March 2022

After some eight years since the last numbered instalment, Polyphony Digital's flagship PlayStation series returns today with Gran Turismo 7 - and going live alongside it on the PlayStation Store are some microtransactions which represent a slightly tweaked approach to the one we saw in Gran Turismo Sport.

The microtransactions in Gran Turismo Sport - released in a post-launch update - had players buying individual cars at a set price, with only those of a value up to 2 million in-game credits available for purchase. Gran Turismo 7, however, does away with that restriction and simply offers in-game currency for sale, starting at £1.99 for 100,000 credits all the way to £15.99 for 2,000,000 credits.

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Twitch has recently lost a number of high profile employees amid claims it's losing touch with its community.

According to a new report from Bloomberg, at least six top employees have left since the start of the year, including the chief operating officer, chief content officer, and head of creator development.

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The state of California says that, by law, companies with boards consisting of six people or more must have at least three women serving on them. Activision's board exceeds this number, and yet it failed to introduce a third women in 2021.

Activision has stated that the reason for this failure is due to its planned acquisition by Microsoft complicating matters.

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Babylon's Fall is an online action-RPG developed by PlatinumGames, the devs behind excellent hack n' slashers like NieR Automata and Bayonetta. This is a studio that knows how to craft one-off stories filled with flashy combat, humour, and emotional gut-punches.

But the game is also Platinum's first foray into the dreaded minefield of live service and it's... not good. Aside from the teensiest glimpses of what could've been, the game is a bemusing cascade of loot and stats that don't mean all that much. The combat has its moments but is largely bleh. The story is meh. And it's all yours for £60 - heh?!

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During the second part of the FFXIV Letter from the Producer Live LXIX, the A Realm Reborn changes and its Duty Support Trust system came up. Duty Support is what the Trust system will be known as for main scenario duties going forward. It will begin to arrive for A Realm Reborn 2.0 content starting with the 6.1 patch. Director and Producer Naoki Yoshida and Global Community Producer Toshio “Foxclon” Murouchi also went over additional A Realm Reborn 6.1 changes.

The March 2022 Letter from the Producer Live went over what people can expect. As mentioned in the February 2022 installment, the goal of the new FFXIV Duty Support system is to make it easier for people to play alone to complete tasks in-game. When you go through 2.0 main scenario dungeons or trials alone, your NPCs will be automatically picked based on what job you are using.

Here’s the full list of supported FFXIV A Realm Reborn Duty Support dungeons and Trials. All of them will be available in 6.1.

Final Fantasy XIV players could soon be traveling across new dimensional barriers. FFXIV Data Center Travel will debut alongside patch 6.18, according to the latest Letter from the Producer Live broadcast. Producer Naoki Yoshida presented details on the planned feature. It's intended for players on one Data Center to be able to temporarily send their characters to another Data Center and play alongside players "native" to that Data Center.

Typically, FFXIV Data Centers are arranged into Physical and Logical Data Centers. Each Physical Data Center is located in a certain region. Those data centers are divided into multiple Logical Data Centers, which themselves contain various "World" servers that serve up instances of the game world to players. For example, a character might be on the Lamia World, which is located in the Primal Logical Data Center, which in turn is in the North American Physical Data Center. FFXIV Data Center Travel lets players travel from one Logical Data Center to another within the same Physical Data Center. That means the previously mentioned character from Lamia on Primal will be able to visit a friend on Balmung on Crystal.

The system works similarly to the World Visit system already in the game, with some additional restrictions. Players on another Data Center won't be able to use their Free Company Chat and may have PVP Teams restricted. Cross-World Linkshells will also be restricted, but from Patch 6.2 onward, it will be possible to join them on other data centers.

Final Fantasy XIV (FFXIV) Ultimate Raiders could soon have a new challenge to surmount. The next entry into the Final Fantasy XIV "Ultimate Raid" series is coming to patch 6.11 of Endwalker. Called "Dragonsong's Reprise," the Ultimate Dragonsong Raid will cover the final battles of the FFXIV Heavensward expansion.

Producers Naoki "Yoshi-P" Yoshida and Toshio "Foxclon" Murouchi teased the new content during a Letter from the Producer Live broadcast. Though they didn't go into detail about what players could expect, some in-development screens from the Ultimate Dragonsong Raid were on hand to hint at the possibilities.

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FFXIV Ultimate Raids are designed as challenging content for high-end players, with a level of complexity that exceeds the Extreme Trials and Savage Raids elsewhere in the game. Currently there are four Ultimate Raids in the game, spanning content from A Realm Reborn and Heavensward. Ultimate Raids usually take the form of "boss gauntlets" that pit players in groups of eight against multiple, heavily enhanced versions of the bosses they fought in the main scenario or other content. According to the team, though, Ultimate Dragonsong will be a bit different. The fight was designed by FFXIV Battle Content Director Masaki "Mr. Ozma" Nakagawa and will contain twists that set it apart from other Ultimate Raids.

A window for the FFXIV 6.1 patch release date appeared once the Letter from the Producer Live LXIX began. People can expect to see it sometime in mid-April 2022. Once that was out of the way, Director and Producer Naoki Yoshida and Global Community Producer Toshio “Foxclon” Murouchi went over all of the features people can expect in 6.1 and the 6.1x updates.

First, after the FFXIV 6.1 release date, people can expect a number of new main and side quests. There will be a new Warrior of Light main scenario quest chapter. There will also be new role quests and the Tataru’s Grand Endeavor side quests. The role quests will require people to complete all Endwalker ones first. A Realm Reborn quests will be improved. There will be as yet unspecified job adjustments. It is unknown if they will apply to all jobs or just the Reaper and Sage added in Endwalker. Also, Ishgard housing will open in Empyreum.

The Unending Codex will be unlocked during these 6.1 main scenario quests. Once you go to your Collection, you can look up characters and terms from the base game to 6.0 to catch up. The announcement noted, “All characters and terms will not be immediately available.” You will need to play and earn them.

During a Final Fantasy XIV (FFXIV) Letter from the Producer Live, Producer Naoki Yoshida revealed details about the Myths of the Realm raid. Information about the raid originally appeared in June 2021. However, details regarding the exact content that will appear have been scarce. That said, Square Enix has released a roadmap, which revealed the Myths of the Realm raid will appear through patch 6.1 of FFXIV.

The first part of the Myths of the Realm raid will arrive alongside the release of patch 6.1. Several screenshots of the area in which the raid will take place were shown. These includes several statues of gryphons made out of white stone guarding a mysterious tower.

You can take a look at the image below.

Today Square Enix hosted the 69th Final Fantasy XIV Letter From the Producer Live broadcast, focusing on upcoming update 6.1.

As usual, producer and director Naoki Yoshida and global community producer Toshio Murouchi provided plenty of information, including following patches like 6.11, 6.15, and 6.18.

First of all, we get to see the key art and learn the title of the update, which will be “Newfound Adventure.” It will release in mid-April and the key art portrays the fact that the warrior of light is going back to being an adventurer.

First of all, a new chapter of the main scenario quest will begin.

Platform: PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PC
Publisher: Activision
Developer: Treyarch
Release: November 13, 2020
Rating: Mature

There's a lot going on in this live-action advert for Elden Ring, which publisher Bandai Namco has produced for Thailand.

I don't want to explain too much - frankly, I'm not sure I can - but it's safe to say this is not your typical video game commercial.

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Gunborg: Dark Matters looks like a Metroidvania, but it isn't. Something about the layout tricked me - warrenous 2D corridors, suggesting complexity, back-tracking, several flavours of door. In fact, this is an action game - a short, punchy action-platformer game with an emphasis of repeating levels until you ace them. I think it's great.

It is a work out for the triggers. Trigger to jump. Trigger to attack. Trigger to pick up weapons. Trigger to activate a shield. Almost all of these uses require a little explanation.

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The Nvidia GeForce RTX 3050 might be the first GPU to benefit, in a roundabout way, from the bonkers price gouging that’s been spoiling the fun of graphics cards for nearly two years. In normal times, it wouldn’t make much sense to buy this £239 / $249 GPU – not because it’s the lowest in the RTX range, but because the much more powerful RTX 3060 would only cost a few notes more.

And yet, these are not normal times. While the MSI GeForce RTX 3050 Gaming X 8G model I’ve tested has already ballooned to £380 / $450, this leaves it looking like much more of a genuine alternative to RTX 3060, which is generally around £500 in the UK. And while it’s ultimately still a 1080p specialist, the RTX 3050 takes a big step up from previous GTX XX50 GPUs by offering DLSS and ray tracing support.

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Square Enix announced two of its FFVII Remake books will appear in English in 2022. Both FFVII Traces of Two Pasts and Material Ultimania Plus will be localized. The prequel novel will appear first. It is set to appear on November 8, 2022. The updated version of Material Ultimania will launch on December 13, 2022.

FFVII Traces of Two Pasts first debuted in Japan back in July 2021. It’s written by Kazushige Nojima, who also is one of the writers of the game. It focuses on both Aerith and Tifa. The “two pasts” are actually divided into two stories going over what the two lead heroines went through ahead of the game.

Here’s its English cover.

The Sonic the Hedgehog 2 movie will have a Japanese dub when it appears in Japan as Sonic the Movie / Sonic VS Knuckles. Paramount Pictures has published a new trailer with Japanese voiceovers on its Japanese YouTube channel. It also announced the list of Japanese voice actors for the main characters in the film.

Paramount Pictures had previously confirmed that Taishi Nakagawa and Koichi Yamadera will return to voice Sonic and Dr. Ivo Robotnik, respectively. The Japanese voice actors for Tom and Maddie Wachowski will also reprise their roles. Tails will have a familiar voice from Ryo Hirohashi, the voice actress who has been voicing the character since the 2003 anime Sonic X.

Knuckles the Echidna, who did not appear in the first movie, will have a different voice in this movie. Nobutoshi Canna would usually provide voices for the character in most Japanese Sonic games and anime shows. However, the new film will instead have Subaru Kimura voicing the echidna.

Here's the list of Japanese dub voice actors for the main characters in the Sonic the Hedgehog 2 movie:

There’s finally a release date for the Nintendo Switch The House of the Dead Remake. The shooter will return on April 7, 2022. However, people will be able to call dibs on a digital copy before that. Starting on March 31, 2022, people will be able to purchase a copy in the eShop. Forever Entertainment went over some of its features and shared a new trailer as well.

In addition to the base game people expect, complete with an option to play it locally with someone else and different endings, there will be some additions. There will be a new mode. Details about it weren’t discussed, but it will involve “hordes of the undead.” There will also be a gallery where you can see who you’ve fought so far. You can take detailed screenshots with a Photo Mode. There will also be achievements to earn.

Here’s the trailer showing off how The House of the Dead Remake looks on the Switch. It spends over a minute looking at gameplay snippets. It briefly looks at standard zombie encounters, but doesn’t really focus on any boss fights.

The last time we saw The House of the Dead Remake was in April 2021. Another trailer and screenshots appeared back then.

Nijisanji English has opened auditions for male and female VTuber characters. Applications for the audition are open until March 31, 2022, 23:59 JST / 7:59 a.m. PDT / 10:59 a.m. EDT. Some basic requirements include that applicants be at least 18 years of age and able to stream continuously for at least a year. Furthermore, the application requires a five-minute video or audio recording of applicants introducing themselves and acting in character.

Applying for the position will also require applicants to speak fluent English and be capable of delivering content at least three times a week. The selection process is split into three rounds, the last of which is a call and video interview. Anycolor aims to contact applicants within one month after the closing date.

Although the application requires you to submit a five-minute video in character, the submitted video will not require any use of Live2D or special software. Nijisanji also notes that gender does not affect the selection process.

The next-generation release of GTA V and GTA Online is almost here, and Rockstar Games is more than ready to help players transition from PS4 and Xbox One consoles. This news came by way of a recent press release, which detailed all of the player-friendly features and hardware improvements fans can expect from moving over to PS5 and Xbox Series X|S.

One key detail they stressed is that they want to make sure that players can transfer all of their content over seamlessly. As such, they’ve made it so that both GTA V Story Mode progress and GTA Online characters and progress will transfer over to PS5 and Xbox Series X|S, or across console platforms, with a one-time migration for each.

To begin this process, players will simply have to enter GTA V on their current console account and Upload Save Game option from the Game tab of the Pause Menu, uploading it to the Rockstar Games Social Club. This is also where players will find their GTA Online character progress to PS5 or Xbox Series X|S, which includes any Characters, GTA$, Progression, Stats, Vehicles, Properties, Weapons, Clothing, and Player-Created Jobs.

Microsoft has announced that it is suspending new sales of its products and services in Russia, which presumably includes Xbox-related products like consoles and games. 

This news comes as a response to Russia’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine, which has seen hundreds of Ukrainian civilians killed in bombings and more. Microsoft says it is angered and saddened by what it is witnessing happen in Ukraine at the hands of Russia and it is stopping many aspects of its business with Russia as a result. 

Platform: Switch
Publisher: Forever Entertainment
Developer: Forever Entertainment
Release: April 7, 2022

The House of the Dead: Remake was announced last Spring and set to hit Switch sometime in 2021. That obviously didn’t happen and it’s been a minute since we’ve seen or heard anything about the game...until today, because Forever Entertainment has released a new trailer that reveals the remake’s release date. 

Fortunately, those anxious to play this classic won’t have to wait long because the trailer reveals The House of the Dead: Remake will hit Switch on April 7. The new trailer, which showcases some of the classic 1997 arcade gameplay and enemies we’ll be facing, hopefully tides you over until then. 

More details on the upcoming release of Grand Theft Auto 5 and GTA Online for PlayStation 5 and Xbox series X have been revealed by Rockstar.

One of the most notable points is Rockstar's migration plan for GTA Online. "PS4 and Xbox One players will be able to transfer both their GTA 5 Story Mode progress and their current GTA Online characters and progression to PS5 and Xbox Series X|S, or across console platforms, with a one-time migration for each," Rockstar writes.

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Halo Infinite's early December campaign launch saw the arrival of a massively anticipated title that delivered on many levels, but couldn't shake many of the technical issues we highlighted throughout the preview/flighting process. However, towards the end of February, the Halo Infinite Season 1 mid-season update arrived, promising a fix for one of our biggest issues - the fact that first-person animations operated at a lower frame-rate than the rest of the game.

So where does Halo Infinite stand in the here and now? The truth is that while key problems are addressed with the arrival of the recent patch, there's still a range of issues that haven't been touched, to the obvious detriment of the presentation - especially evident in the single-player campaign.

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Pokemon Scarlet and Violet are coming to Nintendo Switch in late 2022. The duo of new Pokemon games, developed by Game Freak, was unexpectedly announced in the latest Pokemon Presents.

Fans of the Pokemon franchise have only just been treated to the widely-popular spin-off game, Pokemon Legends: Arceus in January 2022, so news of Pokemon Scarlet and Violet also getting a 2022 release date has been a huge and exciting surprise.

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Microsoft has suspended all new sales of its products and services in Russia.

The decision, announced this afternoon in a blog post by company president Brad Smith, does not mention Xbox by name but seems sure to include Microsoft's gaming brand.

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Patch 6.1 for Final Fantasy 14 is due out in mid-April, named Newfound Adventure.

During the latest Letter from the Producer broadcast, producer and director Naoki Yoshida outlined what players can expect from the next update.

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There's a virtual exhibition for Norco, the extremely moody, murky point-and-click mystery coming at the end of this month, that you can play here on Steam for free.

I've had a little poke around and, alright, it's a room with some game art in it. Stills from Norco's early-game environments, static captures of a scene of a distant, rusty skyline pocked with dead trees, another with plumes of chemical exhaust. Silhouettes of chemical plants, overpass bridges, degrading swamps. Plus a few snapshots of the rooms and places you'll get to poke and prod more thoroughly in the game itself (as I did in my first look at the game), and a secret room I won't spoil.

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The long-awaited House of the Dead: Remake for Nintendo Switch will launch on 7th April.

This is a remake of the 1997 arcade classic rail-shooter, which has been updated with new visuals, controls, two-player local co-op, a photo mode and achievements.

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After re-emerging from development hell earlier this year, Ubisoft's reboot of The Settlers has now plunged back into its murky depths with another delay. Ubisoft cite feedback from the recent closed beta in January as the main reason behind this further postponement, and have rather worryingly decided to delay its launch until an undisclosed "later date".

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Remember when video game adverts were good? I'm thinking that Halo 3 "Believe" one that featured a cool diorama, or Gears Of War teaming up with Gary Jules for an emotional rendition of Mad World. We just aren't treated to the same level of grandeur nowadays. A few frames, Guns N' Roses, "RATED M FOR MATURE". That's our lot.

But Thailand clearly puts out good video game adverts. One of note features Elden Ring, a family, a strange trumpet noise, and a story as complex and obtuse as FromSoft's offerings. Give it a watch below, you won't be disappointed. More confused and emotional, perhaps.

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When Elden Ring was first thrust out into the world back in 2019, I have to admit I was pretty nonplussed about it. I've said before I've never been much of a Soulsite, and it's not for lack of trying. I tried my darnedest to get into Dark Souls III when it first came out, but holy deathrattles, it was such a long, gruelling slog. Vordt of the Boreal Valley, the second (yes, second) boss of Dark Souls III, remains my lifelong nemesis. I just couldn't get past it. I'm someone who always likes to be making forward, tangible progress when I play games, and banging my head against the same boss for hours on end is my idea of actual hell.

I'm no better at playing Elden Ring, to be honest. I spent a good couple of hours last night just trying to get past one of those big tentacle-beard monkey lads with the hollowed out stomachs on the way up to Stormveil Castle. Not even a named, actual sub-boss! And yet, I'm actually enjoying this version of Souls-style head-bashing a lot more than I've ever done before. And I think it's to do with Elden Ring's plentiful supply of save points.

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Elden Ring may be FromSoftware's most approachable Soulsborne game but it's still tough as nails. Especially when you can't pause the action and take a breather, or like, dash downstairs because the microwave has pinged. But thankfully there's a mod that lets you do just this, giving you peace of mind when faced with a bleep from your beloved 800W box. Worth a look, I reckon.

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Yet another Genshin Impact EP music video debuted. Each of these offers an opportunity to listen to songs from the game’s soundtrack while watching ambient footage. A major playable character is also often shown. This time around, the focus is on music heard around Inazuma’s Watatsumi Island while Kokomi hangs around. “The Iridescent Waves” segment offers a way to watch and hear the new EP.

The Watatsumi Island music video features three songs from Genshin Impact. Things start out with “Island of Crystal and Pearl.” From there, it moves to “In a Harmonious Atmosphere.” It closes things out with “A Tranquil Town.” In each situation, Kokomi walks around the area. For the second two songs, she hangs around the Sangonomiya Shrine.

Here is the Genshin Impact “The Iridescent Waves” Watatsumi Island music video.