March 2022

Yoko Taro revealed on Twitter that he has put up a Bukkoro merchandise shop on the Suzuri web store platform. The shop sells T-shirts and hoodies branded with Yoko Taro's logo, each available in two colors—black and white. Parts of the proceedings from these merchandise sales in March 2022 will go to donations for humanitarian aid in Ukraine and other regions in Europe.

Both T-shirts are available at 4,510 yen (~$39). The white hoodie has a price tag of 4,983 yen (~$43), while the black one has the highest price at 5,533 yen (~$48). All items are available in four sizes, from S to XL. People outside Japan can also order these clothes, as the web store offers the WorldShipping service.

All of the Yoko Taro merchandise mentioned here are part of the humanitarian donation drive enacted on Suzuri in March 2022. For each item sold by March 31, 2022, GMO Pepabo—the company behind the web store—will donate 1,000 yen to the Japanese Red Cross Society. The latter will then channel the donations for rescue operations in Ukraine and other European regions. Yoko Taro will also personally donate 300 yen for each item sold in the same duration, although he has yet to confirm his own donation target.

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A Pop Up Parade figure of Hololive VTuber Sakura Miko is now available for pre-order. Good Smile Company will sell the figure for $49.99, with pre-orders open until March 30, 2022. The figure will ship sometime in October 2022.

https://twitter.com/GoodSmile_US/status/1499581919863918619?s=20&t=fLWbamV5fJGv0Nvhgkv8Tg

Sakura Miko is one of several Hololive VTubers to debut as a solo personality. Her character is an elite shrine maiden. As such, Sakura Miko wears a stylized version of a Shinto shrine maiden's kimono. The figure recreates Sakura's current design, featuring clothes with various sakura motifs and shrine bells on her obi and hair ribbon. It also comes with its own stand at an approximate height of 170mm (6.69 inches).

The Sakura Miko figure is priced about $10 higher than the standard $39.99 price point for a Pop Up Parade figure. The only other Hololive Pop Up Parade figure to feature a higher price was the Usada Pekora Pop Up Parade figure, which debuted last month. Good Smile Company explained that both figures are priced higher due to similar circumstances and apologized for any inconveniences. The implication is that this figure costs more to manufacture.

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Star Citizen developer Cloud Imperium Games released a new video about the growing space simulator, focusing on upcoming content.

First of all, we get to see the new river technology that will be implemented in the game, starting with the first river on Microtech coming in Alpha 3.17.

The second part of the video focuses on new features coming to the reputation system in future patches, which will let players to work more meaningfully with or against the NPC factions in the universe.

You can watch it below.

In other Star Citizen news, the crowdfunding total has just passed $441 million and it’s currently sitting on $441,006,868.

The number of registered accounts has recently passed 3.5 million, and it’s at 3,583,517 at the moment of this writing.

It’s been over a week since Elden Ring has released, and players are still finding out secrets and tricks to navigating the game’s harsh, but beautiful, massive open-world — especially when it comes to earning and holding onto valuable runes. This includes everything from places to avoid to even characters that you can and can’t trust in the game.

One such character players should know about is a certain gatekeeper in Stormveil Castle. Once you arrive at this destination, you’ll run into a creepy guy located in the room next to the Stormveil Main Gate Site of Grace who tells you to use a side path instead of the main gate.

You’ll probably need to use this path to enter Stormveil Castle at this point, even though it’s a dangerous one that’ll likely get you killed a few times. But that isn’t even the worst part.

Following the reveal of its first game Slitterhead, Bokeh Game Studio released another extensive video in which its founders talked about their work.

The video (which the second of a series started a few days ago) stars Sony Japan Studio veteran and Bokeh CEO Keiichiro Toyama, who is well-known as the creator of the Gravity Rush, Siren, and Silent Hill franchises, CTO Junya Okura, and COO Kazunobu Sato.

We hear that the plan is for players to be able to either avoid confrontation or fight back. You’ll even be able to initiate combat yourself.

More details about enemies and gameplay were also shared, while the developers mention that the game is a bit more explicit than previous titles they have worked on.

There may be joke endings like in Silent Hill and Toyama-san would like to include elements like collectibles that provide lore about the game’s world.

Sato-san talks about the work of the studio with Unreal Engine and we hear that the game won’t be open world, but won’t be linear either. The team wants to add a complex approach to discover the story from multiple angles.

We also learn that the character wearing a black outfit and a helmet in the trailer is named Alex.

Platform: PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4
Publisher: PlayStation Studios
Developer: Polyphony Digital
Release: March 4, 2022

Gran Turismo 7 is out today and the always-online game’s microtransactions are too. While you’re not required by any means to purchase in-game credits with real money to buy cars in the game, it seems doing so will cost more than it has in previous iterations. 

Back in 2020, developer Kaizen Game Works unleashed its dizzyingly high-concept open-world detective adventure Paradise Killer on Switch and PC, while PlayStation and Xbox owners were left eyeing up its woozy blend of sun-kissed investigatory action and eldritch nightmare from the sidelines. That's all set to change, however, with an expanded version of Paradise Killer finally heading to Xbox and PlayStation on 16th March.

In its original guise, Paradise Killer was wonderfully idiosyncratic, a breathlessly stylish blend of visual novel and exploratory open-world murder mystery unfolding on the gaudy, sun-drenched Paradise 24 - part tropical island retreat, part shrine to a pantheon of preposterous cosmic gods - where players, in the role of Lady Love Die, must hunt for clues and cross-examine suspects to discover exactly who horrifically butchered the island's ruling council.

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Nintendo says its Russian eShop has been "temporarily placed into maintenance mode" after its payment service provider suspended the processing of payments in rubles.

The news (as spotted by Nintendo Life) comes via a small service status update on the support page of Nintendo's Russian website. A Google translated version of the statement reads, "Due to the fact that the payment service used in Nintendo eShop has suspended the processing of payments in rubles, Nintendo eShop in Russia is temporarily placed into maintenance mode."

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The latest entry into the Gran Turismo series, Gran Turismo 7, was released today on PS4 and PS5 where players can collect hundreds of cars and race them casually or competitively.

Gran Turismo 7 looks absolutely stunning, and will of course look the best on the PS5 as the improved hardware will be able to put the game to the limit. If you really want to get immersed in the GT7 experience, you would be best off using a driving wheel and pedals to play the game, and you can get them included as a bundle at Currys right now.

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EA has announced it will be stopping all sales of its games and content, including virtual currency bundles, in Russia and its ally Belarus while Russia's invasion of the Ukraine continues.

"We continue to be shocked at the conflict that is unfolding in Ukraine," the publisher wrote in a statement on EA's website, "and join so many voices around the world in calling for peace and an end to the invasion. We stand in solidarity with the people of Ukraine."

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When Katharine told me about this idea to take a look at RPS Advent Calendar winners of years past, I thought it was a good idea. But when she said she wanted me to do the first one, and that the first GOTY awarded on RPS was 2007's Portal, I almost laughed. Does Portal hold up? Why even bother asking? Shut this whole article down. Of course it holds up. It's Portal.

Of course, conventional bait-and-switch writing would dictate that this is the point where I tell you that, aha, after playing Portal again in the blinding light of 2022 it's actually a heap of rubbish, such as could only otherwise be found on the streets on day ten of a two week bin-lorry strike. But obviously that is not the case, because we're talking about Portal. If anything it's even better than I remember. Like. It's fuckin' Portal.

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Extremely good vaporwave demon murder mystery and/or sicknasty video game Paradise Killer is getting a buncha free new content on PC, coinciding with its launch onto Xbox and PlayStation consoles. New stuff on PC? Why, that's what we write about! Thank our lucky stars.

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"Blimp" is a great word and the Hindenburg robbed us of a world where we got to say it often.

Blimps is an odd game. At a glance, it looks like an Elite-esque trading game, but it's more like... well. It's more like a game from the time before genres. A confusing, poorly explained time that mostly produced rubbish but occasionally produced a strange little gem like this.

You run a little airship business, on paper. In practice, your job is to figure out how to make enough money to get out. Ideally within an hour.

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Square Enix will release a NieR art book and NieR Automata manga in English in 2022 through its Square Enix Manga & Books imprint. First, NieR Art – Kazuma Koda Art Collection will release on October 25, 2022. Then the manga YoRHa – Pearl Harbor Descent Record – A NieR: Automata Story Vol. 1 will follow on December 13, 2022.

NieR Art – Kazuma Koda Art Collection is a hardcover book collecting artwork from series concept artist Kazuma Koda. It features his art from NieR Automata, NieR Reincarnation, and NieR Replicant ver.1.22474487139… The book will additionally include commentary from Koda, brand new art, rough sketches, album cover art, and promotional images for the YoRHa stage plays. NieR Art – Kazuma Koda Art Collection clocks in at 160 pages, retails for $27.99, and is available to pre-order at various retailers now.

People who missed the FFXIV Chronicles of Light short stories collection will get another chance to get the book. Square Enix announced it will get a reprint in 2022. The compilation will return on October 18, 2022. It first appeared back in March 2019 worldwide.

The short stories people will find in this book might seem familiar, as most of the FFXIV Chronicles of Light first appeared online. There are 25 stories total in it. While 21 are available to read online, the remaining four are only available in this collection. Each story also has an image from Toshiyuki Itahana to go with it.

Here’s the full list of stories available to read online via the FFXIV, Heavensward, and Stormblood sites.

• ”A Calm After the Storm”
• ”A Display of Ingenuity”
• ”A Malm in Her Shoes”
• ”The Dreamer and the Dream”
• ”The First Step”
• ”For Coin and Country”
• ”From Azure Ashes”
• ”In Darkness Blooms the Lily”
• ”In the Louisoix’s Wake”
• ”O Nhaama, Where Art Thou”
• ”Of Friends Lost and Found”
• ”The Sultana’s Seven”
• ”Thoughts Unspoken”
• ”Through Fire and Blood”
• ”Vow’s Unbroken”
• ”The Walker’s Path”
• ”The Weight of a Name”
• ”What Remains of a Knight”
• ”When the Wager Pays Off”
• ”Where Victory and Glory Lead”
• ”Words, Deeds, Beliefs”

The new stories in the collection are as follows.

aNCHOR has finalized the release date for Immortals: Muv-Luv Alternative. It will release the free-to-play mobile action RPG in Japan on March 17, 2022.

Immortals will feature many people from the entire Muv-Luv universe. The game will not only feature characters from the mainline titles like Takeru Shirogane and Meiya Mitsurugi. It will also include characters from other spin-offs and related titles, such as Yui Takamura from Total Eclipse and The Euro Front's Ilfriede von Feulner.

All players who start playing Immortals: Muv-Luv Alternative during its launch period will receive Mikoto Yoroi as an SR-grade character. If the game reaches 50,000 pre-registrations by the launch day, aNCHOR will add the TSF-Type00A Takemikazuchi as an additional bonus.

aNCHOR initially revealed this game as Project Immortal in December 2019. A Japanese Muv-Luv fan published the self-made project on Twitter, but it became official after the series author Yoshimune Kouki noticed it. In October 2021, the publisher originally announced February 2022 as a release window for the mobile game. However, it later pushed back the release window to mid-March 2022. The game's developers needed more time to fine-tune the game's features before its official release.

Babylon’s Fall on PlayStation 5

It’s easy to see what Babylon’s Fall is going for. Live-service games such as Destiny 2 and Warframe have been drawing in players by the boatload. However, seeing as Babylon’s Fall is $60 whereas the other two games are free-to-play, it’s almost impossible to recommend this over the other two games.

Babylon’s Fall lets you choose your character from three races, all the while inexplicably warning that any character created can’t be deleted later. There is no clear reason given as to why this is, but it may have something to do with the game’s battle pass. You can be the speedy Huysian, the stalwart Agavian, and the crafty Geleilion.

Today Third-party developers had plenty of reveals about upcoming aircraft and airport add-ons for Microsoft Flight Simulator.

First of all, we take another extensive look at the BAE 146 by Just Flight, over two separate posts following yesterday’s describing the second and third part of a test flight.

The developer also mentioned on Twitter an “educated guess” of six weeks before release.

1st shot – The cockpit is equipped with extensive engine instrumentation but the start-up procedure is logical and quick to master.

2nd shot – With all four engines started, the flaps extended to 18 degrees and ground equipment clear, we can begin our taxi to the runway. The brand new Wwise sound set, complete with over 500 custom sounds, really adds to the immersion!

3rd shot – Unlike most aircraft, we’ll keep the APU running after engine start. We’ll use APU air for the air conditioning and pressurisation until we switch to engine air during the climb. As well as powerful landing lights, the 146 is fitted with taxi, turnoff, wing, logo, strobe and two-intensity level navigation lights.

Platform: PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, PC
Publisher: Rockstar Games
Developer: Rockstar North
Release: September 17, 2013 (PlayStation 3, Xbox 360), November 18, 2014 (PlayStation 4, Xbox One), April 14, 2015 (PC), March 15, 2022 (PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S)
Rating: Mature

The Nintendo Switch console is currently under £250 at Amazon.

It's a small saving on the console but a saving none the less. The standard price of a Switch console these days is £259.99, so you'll be saving yourself a handy tenner with Amazon's latest offer and you have the choice of either the Neon or Grey version.

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I’ve gotten addicted to an itch.io game called Vampire Survivors.

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Lending his vocals to the Gran Turismo 7 soundtrack, Idris Elba appears as a featured artist on The FaNaTiX’s song “Vroom”. The track features in the game’s new Music Rally mode, and appears early in the game. Though the song titles are displayed on-screen, it appeared during a race in wet conditions and, focused on…

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Adding working lights is a fun way to take a Lego creation to the next level, and the company even includes light-up features on some of its sets, including a glowing Christmas tree. But this clever hack makes integrating lighting into a build impossibly easy thanks to the same technology that makes wireless charging…

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Microsoft are suspending all new sales of products and services in Russia, the tech giant has announced in a new blog post. The post also offers an update on Microsofts efforts in protecting Ukraine's cybersecurity from Russian attacks.

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GSC Game World say that development of S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 has been "shifted to the sidelines" in a video responding to the war in Ukraine, but pledged to continue making the game in future.

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EA are removing their content from sale in Russia and Belarus while the invasion of Ukraine continues. That includes both games sold via Origin and the EA app, as well as in-game purchases, and they're working on removing their games from other digital stores serving the region.

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With Triangle Strategy’s launch and the recent reveal of the Live A Live remaster, our eyes are on Square Enix’s “HD-2D” efforts. What do you want to see in the next HD-2D game? A remaster? An homage to a classic? The Siliconera writers made their picks.

Chrono Trigger is one of those classic games that I hear tons of great things about but I never actually experienced it myself. When I first saw my friend's older brother playing it? I (perhaps rather blasphemously) wrote it off as "ugly" compared to Final Fantasy X. Though it has been released on more modern platforms such as Windows PC and the Nintendo DS, I think it would be a fairly good game to experience in HD-2D.

My second choice is Brave Fencer Musashi for purely sentimental reasons, but that would require completely overhauling the game's aesthetics. Since the point of HD-2D is to keep that retro atmosphere, it probably ruins the idea. — Stephanie

Is it too soon after the release of the Final Fantasy Pixel Remaster line to ask for a Final Fantasy HD-2D Remaster? The standout work on That Scene from Final Fantasy VI drove home how much I'd like to see my favorite FF game in the new style. And I've never seen Square Enix shy away from a chance to sell me something I like again! So let's consider this a distant promise.

Nintendo in Japan will release a white Nintendo Switch (OLED model) that comes in a Mouthful Mode Kirby box. The box itself will not be able to absorb any of the Nintendo Switch’s capabilities or powers. It will cost 37,980 JPY (approximately $328.40) and will ship on March 24, 2022.

This Mouthful Mode Kirby Nintendo Switch box will only come with the white version of the console. As opposed to a normal Nintendo Switch, this version has a 7-inch OLED screen rather than an LCD one. The difference between the two is that the range of colors an OLED screen can display is wider than that of an LCD screen. The OLED model also has a wider stand so that you can more easily prop the Nintendo Switch up on a surface.

People in Russia or who use the Russian eShop on their Nintendo Switch or other systems won't be able to access it to buy games. The official site for the region noted that it is inaccessible. The support page cited a payment processing issue and said that the storefront is in a maintenance mode. [Thanks, Nintendo Life!]

People who attempt to access the Russian Nintendo eShop will get the error code 2813-0999. This is related to the 2813 family of outage codes for the console. These all tend to note that the shop is either unavailable, doesn't exist, or is down due to maintenance.

Nintendo hasn't issued any statements on the availability of the eShop in Russia or made a statement to offer an explanation. However, the official support page did promise eventual updates on the situation.

This marks a second game retailer to become inaccessible in the country at the beginning of March 2022. CD Projekt Red announced it would pull access to its GOG storefront in Russia and Belarus. It noted the action was a measure caused by the war in Ukraine.

There’s a new Genshin Impact live wallpaper, and this one stars Ganyu. The background features her in Liyue. She’s posed with a parasol. People with the N0va Desktop application can set it up on their PC or Android tablet.

While Ganyu’s back is to the viewer, from time to time she’ll move around and look at someone. She’s standing at the edge of Liyue Harbor.

While this Ganyu live wallpaper isn’t available on Android phones, there is one in the mobile N0va Desktop Genshin Impact section. People can find “A Night in Liyue Harbor” there. It is based on the character teaser of the same name. You can see it in the trailer before. The wallpaper version features the pose shown in the first 17 seconds of the video.

Some of other recent Genshin Impact live wallpaper options also featured returning characters. Following their rerun banners, ones for Eula and Xiao showed up.

In Elden Ring, you’ve got to take any chance you can get to get a win, especially when it comes to getting your hands on some sweet runes. Luckily, you can accomplish this in the game regardless of what skill level you are in about 15 minutes.

Yes, I know this comes off a bit like an infomercial about fat loss where it is too good to be true but, I promise, this is real. All you have to do is kill a somewhat defenseless dragon. That is it. No tricks, trap doors, or secret second stages included. Just you having to live with killing something that isn’t even fighting back.

So what do you have to do to bleed this golden pig dry? Well, you’re obviously going to need info on where to find it, which we’ve detailed below:

Russia openly attacked and invaded Ukraine on February 24 after weeks of mounting tensions between the two countries, with hundreds of Ukrainian citizens reportedly killed by bombings and Russian militia as a result. As the world watches this historical and terrifying event unfold, efforts have begun to aid civilians and organizations on the ground floor and those displaced, like the Ukrainian Red Cross. Many of these efforts have come from studios within the video game industry, some in the form of charity drives, others with public displays of support for Ukraine. 

Game Informer will continue to update this story. 

Fortnite

Epic Games announced that from March 20 through April 3, all proceeds from its popular battle royale, Fortnite, would be donated to humanitarian relief for people affected by the war in Ukraine. 

pic.twitter.com/BADuu3pwCF

— Fortnite (@FortniteGame) March 20, 2022

One day later, the Fortnite Twitter account revealed that Fortnite players had already raised $36 million. 

Platform: PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, PC, Mac
Publisher: Square Enix
Developer: Square Enix
Release: December 7, 2021

Members of the Final Fantasy XIV held a live Letter From the Producer presentation this morning, where Producer Naoki Yoshida (AKA Yoshi-P) gave some insight into what players will find in the first big patch for the Endwalker expansion.

Titled Newfound Adventure, Patch 6.1 will introduce just that: a new adventure to embark on. Or, at least, the beginnings of one. Rolling credits on Endwalker's main scenario closed the book on many ongoing storylines, including the overarching narrative of the Ascians, Primals, the Garlean Empire as we know it, and even more threads. So, now the FFXIV team is ramping up something new, and unfortunately, something that is still unknown to us at this point.

Bandcamp, best known as an online music distributor and lorded over as a hub for independent artists and labels, announced on Wednesday that they would be joining Epic Games in a blog post written by CEO Ethan Diamond. The price Epic Games paid for Bandcamp is currently unknown.

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Batman movies are kind of like seasons of Doctor Who. Every now and then a new season with a new Doctor will come along and give a perspective on a classic character that will appeal to a new group of fans. In a similar way, The Batman employs a new pool of creative talent to give us a version of the DC Comics hero…

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In a bid to make Reddit more like the other Reddit-adjacent apps out there, the platform has added a ‘Discover Tab’. RIP the Reddit we all love.

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