not weeks. I'm hoping it will be done by June or so but I can't ever tell. Everybody wants it. I want it. It's coming."

Author
Ryan Dinsdale

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Mandalorian and Baby Yoda character DLC coming to Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga

2 years 2 months ago

On Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga's launch this April, players will be able to get their hands on an additional Mandalorian DLC. This will be part of the game's Character Collection (Season Pass), which contains seven DLC packs.

The first packs that will be available are The Mandalorian (season one), Solo: A Star Wars Story, the Classic Characters and the Trooper packs. Included in the Mandalorian pack will be the Mandalorian (naturally), Greef Karga, Cara Dune, IG-11 and Kuill.

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Author
Victoria Kennedy

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DF Direct Weekly talks Switch Pro leaks and Steam Deck/Elden Ring reactions

2 years 2 months ago

DF Direct Weekly tallies up its 51st show, but it's actually our 52nd week - we took a break for Christmas - meaning that this week is our one-year anniversary! And it's a particularly meaty episode this week as the team convene to wrap up discussions on Elden Ring and Steam Deck, specifically by tackling virtually every question we received on both topics from backers of the DF Supporter Program.

Looking at the table of contents below, you should get some idea of how those particular discussions play out, but we also spend a good deal of time looking at the massive Nvidia leak and its implications for Switch Pro (aka Switch 2, Switch Model S ad infinitum). We call it a leak, but actually Nvidia was subject to a massive cyber-attack and the full extent of the stolen data remains to be seen. In the meantime, we should expect to see various information spill out: we already have some idea of the kind of GPU configurations we should expect from Team Green's next-gen GPUs, while the Switch successor information is intriguing.

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Author
Richard Leadbetter

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Forspoken Has Been Delayed Until October

2 years 2 months ago

Developer Luminous Productions has today announced that its upcoming action-RPG Forspoken has been delayed from its May 24 release date to Oct. 11. The news comes by way of a Tweet that relays the new date but doesn’t offer any specific reason as to why more time is required. From the sounds of it though, it’s just a case of the team wanting to add extra polish in an effort to create a quality gaming experience that meets their standards.

For those not up to speed with Forsaken, the game tells the story of Frey Holland, a young woman who finds herself transported from her home in New York City to the mysterious land of Athia. There she takes possession of magical, sentient bracelet wrapped around her arm that allows her to weild powerful spells. She’s also accompanied by a cynical companion named “Cuff” who helps Frey navigate through the sprawling landscapes of Athia.

Players are set to battle monstrous creatures, confront the powerful Tantas, and uncover secrets that awaken something much more from within Frey herself.

Author
Alex Gibson

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Phantom Breaker: Omnia Trailer Is All About the Story Mode

2 years 2 months ago

Rocket Panda Games released a new trailer of the upcoming 2D fighting game Phantom Breaker: Omnia, focusing on the story mode.

We get to take a look at the dialogue scenes between matches, with various characters interacting with each other from one or the other side of the conflict that’s central to the game’s narrative.

It’s also another chance to sample the English voice-overs, keeping in mind that Japanese is also an available option.

You can check it out below.

Phantom Breaker: Omnia releases for PS4, Switch, Xbox One, and PC via Steam on March 15, 2022. You can read an official description and feature list below and check out another gameplay trailer and one focusing on the basics.

Author
Giuseppe Nelva

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Forspoken Delayed To October 11

2 years 2 months ago

Square Enix and Luminous Productions announced that Forspoken has been delayed to October 11. It was originally set to launch on May 25.

"We have made the decision to move the release date of Forspoken to October 11, 2022. Our vision for this exciting new IP is to deliver a game world and hero that gamers across the globe will want to experience for years to come, so getting it right is extremely important to us," said Luminous Productions in a statement. "To that end, during the next few months, we will focus all of our efforts on polishing the game and can't wait for you to experience Frey's journey this fall."

Forspoken follows a young woman named Frey Holland from New York City who is transported to Athia, a mystical and fantastical world where she must find her way home. Forspoken's original release date of May 25 was revealed during The Game Awards back in December. The game will launch on PlayStation 5 and PC in October now.

Author
George Yang

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Get $99 Switch eShop Credit For Only 81 Bucks Right Now

2 years 2 months ago

If you buy games on the Nintendo Switch eShop (who doesn't?), you're going to want to take advantage of one of the best eShop credit deals we've ever seen. Eneba is selling $99 eShop codes for $81 with promo code Nintendo99. Yes, you're getting close to 20 bucks of free eShop credit with this deal. It's worth noting that this deal only applies to North American eShop codes.

You'll notice that credit is already discounted to $87, but if you enter the code Nintendo99 at checkout, the price drops even further. While we occasionally see 10% discounts on eShop credit, it's exceedingly rare to find anything this significant--besides that one time a major retailer offered eShop credit for ridiculously low prices by mistake (and then canceled a lot of the orders).

If you've never heard of Eneba, rest assured that you will actually get what you order. Several GameSpot staffers (including myself) purchased this deal, received the code instantly, and redeemed it on the Switch eShop already.

Eneba accepts PayPal, major credit cards, and even CVS gift cards for some reason. We didn't test it, but if you create an Eneba wallet and add money to it, you can avoid the "service fee." If you manage to do that, you'll get your code for around 75 bucks.

Author
Steven Petite

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Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga DLC Includes The Mandalorian And Young Lando

2 years 2 months ago

Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga celebrates several decades of the iconic sci-fi franchise, and if nine films' worth of gameplay isn't enough for you, then the good news is that post-launch DLC will flesh that galaxy out even further. Sadly, there's no content dedicated specifically to the real MVP of Star Wars, Jar Jar Binks.

What will be available though are multiple character packs, which can be purchased individually or as part of the Character Collection. The Mandalorian content features the fan-favorite mercenary as a playable character and Grogu as a non-playable character. Sorry to burst your Force-bubble, Baby Yoda fans.

For the Solo: A Star Wars Story character pack, you'll be able to play as the younger versions of Han Solo, Chewbacca, and Lando Calrissian, as well as Qi’ra, Tobias Beckett, and Enfys Nest. These two packs will be available from launch day.

The Classic Characters pack will be available for everyone on April 19, while The Trooper Pack is a bonus early access collection of Imperial characters for anyone who preordered the digital version of the game. and will then be released to everyone else from May 4.

Also out on April 19 is the Rogue One: A Star Wars Story pack and Star Wars Day on May 4 will add has two more character packs from The Mandalorian Season 2 and The Bad Batch, expanding the roster to a size that puts Anakin Skywalker's Midichlorian-count to shame. Hey, it's still canon.

Author
Darryn Bonthuys

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The Settlers Has Been Indefinitely Delayed Again

2 years 2 months ago

Just days before it was meant to launch, Ubisoft has delayed The Settlers to an indefinite date. According to developer Ubisoft Dusseldorf, the feedback received from January's closed beta prompted the studio to delay its plans to release The Settlers on March 17.

"As we went through this feedback, it became clear to our team that the quality wasn't yet in line with the team's vision," the studio wrote. "Therefore, we took the decision to postpone the launch of the game to a later date. The additional time will be used to further improve the game and push quality as our main priority for all our players."

First announced in August 2018 and aiming for a 2019 release, details surrounding development on the city-building strategy game have been kept under wraps for years now. This marks the third time that The Settlers has been delayed, and the second time that it was slapped with an indefinite release date. Based on the decades-old franchise, this new incarnation of The Settlers is being developed on Ubisoft's Snowdrop engine, the same software that powers games such as The Division 2 and the upcoming Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora.

The last game in the core series was The Settlers 7: Paths to a Kingdom, which was released all the way back in 2010. Three DLC packs were added to the game over several months--Uncharted Land, Conquest: The Empire, and Rise of the Rebellion--with everything eventually being bundled into a deluxe edition in 2011.

Author
Darryn Bonthuys

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Forspoken Delayed To October

2 years 2 months ago

Forspoken Delay October Release Date

Platform: PlayStation 5, PC
Publisher: Square Enix
Developer: Square Enix
Release:

Forspoken, the upcoming magic-based RPG from Square Enix and Luminous Productions, has been delayed to October. 

More specifically, Forspoken has been delayed from its original May 24 release date to October 11. Luminous Productions announced the news today, citing a need for more time to work on the game and deliver on the promise of its vision for this magic-based RPG. 

Author
Wesley LeBlanc

Halo Infinite Multiplayer: Season 2 Is Called Lone Wolves

2 years 2 months ago

Halo Infinite Multiplayer Season 2 Lone Wolves

Platform: Xbox One, PC
Publisher: Xbox Game Studios
Developer: 343 Industries
Release:
Rating: Teen

There are still a couple of months left in Season 1: Heroes of Reach in Halo Infinite, but creative director Joseph Staten has revealed some of what we can expect in Season 2. 

More specifically, Staten has revealed in a new blog post that Season 2 will be called Lone Wolves. It will launch with its own battle pass, of course, but it will also feature at least one new Big Team Battle map called Breaker and a new Arena map called Catalyst. Both are expected to go live when Season 2: Lone Wolves begins on May 3. 

Author
Wesley LeBlanc