May 2022

Developed by Gumi in conjunction with Square Enix, War of the Visions: Final Fantasy Brave Exvius is a tactical RPG that’s currently available on mobile devices. It also features a gacha system where players can spend a premium currency to pull for highly sought after characters. This week’s patch saw the continuation of the Persona 5 Royal collaboration event and the release of the P5-themed Vision Card, as well as the release of a new water unit named Astrius.

It’s worth noting that Astrius has been hyped up in the War of the Visions community for months. The game’s water element has been languishing a little bit, but has since seen a resurgence with the release of Celes during the FFVI collab, and with Astrius, the meta will likely get a big shakeup.

Here’s a quick rundown of Astrius’s kit:

Echoes of Mana is the latest mobile gacha game from Wright Flyer Studios and Square Enix, and it features characters from across the popular Mana JRPG series. While reception to the game seems to be largely positive so far, it hasn’t been without its little bugs and issues. The energy system still needs some tweaking, and players had noticed that the game’s daily Lucre quests weren’t quite as lucrative as they probably should be.

In fact, eagle-eyed players quickly noticed that they could earn way more Lucre by doing other daily training quests and selling the rewards they got from those.

In response to player feedback and this observation in particular, WFS and Square Enix have since pushed out a new update to the game to fix the Lucre training quest:

“Due to player feedback, we have adjusted the amount of Lucre obtainable from ‘Daily Training Quest: Lucre’ to be increased, and players can now receive more Lucre than before.”

This is a pretty important change; even though Lucre is the most common form of currency you can get in the game, it still serves as a major bottleneck for a lot of upgrade systems.

Echoes of Mana is now available on mobile devices. If you’re looking to get into the game yourself, be sure to check out our reroll guide and character tier list as well.

With Halo Infinite charging into season 2, the Lone Wolves update has certainly given players more to chew on with new content alongside tweaks and changes. However, if you happen to be a Game Pass subscriber, there are even more perks to look forward to. Players can get the Pass Tense vehicle skin for the Gungoose, together with the challenge swap and double XP tokens, as gifts for Halo Infinite season 2 if they are Game Pass members.

The perks are nothing new if you have been in the Game Pass ecosystem for a while, as Microsoft tends to throw in some freebies every month, with Halo Infinite players getting twice the rewards for the month. To claim the perks, simply head over to the Perks gallery on either your PC or Xbox console.

Back in January, Crysis 4 was sort of announced with a short teaser trailer, but we have not had any concrete details about the game since then. That situation has changed, as the official Crysis Twitter account has now revealed that Crysis 4 will have former Hitman 3 game director, Mattias Engström, at the helm.

Joining the team to help lead development on Crysis 4, Engström might be a familiar name to fans of the Hitman series. He has been involved in the trilogy of modern IO Interactive Hitman games, first as a level designer for the first two games, before heading up the third as game director. Engström’s experience also includes working on Ubisoft’s Far Cry 3 and Assassin’s Creed: Revelations.

If you’re a fan of the popular Higurashi When They Cry doujin visual novel series by 07th Expansion, MangaGamer has a little treat in the pipeline.

The publisher will release an English localization of the Higurashi When They Cry Hou – Rei fandisk on Steam soon. It’ll be available on June 2.

The price is $5.95 and those who pre-order will get an additional 10% discount.

The package includes three extra chapters originally published in 2006.

Below you can check out a summary and a batch of screenshots.

Today Atlus released another daily trailer for its upcoming JRPG Soul Hackers 2, showing one of its demons.

This time around, we take a look at Genbu, which has been part of the Shin Megami Tensei series for a long time and even appeared in the latest chapter, Shin Megami Tensei V.

As usual, the trailer also includes the daily horoscope, which places Scorpio at the top of the luck ranking and Aquarius at the bottom.

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.

I once got bullied out of going to see the film A Knight's Tale by the cashier at the cinema. He took one look at me and my brother and thought he saw kindred spirits."Do you like cars?" he asked. "Um..." we stalled. "You should go and see Fast and Furious," he said. But we didn't want to: we wanted to see Heath Ledger. So naturally we agreed and went to watch the cars, and I've never seen A Knight's Tale since.

King Arthur: Knight's Tale is nothing like the Heath Ledger film of yesteryear. This is dark, gothic and grim - much more like the Batman films, actually. The game's premise is Arthur and Morded had their fateful battle at Camlann, and killed each other, as the story goes, but then they were brought back from the dead to, well, fight each other again.

It's a bit ridiculous, in no small part because the entire supporting cast of Arthurian Legend have been brought back from the dead too, but it does give the game a distinctive viewpoint. They've all done their legendary deeds, you see, it's just that now they're all warped by weird magic. Oh and most crucial of all: King Arthur is now the bad one. You, Mordred, are the hero.

Read more

When it comes to user creations that can actually function as gameplay mechanics and even actual experiences themselves, Media Molecule’s Dreams is one of the best at it. Whether you are looking for fresh ideas to test out or create one of your own using its toolset, the game has some robust tools to aid in that endeavor. If that is not enough, the latest 2.44 update for Dreams is putting even more power in players’ hands for Create Mode, improving an already great toolset from previous updates.

The tweaks and additions are obviously going to be more technical owing to the nature of the game, but it is still fun to see the flexibility that the new stuff will bring to the right creators. There is the new Time & Date gadget that can detect the real-life time and date, and when paired with the improved Sun & Sky gadget, you can ensure that the creations line up with whenever an player is enjoying the experience.

The Calculator gadget has also been improved, with a wider version that can have up to 10 inputs for values, while new trigonometric and vector operations are now possible for the foundational gadget. Animations can also be made smoother thanks to the new IK/FK conversion mechanic, while textures on sculpts can be adjusted if you prefer less of a textured look. There are also new colorblindness filters that can aid creators in ensuring their creations are accessible to all.

In a curious bit of historical preservation, Microsoft have released the source code for 3D Movie Maker, a fondly remembered piece of software from 1995. This comes amidst a wave of source code releases for Argonaut Games' BRender engine, which was also used by games including Carmageddon 1 & 2, Star Fox, Privateer 2: The Darkening, Queen: The eYe, and and Croc. This could lead to fan-updated versions which are easier to run on modern computers.

Read more

Yuke's, the Japanese developer behind two decades of popular WWE games, has announced it is returning to the wrestling genre with new project AEW Fight Forever.

There's no word yet on a release date or platforms (beyond a vague promise of PC and consoles), but today's announcement and first look at development will likely be welcomed by fans who have missed Yuke's work over the past few years.

Yuke's final WWE game was 2018's WWE 2K19, before publisher 2K Sports gave Yuke's the boot and chose US outfit Visual Concepts to take control of the series instead - with decidedly poor results (so much so that WWE 2K21 was cancelled altogether).

Read more

Mages rejoice! There's now a fan-made calculator for Elden Ring that could prove invaluable.

The stats system in Elden Ring can be a little complex, balancing character stats, spell schools, and weapon types to work out how much damage you're actually doing.

Now, though, there's a tool to do the maths for you. Praise the calculator!

Read more

A Rockstar Games artist has taken some of the most iconic games of today and given them a retro comic book inspired makeover.

Mark Scicluna, who worked as a senior illustrator and graphic designer on Red Dead Redemption 2, LA Noire Remastered and Bully Anniversary Edition, has created some amazing retro illustrations of other games outside of Rockstar (via GoombaStomp). These include everything from Metal Gear Solid to Crash Bandicoot.

Taking inspiration from the likes of DC comics of old, these illustrations immediately evoke memories of a time since passed, but with a modern twist. My personal favourite is Dino Crisis – just look at the teeth on that triceratops!

Read more

Interference in Halo Infinite is a new event in the game's multiplayer mode during Season 2 Lone Wolves.

The event allows you to unlock armor pieces, stances, coatings, and helmet attachments–all for free.

Below you can find out when the Interference event ends, how all challenges work, and all Interference event rewards in Halo Infinite.

Read more

Gunzilla Games, the mysterious studio which opened at the end of 2020 with an impressive list of talent from a number of AAA games studios has finally shared more details about their first game.

Off the Grid is a "AAA Battle Royale third-person shooter" set to release sometime in 2023 on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S and PC.

Depending on when in the year it releases, it just may well be the first next-gen only AAA first-person shooter in the market.

Read more

Ubisoft looks to be readying itself to fight off a potential future takeover bid, according to a new report.

Recent details suggested Ubisoft was being circled by several private equity firms, and Ubisoft itself has addressed the possibility it will be bought during a recent investor briefing.

Now, mergers and acquisitions site Dealreporter (via SeekingAlpha) has suggested Ubisoft's founding Guillemot family is looking to partner with one of these private equity firms while retaining control of the company - a move designed to see off a full-scale takeover attempt by another party.

Read more

You've heard of Wordle. You've probably heard of Heardle. But have you heard of Final Fantasy 14 Heardle?

For the unfamiliar, Heardle is basically guess the intro: second by second you're given an extra chance to guess the song and share the result online in pretty coloured squares.

Apply that to the music of Square Enix's critically acclaimed MMORPG and you have Final Fantasy 14 Heardle.

Read more

Streaming numbers are down across the board as the world opens up again post-lockdown.

That's according to the latest report from Streamlabs, which states that all platforms have seen a decline in growth in comparison to this time last year.

The Covid-19 pandemic is the main cause of both the rise and fall of streaming numbers. With more people working from home and spending less time on outdoor leisure activities, streaming viewership increased; now the world is opening up again, those numbers are declining.

Read more

UPDATE 5/5/22: Dying Light players - today is your day! Not only are you getting a brand new DLC (see original story below), but we have just been given a press release about a free upgrade to the Enhanced Edition that comes with the game's newest patch (patch 1.49).

So, without further ado, here is the official blurb from Techland that I know you are all really here for:

"From now, every player that owns the Standard Edition of Dying Light has their copy automatically upgraded to the Enhanced Edition. To download the additional content players should launch Dying Light and from the menu choose the option 'DLC Packs' and download all their new content. If you have never played The Following before, now is the best time to try it for free!"

Read more

An hour of new footage of Arkane Lyon's cancelled Half-Life 2 spinoff, Ravenholm, has been released courtesy of Noclip.

The YouTube channel, best known for its long-form documentaries covering the development of numerous games, both released and unreleased, uploaded the new footage which it recorded during a 2020 visit to Arkane Lyon.

"This footage is being made public as part of Noclip's mission to document and preserve the history of video games," wrote Noclip in the description of the video.

Read more

"They're outsiders," says Jane Perry. "Maybe this is what draws the characters together, the sense of being not entirely comfortable in the skin that they're in or in the world that they find themselves in."

Perry is discussing the relationship between Hitman's Agent 47, voiced by David Bateson, and his handler Diana Burnwood, who she voices. But she could also be talking about the actors themselves.

For both actors, auditioning for these roles was a serendipitous moment. Bateson had recently moved from London to Denmark, while Perry had moved from Canada to London: two actors living away from their native countries.

Read more

Trek To Yomi is a stylish side-scroller of a samurai slasher, with an aesthetic that'll have you mashing the print screen key at every corner. Like a seasoned ronin, the combat is clean and refined. The story is simple and elegant. The visuals are straight out of a classic samurai flick. But while it gets a lot of things right, it's also a literal trek to the underworld: the scenery is stunning, but your legs hurt, and your arms ache from killing all the bandits. So many bandits! The lack of enemy variety hurts what could've been a sensational hike - but it's still a trek worth embarking on if you break it up with a few pitstops.

Read more

Some Activision Blizzard shareholders want to rake through the company’s records to investigate whether CEO Bobby Kotick pushed through the takeover by Microsoft to prevent himself being found liable for alleged misconduct, according to a recently filed complaint. The ‘220 complaint’ – a legal recourse for shareholders to seek access to company books and records – was filed in Delaware by New York City Employees’ Retirement System and pension funds for teachers, police and firefighters on April 26th. It’s since been shared with Axios.

Read more

In a curious bit of historical preservation, Microsoft have released the source code for 3D Movie Maker, a fondly remembered piece of software from 1995. You might best know it from Jerma985's oft-memed Rat Movie (pictured ↑ above). This comes amidst a wave of source code releases for Argonaut Games' BRender engine, which was also used by games including Carmageddon 1 & 2, Privateer 2: The Darkening, Queen: The eYe, and and Croc. This could lead to fan-updated versions which are easier to run on modern computers.

Read more

With the launch of the first wave of maps in the Mario Kart 8 Deluxe Booster Course Pass (quite a mouthful, I know), we saw the return of fan-favourite Wii map Coconut Mall.

However, all is not well on Isle Delfino, as fans have noticed thr track's cars before the final turn are now static.

The dissatisfaction amongst some fans became obvious when Nintendo tweeted a promotional clip of Coconut Mall (thanks, Nintendo Life).

Read more

Finding the right mouse is no easy feat these days with so many different options suiting different needs, but when you do find the one for you it can really make a difference when gaming and working.

Logitech make some of the best mice around, thanks to their awesome sensor technology and build quality, and they have a huge selection with something for everyone.

If you are looking for a new mouse then you're in luck because there's big savings on loads of Logitech mice right now at Amazon, with discounts as big as £70. We've highlighted a few of the best mice on sale down below.

Read more

It's cool to be kind in Citizen Sleeper. A low-intensity, minimalist kind of chillhop sci-fi game, set on a half-ruined space station floating between freedom and indenture, characters here are guarded at first, before, after an investment of little more than your time, dropping walls to reveal themselves as almost unanimously gentle, considerate, warm. What really grabs you, though, is how this is reflected in the nature of Citizen Sleeper itself.

Walking it back for a second, initially, you are in a fight for survival - or, less of a two-way fight and more one-way struggle. You are a Sleeper, a corporate-owned, replicant-on-a-budget entity with a generic, robotic body and emulated mind, based on a real human but with reduced memories and even fewer rights, unsure of whether that's enough to even count as being alive (yes, a Descartes reference comes up - but it's a fun one). Arriving here, post escape, on the space station called the Eye, you have two key resources to manage: your condition, a bar of 20 little blocks that decreases by one each time you end a turn, sleeping at the end of a day here referred to as completing a 'cycle'; and your energy, made up of five bars that drops by two each time.

These dovetail nicely. Run out of energy and your condition will decrease much more rapidly; run out of condition and it's game over (in theory - I haven't run out just yet, touch wood) - and they connect again with your other key resource of sorts: dice. Citizen Sleeper is built on the principles of a tabletop RPG - deftly, I should say - and so depending on how full your condition bar is, you roll between one and six dice on waking up after each cycle's nap. The higher the condition the more dice you have, and these dice are then assigned by you to… whatever you want.

Haden Blackman, studio head and founder of Mafia 3's developer Hangar 13, is stepping down from the role after seven years.

In an internal email from 2K, the publisher wrote: "Hello team, it's with mixed emotions that I share with you several leadership updates from Hangar 13. Haden Blackman is stepping down as Studio Head of Hangar 13 and is leaving the company to pursue his passion at a new endeavor.

"We are grateful for Haden's leadership in establishing Hangar 13, building and uniting teams in Novato, Brighton and Czech, and releasing multiple studio-defining Mafia games and collections.

Read more

Reviewed on: PC
Platform: PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PC
Publisher: Devolver Digital
Developer: Leonard Menchiari, Flying Wild Hog
Release: May 5, 2022
Rating: Mature

“Fall seven times, stand up eight,” says Trek to Yomi’s hero, the orphan-turned-samurai Hiroki. The line represents not only his caricature-like perseverance, but something players should take to heart if they want to reach the end of this journey. However, I wasn’t always sure seeing the finish line was worth getting back on my feet. The eye-catching art direction can’t hide the title’s lackluster gameplay, empty characters, predictable story, and antiquated design. Indies are typically fertile soil for fresh ideas and distinct experiences, but Trek to Yomi comes up disappointingly short here, with very few concepts I haven’t seen a dozen times before.

The opening is one of Trek to Yomi’s high notes. Flickering film. Melancholy music. A burning town. I didn’t know where I was and what was going on, but the game had me ready for an old-school, Kurosawa-inspired samurai adventure. The tutorial is cleverly tucked into a sudden flashback scene that transported me to a time when the now-devastated city hummed with life.

IO Interactive shared its plans for Year 2 of Hitman 3 back in January, revealing the Elusive Target Arcade, a PC VR release, plans for the World of Assassination Trilogy to hit Xbox Game Pass, and a new mode called Freelancer. 

This new mode was set to release sometime this spring but in a new update released by the studio today, Freelancer has a new target window: the second half of 2022. IO Interactive says it sees Freelancer as “the next evolution of Hitman and an entirely new way to engage with the world and characters” it’s built in the World of Assassination universe over the last seven years. Due to how “expansive and involving” Freelancer is, the team says it needs more time to work on it. 

Total War: Warhammer 3 is the definition of an ambitious video game. The third title in a sprawling trilogy taking place in the grim-dark Warhammer universe, the setting is the perfect accompaniment to the grand scale strategy that is synonymous with the Total War franchise.

Released back in February to critical acclaim, Warhammer 3 mostly bore the weight of its lofty expectations. Learning lessons from recent historical titles like A Total War Saga: Troy and the excellent Three Kingdoms, developer Creative Assembly has brought forth a raft of gameplay improvements and innovations from newer titles to the aging Warhammer platform.

The main campaign in Warhammer 3, called the Realm of Chaos, lets players take command of one of the eight playable factions and attempt to stop, or support, the spread of the Chaos gods and their incursion into the mortal realms, in a scenario that is more story-driven than previous entries.

Since its launch, almost three months ago, there has been a substantial balancing patch in the form of Patch 1.1, and various minor adjustments and hotfixes here and there, but little else besides.

Today, a brand new trailer for the highly anticipated second season of Made in Abyss was revealed by Sentai Filmworks. In the video, we follow Riko and her companions as they continue their deadly adventure.

The short trailer also gives a preview of the opening song “Katachi” by Riko Azuna and reveals MYTH & ROID as the artist for ending song “Endless Embrace.” You can check out the trailer and a brief description of the first season by Sentai Filmworks down below:

The “Abyss” is the last unexplored region, an enormous and treacherous cave system filled with ancient relics and strange creatures. Only the bravest of adventurers can traverse its depths, earning them the nickname, “Cave Raiders.” Within the depths of the Abyss, a girl named Riko stumbles upon a robot who looks like a young boy. Tantalized by the Abyss, Riko and her new friend descend into uncharted territory to unlock its mysteries, but what lies in wait for them in the darkness?

Based on the manga of the same name, Made in Abyss was released in 2017 and followed by a two-part compilation movie in 2019 and the Made in Abyss: Dawn of the Deep Soul film in 2020. Masayuki Kojima is set to return as director, with Hitoshi Haga as assistant director and Hideyuki Kurata as scriptwriter.

Trek to Yomi on PC

Trek to Yomi brought me moments of sheer joy and deep-seated frustration, all wrapped up in its cinematic art style inspired by the Japanese movies of the 50s and 60s. After playing through the game for about 7-8 hours and having completed two playthroughs, I was left with one word to sum up my experience — inconsistency.

Developers Leonard Menchiari and Flying Wild Hog’s artistic samurai tale follows the story of Hiroki as he embarks on a quest for vengeance after bandit-turned-warlord Kagerou and his band of not-so-merry men invades his hometown, butchering the citizens and burning the place to the ground. With his master killed and beloved Aiko nowhere to be seen, Hiroki embarks on an adventure to hunt down Kagerou and prevent him from unleashing chaos on another unsuspecting town ever again.

This narrative lends itself well to the flow of taking you through many beautiful landscapes, and at times, Hiroki’s adventure was visually stunning. I still remember clambering my way to the top of a building and looking out over a bay soaked in the glow of the full moon hanging in the sky. The beauty of Trek to Yomi’s environments are often juxtaposed by the sheer brutality of the combat taking place in the foreground, as Hiroki hacks and slashes his way through countless bandits, each swing of his samurai punctuated by the spray of blood or the final cries and whimpers of the felled enemy.

What isn’t so great, however, is how throwaway this narrative can feel. Trek to Yomi feels like a game aiming for a minimalist approach in order to elevate the often excellent elements that are there. As someone who admittedly doesn’t know a whole lot about Japanese culture and folklore, some of the plot points and locales I found myself traversing with Hiroki went over my head, because the game doesn’t do a great job of explaining it until after the fact.

The GameCube was a great little console with some truly exceptional games. While its design may have been divisive, the library of games that was released on it blended a truly strong third-party lineup with Nintendo’s stellar first-party titles.

Alas, for whatever reason, some of these absolute gems never got the sequel they truly deserved, and to this day, we still find ourselves longing for that surprise announcement that they’ve been brought back from the dead. If Shenmue can be resurrected, then these 5 GameCube games that never got the sequel they truly deserved should be, too.

Hangar 13 studio head Haden Blackman is leaving the Mafia III maker after seven years, 2K Games announced Wednesday. The publisher wrote in an email to staff that the former LucasArts veteran is going to “pursue his passion at a new endeavor.” Kotaku understands that the move comes with a new Mafia game very early in…

Read more...

When you hear the air alerts in the capital city of Ukraine, game developer Oleksandr Sienin told Kotaku, you make a judgment call. Maybe you wait in a safe place for the suggested 30 to 60 minutes minutes after the alerts go off, because you know that they denote missiles that could potentially hit Kyiv.

Read more...

Busted challenges. A dysfunctional battle pass. A bunch of ultimately ineffectual “fixes.” A cacophonous uproar of player feedback, much of which isn’t positive. It may sound like the launch-window era of Halo Infinite, but no: This is Halo Infinite today, six months after its launch, during the first week of its…

Read more...