It’s with a heavy heart that we must report that Mohammad Fahmi, the creator of the beloved barista visual novel Coffee Talk and a notable figure in the Indonesian game development scene, passed away over the weekend. He was 32 years old. A cause of death hasn’t been specified at this time.
In response to last week's incident in which Destiny videos by prominent content creators on YouTube were hit with a spate of false copyright takedowns, developer Bungie has filed a lawsuit against ten unnamed individuals it believes responsible.
At the time of the incident, Bungie - whose own YouTube content was impacted by the bogus copyright claims - insisted the takedowns were not the result of a request by either itself or its partners. The studio later revealed the takedowns had come from "fraudulent accounts created to impersonate our IP protection service", which it believed may have been retaliation for a "recent set of authentic takedowns of OST uploads".
Platform:
PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PC
Publisher:
Bandai Namco
Developer:
Supermassive Games
Release:
TBA
The Dark Pictures Anthology: The Devil In Me is the upcoming installment in Supermassive Games’ collection of horror games and the season finale. So far, a cinematic trailer has established the atmosphere for the scares to come, and now we know that Academy Award-nominated actress Jessie Buckley will star in the game.
Update 3/29/2022: Following publication, Sam Maggs, who was lead writer on Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart for a year and a half, shared further insight on Rivet's development via her Twitter. Maggs had a key role on the team that developed Rivet as a character, and is credited by multiple developers within Insomniac as the individual who named Rivet.
If you want to know why Rivet actually works as a name and how I actually do my job, I’ll tell you a little bit about it here in this thread! https://t.co/WrMDQXQOf0
— Sam Maggs (@SamMaggs) March 29, 2022
In her thread, Maggs talks through her process for coming up with the name, saying that she started from three core concepts:
It was these concepts that led to Gadget as an early idea for a name, though Maggs had other ideas on her short list, such as the rejected "Socket" and "Hammer". But Rivet, she says, was an "instant win" when she sent her short list to the team."Narrative on games takes a lot more than 'Somebody said something at a meeting I guess,' Maggs concluded. "Naming is especially challenging! It’s actually the hardest thing I do on most games, I hate it haha. So there’s a little peek into that."
Readers, an occasional dabble with emulation and board game ports aside, I don’t normally play games on my phone. Ever. But over the years I have made one major concession, and played the shit out of a series of management games released by Japanese studio Kairosoft.
Sherlock Holmes: The Devil’s Daughter is a game that has been out for six years on PC, and has also been ported to the PS4 and Xbox One. Next month, it’ll be hitting the Nintendo Switch, which might not sound like big deal except for the fact it’s a port that’s practically a miracle effort, considering what the…
Apex legends fans have been waiting for an update bringing native PS5 and Xbox Series X|S versions for quite a while, and that wait is finally ending.
Tomorrow (March 29), alongside the Warriors Collection Event, Respawn and Electronic Arts are also releasing the next-gen (or perhaps we should say “current-gen” at this point?) update.
It’ll include the following.
Improvements over back-compat versions:
| 4K output | PS5 & Xbox Series X |
| Full 60hz gameplay | PS5 & Xbox Series X|S |
| HDR | PS5 & Xbox Series X|S |
| Higher resolution shadow maps | PS5 & Xbox Series X |
| Greater LOD distances | PS5 & Xbox Series X |
Even more goodies are coming in future updates:
| 120hz gameplay | PS5 & Xbox Series X|S |
| Adaptive triggers | PS5 |
| Haptics | PS5 |
| Visual Improvements | PS5 & Xbox Series X|S |
| Audio Improvements | PS5 & Xbox Series X|S |
While players on Xbox Series X|S won’t need to do anything specific to get the upgrade, as Apex Legends supports Smart Delivery, PS5 users will need to go through a few steps, as seen below.
For PS5 Owners who already have Apex Legends installed:
Heart of Madness is a pretty major update for New World that’s releasing this month, and not only does it bring a swathe of new story content for players to jump into, it also comes with a ton of big quality-of-life improvements that will help improve the overall experience.
Aside from the new expeditions and story quests, New World will also now have NPC encounters and other new experiences scattered all over the open-world for players to discover. This is an especially crucial addition, considering how players spend most of the time running from one destination to another if they’re not planning on consuming Azoth to fast travel. By including more discoveries in the open-world itself, this helps to cut down on a lot of the monotony.
Other nice changes include being able to get back half your original purchase cost whenever you sell off your house. At launch, if you sold the house you got nothing back, even if you’ve paying your taxes diligently. This offers players more options when it comes to housing, and also makes property feel like less of a liability.
There’s a lot more included in the update, and you can read up on them in the patch notes. New World is now available on PC.
With most of the scene having been shut down during the pandemic, and major shows only just starting to make their way back into the line-up, it’s lovely to be able to turn our attention internationally once again with this feature on Japan Expo 2022, which was held in Bangkok a few months back.
Earlier today, the Twitter account of Leonardo Lopez Perez, aka “MkLeo,” maybe the best Smash player in the world, was hacked by crypto freaks trying to shill their bogus NFT schemes.
If you have been immersing yourself in the world of Fallout 76, then you probably already know that there is a substantial roadmap ahead for 2022. The survival title will be getting four different major content drops for each season, but more importantly, Bethesda is being aided by Double Eleven, a British studio, when it comes to developing new content for the game.
The news comes via an announcement by said studio, which revealed that the team has “begun working with Bethesda Game Studios to create new challenges for players of Fallout 76.” The two companies have begun conversations back in late 2020, and have been working together since.
“It’s a privilege to be trusted to work on one of the most iconic franchises in gaming history.” Double Eleven CEO, Lee Hutchinson, said “The team we’ve assembled to work on Fallout 76 are so passionate about the series, working with Bethesda is a dream come true.”
The studio had worked on other notable titles such as Rust, Minecraft Dungeons, and Crackdown 3 among others. Double Eleven will bring its expertise to the upcoming seasons of Fallout 76, and players can likely expect a better experience overall with extra hands on deck.
Today Atlus released another of its daily trailers focusing on the upcoming JRPG Soul Hackers 2 and showcasing one of its demons.
The new trailer focuses on Gremlin, another of the classic demons that skipped Shin Megami Tensei V and are making a comeback with the new game.
We also get the usual daily horoscope. While Taurus is marked as the luckiest sign, Libra is stuck at the bottom of the luck ranking.
Soul Hackers 2 releases for PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, and PC (Steam and Windows Store) on August 26, just one day after the Japanese launch on August 25.
Motorsport Games has today confirmed that rFactor 2 will become the official sim racing platform of Formula E, the world’s leading all-electric, open-wheel motorsport series. This partnership comes as an extension of the existing agreement between Motorsport Games and Formula E.
All 11 official teams and all 22 drivers and cars from the currently underway Formula E season are available for rFactor 2 on PC starting today. The platform now features every season of Formula E since 2018.
“Formula E is one of the fastest growing motorsports series and we couldn’t be more excited and honored to bring it to life fully within rFactor 2,” said Motorsport Games CEO Dmitry Kozko in a statement published alongside the announcement. “rFactor 2 continues to be the best-in-class simulation platform in the marketplace. This addition to its robust offering of motorsport series will greatly enhance the experience and offerings available to our players. With our expertise on creating authentic racing simulations and remarkable esports events coupled with Formula E’s surging popularity, we know that our partnership will reach every goal in place between our teams.”
Since one Soul Hackers 2 trailer a day appears not to be enough, Atlus has doubled down with a second video today, and it’s a meaty one.
The video, which actually has English subtitles despite coming from the Japanese arm of the company, starts with an introduction by Ringo, continues with an explanation of the game mechanic, and then ends by talking about Arrow, one of the game’s heroes.
You can check it out below. Do remember to press the “cc” button to activate subtitles.
Soul Hackers 2 releases for PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, and PC (Steam and Windows Store) on August 26, just one day after the Japanese launch on August 25.
PS5 and Xbox Series X/S owners will be able to play a native version of Apex Legends from today.
The update will add 4K output and HDR, as well as 60 fps, higher resolution maps, and greater level of detail distance (though not all the improvements are available on Xbox Series S).
If you've ever wondered what the best channel on TV is, let me help you: it's the Food Network. I can be parked on the Food Network for days, idling from Diners, Drive-ins and Dives to the Barefoot Contessa. The Food Network is generally star-based, which means that it's weirdly class-based TV. And I mean class-based in the RPG sense: Guy Fieri is a sort of Ed Hardy tank, Ina Garten, the smiler with the knife, is a classic rogue. How great is that?
But there are places where this falls apart. Places like Chopped. Chopped is not class-based or RPG-like at all, although the presenter, Ted Allen, who is a bona fide national treasure, does possess the courtly manners of someone who is about to set you a riddle outside a tavern. "Brothers and sisters I have none..." Ted is a prince. And Chopped is his realm.
It all started going wrong when I died taking on the old McDuckitt job. In Abermore, you play as a thief making a name for themselves in its titular city. Every day you wake up, leave your apartment and hit the streets, chatting to the locals, picking up a bit of info, even gambling a bit. The folks you meet are from the shadier side of society and they'll hire you for jobs. Sometimes it’s simple burglary, sometimes it's breaking a vase, or snatching a specific bit of loot. There’s even a guy who keeps trying to offer me wet work! It all boils down to the same thing though: sneaking around some rich guy’s place, disabling the security, avoiding or taking down the occupants, and getting out without being caught. Afterwards, I fence the loot and head to bed.
It's all building up to Abermore's central heist: The Feast of the Lucky Few. It's also my only chance to rescue the famous Hanged Man, a dame I met on the boat over here. They're the thief of thieves! A living legend! But the tyrant king grabbed her before we got ashore and she’ll be executed in eighteen days if I don’t break her out. That’s eighteen nights to prepare, eighteen jobs to build the resources, the connections I need for the heist of a life time. A terrible shame, then, that alarm bells started ringing almost as soon as I started playing.
HoYoVerse uploaded a gameplay trailer of Ayato, who will appear as the banner 5-star in Genshin Impact Version 2.6. This video shows Ayato facing off against Fatui agents and gives a better picture of just how his kit will work in combat. It also gives another look at his personality in how he interacts with his enemies and subordinates.
You can watch the Ayato gameplay trailer here or via the official Genshin Impact YouTube channel:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KxMs7IsSTgs
During his conversation with the Fatui, Ayato implies that he has been on the receiving end of multiple assassination attempts throughout his life. Thus, he retains a calm demeanor as he dispatches of the Fatui trying to kill him. Ayato demonstrates both his Skill and his Burst gameplay in the trailer. At the end, he speaks with his subordinate in regards to the resistance infiltrating the Tenshukaku, with a brief Sayu cameo in the background.
UPDATE 30/3/22: Sony has now formally unveiled April's PlayStation Plus games line-up and, unsurprisingly given the veracity of previous PlayStation Plus leaks from French forum Dealabs, the official list remains unchanged.
That means, from 5th April, PlayStation Plus subscribers will be able to download and play acclaimed card-battler Slay the Spire (PS4), Hood: Outlaws & Legends (PS4 & PS5), and SpongeBob SquarePants: Battle for Bikini Bottom - Rehydrated (PS4).
I wasn't sure what to really expect from A Memoir Blue. It was first widely revealed during Annapurna's summer showcase last year, but without an accompanying developer interview like some of the other titles. Having played through it, I completely understand why.
The story begins with a swimming athlete, Miriam, reluctantly posing for the press with her winner's medal. As you hit a button to trigger more and more camera flashes, she begins to feel overwhelmed, keen to leave the growing swarm. Once she's in her apartment, she tries relaxing on the sofa, slouching her feelings into submission.
Naughty Dog has announced its mobile spin off Uncharted: Fortune Hunter is shutting down.
In a tweet, the developer stated: "As of today [28th March], in-game purchases of treasure maps and bags of orbs have been disabled, and the game is no longer available for download from the Apple app or Google Play store."
The developers behind upcoming fantasy adventure Forspoken are listening to feedback and adjusting the game accordingly.
In a recent preview with Game Informer, creative producer Raio Mitsuno addressed the concerns many had about the dialogue, and its frequency, between protagonist Frey and her cuff companion (who is simply known as Cuff).
What better way to celebrate twenty years of Kingdom Hearts than with Tamagotchi. You remember those virtual pets, right? And this fall, they’re teaming up with Square Enix’s Disney-themed RPG.
It’s not only the Waddle Dee Town Café in Kirby and the Forgotten Land where you can stuff your face with Kirby-themed eats. As part of the pink ball’s 30th birthday, Kirby Café in Japan, customers can try out real-world mouthful mode as they chow down on Kirby burgers and cakes.
The native PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series versions of Apex Legends are now available.
As part of the Warriors Collection event, developers Respawn Entertainment and Panic Button temporarily brought back Control mode, added an arena map, released limited-time items, and quietly launched the next-gen versions.
Apex Legends runs in native 4K resolution on the new consoles, with 60hz gameplay and full HDR. Next-gen players will also have improved draw distances and more detailed models.
The Warriors Collection Event will bring next-gen versions of Apex Legends to PS5 and XSX!
— Apex Legends (@PlayApex) March 29, 2022
PlayStation players: check out the info below to learn how to update your game 👇
Xbox players: no action is needed. Apex will update via Smart Delivery.
🔗: https://t.co/Hye8qEKTVh pic.twitter.com/5HfUSAYkWD
The developers also outlined a number of updates coming in the future, including 120hz gameplay, adaptive triggers and haptic feedback on PS5, and other general visual and audio improvements across both consoles.
While the new version of Apex Legends arrives automatically through Smart Delivery on Xbox Series X and S, PS5 users need to take a few more steps.
Update: Amazon has announced that Heart of Madness will now be released on March 30 after a bug was found.
After testing we have decided to hold on releasing the Heart of Madness update until Wednesday morning (3/30). This delay is caused by a bug found late and needs to be fixed before releasing the update.
— New World (@playnewworld) March 29, 2022
Thank you for your patience and understanding! https://t.co/A4r1LBl0vP
An enormous New World update arrives on March 29, and it finally completes the game's main story.
While the patch includes literally hundreds of changes, it's headlined by the inclusion of the game's final main storyline quest, called Heart of Madness, through which players can finally take on the mysterious and evil Isabella.
The new story mission is given by Yseult Meredith at the Mountain Home Outpost in Shattered Mountain and developer Amazon Games recommends players be at level 60 with Gearscores between 550 and 570.
It's not clear what Amazon Games plans to do with the storyline of the game beyond your confrontation with Isabella, although we'd guess there may be tease included.
Square Enix announced a Final Fantasy IX vinyl album will release on July 7, 2022. Pre-orders for the Final Fantasy IX vinyl album are available through the Japanese Square Enix online storefront. It will feature a total of 25 tracks spanning two discs. The album will cost 5,500 yen ($44) and is a limited product. [Thanks, Gamer!]
The first disc will contain 16 songs, with eight songs featured on each side. The second disc will have a total of nine songs, with Side A featuring six songs and Side B featuring three songs. You can take a look at the full track list for both discs in the Final Fantasy IX vinyl album below.
Disc 1 Side A
Disc 1 Side B
Disc 2 Side A
Disc 2 Side B
In an interview with Famitsu, Final Fantasy XIV (FFXIV) Producer Naoki Yoshida discussed the development of the Endwalker expansion. This included detailing some of the difficulties of developing Final Fantasy XIV: Endwalker during the ongoing situation with COVID-19. Additionally, he opened up concerning server congestion, the Metacritic score for FFXIV Endwalker, and how he believes these two things are tied together. [Thanks, Famitsu!]
Final Fantasy XIV Lead Story Designers Banri Oda and Natsuko Ishikawa also spoke briefly about the reception to Endwalker. Both Ishikawa and Oda are thankful that players chose to refrain from posting major spoilers on social media. However, Ishikawa feels as though it would have been fun to see reception to the narrative while the "conversation was still hot." That said, all three developers appreciate that most players seemed to abide by the request not to share major spoilers.
Bandai Namco has revealed new information about and a teaser trailer for the anime Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch from Mercury. This includes details regarding the protagonist and the Gundam Aerial that will appear. Additionally, the series will receive a prologue, and the Gundams that will appear in the prologue are already shown through the official website. The Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch from Mercury Prologue will appear sometime in summer 2022. [Thanks, Famitsu and Hobby Watch!]
The Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch from Mercury teaser trailer reveals the initial look of the protagonist and the new Gundam Aerial, but it also provide a glimpse into the art style of the anime. A brief bit of the score plays during the trailer as well. More information regarding Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch from Mercury will appear sometime in the future. This includes further details about the protagonist and general synopsis of the story. You can watch the Witch from Mercury trailer below.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ovOjz9Ejk5c
Atlus released the first Soul Hackers 2 Summoners Guide video, which outlines the game's new and returning mechanics such as Sabbath demon summoning and Commander Skills. In addition to new combat gameplay footage, the video explains how players can take full advantage of enemy weaknesses and abilities. Furthermore, the video dives into Arrow's relationship with Raven and Kaburagi.
The Soul Hackers 2 Summoners Guide video starts off by explaining the key concepts behind the Sabbath, an all-out demon summoning attack that Ringo can trigger at the end of each turn. Each enemy will have resistances and weaknesses, similar to combat in the Persona series.
Players can deal greater damage and build up "stacks" through the use of different types of attacks. The more stacks you build up, the stronger the Sabbath attack will be at the end of the turn. Specifically, players can build up to 16 stacks for maximum damage output. By summoning a demon with a "Tandem Skill," players can also add other effects such as healing allies or adding status ailments to the Sabbath attack.
Though you can only see their backs, Tsukumo Net Shop teased five plushes of the Hololive EN Myth girls. For reference, the VTubers who debuted in that batch are Gawr Gura, Mori Calliope, Watson Amelia, Takanashi Kiara, and Ninomae Ina’nis. Tsukumo does not offer international shipping, according to its website. You can see the teaser for the five Hololive EN Myth girl plushes below.
[embed]https://twitter.com/Tsukumo_netshop/status/1508398498428817411[/embed]
Tsukumo offers other Hololive EN merchandise outside of the plushes. There are acrylic mini figures for 900 JPY each. You can also purchase a set of can badges for 2000 JPY. Both the mini figures and can badges are no longer available for pre-order. As these Hololive EN Myth plushes are part of the same collaboration, it is likely that the faces on the dolls will be the same as on the badges or figures. More information on release date, sizes, and pricing will appear in the near future.
[gallery columns="1" ids="921956" link="file"]
Those adorable slugcats will return with friends in an expansion for Rain World. Named Downpour, the add-on will include ten new regions with thousands of maps, five new slugcats with their own abilities and stories, and two new modes. I'm certainly interested in the Safari mode which will let us poke around biomes and play as different creatures. Check out the trailer below.
Deep breath. The Cycle: Frontier is a free-to-play PvPvE first-person shooter. Whew, that's a lot of parts smushed together, but think of it like a baby's first Hunt: Showdown. You're a Prospector, tasked with descending into Fortuna 3, an alien planet filled with minerals and plant matter and dinosaurs. Corpos hire you to get these goods and bring them back safely. The catch is other players and inconvenient helicopter schedules. Other Prospectors will murder you for your precious rocks and weeds, so your aim is to get a helicopter out of Fortuna before this happens. It's a setup where success breeds success in its current closed beta form, but failure also begets frustration. In the end, you might wish Fortuna was yours and yours alone.
Remember, Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands is not a Borderlands game. In fact, it’s so much not a Borderlands game that it has almost identical visuals, PC system requirements and graphics options to Borderlands 3. The odds, right? Still, for seasoned fans of the loot shooter series, this does make the search for Wonderlands’ best settings a treading of comfortably familiar ground. Even if there are wizards this time.
Today Sony Interactive Entertainment announced a new format for the PlayStation Plus subscription, basically offering new tiers that merge the service with PlayStation Plus and more.
While the basic service remains more or less the same (now called PlayStation Plus Essentials), but with the games offered at no additional cost limited to two a month, the Extra and Premium tiers (or “Deluxe” where cloud streaming isn’t available) offer a catalog of games which basically replaces PlayStation Now.
On the other hand, PlayStation Now goes the way of the dodo as a standalone service. If you’re a PSNow subscriber, you’ll be grandfathered into a PSPlus Premium subscription with no increase to your fees at launch.
Here’s the full breakdown.
Following the reveal of Version 2.6 of Genshin Impact, developer HoYoVerse published a new trailer featuring the new character included in the update, Kamisato Ayato.
After the previous trailer, we take another look at Ayato’s moves behind the scene to help the resistance and his sister, Kamisato Ayaka.
He will be available in Genshin Impact’s gacha tomorrow, March 30.
Below you can take a look at the trailer, alongside the Japanese version if you prefer Japanese voice-overs.
I’ve written thousands of words about Death Stranding at this point. You know the game, I know the game, and three years after its original release, it’s still one of the best walking simulator/fetch quest games I’ve ever played. The Director’s Cut just made it even better; with streamlined tutorials, tools being made available much earlier than before, and new stealth levels to add more variety to the overall experience, Death Stranding was a dream to play.
The Director’s Cut is finally making its way to PC this month, and I’ve had the chance to play through it a little before launch. Long story short, it looks stunning. We knew this even when the base game got released on PC back in 2020, and it featured some really impressive draw distances with virtually no hiccups that we could notice.
Death Stranding Director’s Cut feels really well-optimized on PC, and it looks just as –if not more– beautiful as it does on PS5. I played the game at 1440p resolution and capped at 144 frames per second, and while the load times do feel a tad longer than they did on PS5, there was just no denying how breathtaking the post-apocalyptic world looked on an ultrawide monitor.
PlayStation has finally pulled back the curtains on its heavily-rumored relaunch of PlayStation Plus and PlayStation Now, and as expected, it combines Plus and Now benefits.
Spread across three tiers – PlayStation Plus Essential (cheapest), PlayStation Plus Extra, and PlayStation Plus Premium (most expensive) – one of these is basically what Plus has been for years. At the same time, the other two add in Now's backward compatibility features. All three tiers launch this June, although PlayStation did not reveal an official release date.
Here are the three tiers that will be available this June:
