May 2022

Sega has a "new project" to share with us next week

1 year 11 months ago

Sega is primed to announce a big "new project" next week.

That's according to Sega's Japanese Twitter account, which recently posted an "urgent notice" that information about Sega’s new project will be delivered on 3rd June 2022.

The accompanying link points to Sega's official YouTube channel, which says all will be revealed via a livestream on Friday 3rd June, at 8pm Japan time, which is 12 noon here in the UK.

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Author
Vikki Blake

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Jurassic World Evolution 2 Dominion Biosyn Expansion Announced

1 year 11 months ago

Frontier Developments announced a new large-scale expansion for its dinosaur management game Jurassic World Evolution 2.

The Dominion Biosyn Expansion will release on all platforms on June 14, and it’s the biggest DLC yet for the game, including a new campaign inspired by the film Jurassic World Dominion.

Of course, it’ll come with new dinosaur species, including feathered dinosaurs.

You can check out the trailer and read an official description below.

NEW JURASSIC WORLD DOMINION CAMPAIGN

Immerse yourself in a thrilling new campaign expanding on Jurassic World Dominion. Construct the Biosyn Genetics Research Compound using a range of new film-inspired buildings. Send scientists to retrieve amber-encased DNA, synthesise and incubate stunning new species, and observe their diverse behaviours. Team up with iconic characters from across the franchise as the story unfolds.

NEW JURASSIC WORLD DOMINION CHAOS THEORY

Author
Giuseppe Nelva

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Who Dies in Stranger Things Season 4?

1 year 10 months ago

Stranger Things Season 4 has been one of the most anticipated installments of a Netflix show ever. Fans are eager to know what is happening so they can jump into all the online discussions about the show, the cast, and the new adventures of Eleven, Mike, and the gang. If you are curious to know who dies in Stranger Things Season 4, then this article will break it down for you.

Remember, we will be revealing any deaths that take place in the show, so keep in mind that there will be some heavy spoilers ahead. Don’t read any further unless you want to know all manner of details about the show that could be revealed.

Who Dies in Stranger Things Season 4?

We get it. We really do. People are still dealing with the sad death of Bob Newby even after all this time, and you might want to prepare yourself before watching the show. Still, here is another spoiler warning and a chance to walk away, just in case you missed the first one. With that said, let’s get into the body count for Stranger Things Season 4. This list has been updated to cover the full season.

The following characters have died in Stranger Things Season 4. Chrissy, Fred, and Patrick. All three of these are students at Hawkins High School, and all three are killed by Vecna, the Big Bad, in this season. The connection between all three of the characters seems to be that they were going through a hard time in their life, and it appears that Vecna can prey on those who are struggling to deal with their emotions.

Author
Aidan O'Brien

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Earth Defense Force 6 for PS5 & PS4 Reveals New Supermassive Kaiju “Siren” & New Gameplay

1 year 11 months ago

D3 Publisher hosted a livestream dedicated to its upcoming action game Earth Defense Force 6 showcasing new gameplay and details.

First of all, we get the full reveal of the massive new Kaiju code-named “Siren” that was glimpsed in the latest trailer. It’s absolutely gigantic, about twice as big as Erginus, which was previously the biggest Kaiju in the series and debuted in Earth Defense Force 4.1: The Shadow of New Despair.

It can spit massive blazes of fire, and below you can see a few shots, including comparisons with Erginus and puny EDF soldiers.ì

Author
Giuseppe Nelva

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New Sea of Stars Clip Shows Healing Combo in Action

1 year 11 months ago

Combo attacks are pretty common in RPGs, but what about combo healing? Today’s clip of Sea of Stars from Sabotage Studio shows how it’s done.

The usual weekly clip from Sabotage may be brief, but it showcases how the characters can team up to pull out everyone from a tight spot.

You can check it out below.

Author
Giuseppe Nelva

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NieR: Automata, Genshin Impact, Kirby, Hades, & More; Many Video Game Figures Revealed at WonHobby Gallery

1 year 11 months ago

Earlier this morning, Good Smile Company hosted its WonHobby Gallery 2022 Spring in Akihabara, Tokyo, showcasing upcoming figures from its affiliated brands. As usual, plenty were related to video games.

The pictures below were provided by the popular retailer AmiAmi on Twitter.

We start with a look at brand new announcements including Zhongli and Raiden Shogun Nendoroids from Genshin Impact, another portraying Pretender/Oberon from Fate/Grand Order, Megaera from Hades, Sophie from Atelier Sophie 2, and a few inevitable ones from Uma Musume: Pretty Derby.

Mass Effect fans will love to see FemShep (female commander Shepard) and Garrus from the affordable Popup Parade line.

Author
Giuseppe Nelva

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Hear A New Punk Rock-Inspired Track From Splatoon 3's Soundtrack

1 year 11 months ago

Splatoon 3 music

Nintendo has revealed a sneak peek at an upcoming music track from Splatoon 3. Nintendo describes "Sea Me Now" by in-universe band Front Roe as having "a melodious, punkish sound" that has been "swimming up the charts in Splatville lately." True to the description, the track veers closer to what we had in the first Splatoon's soundtrack, though with decidedly more of a punk-rock edge.

You can listen to "Sea Me Now" by Front Roe below.

The Splatoon series has long been known for its music, even including its in-universe artists as main characters. In the original Splatoon, pop duo Callie and Marie (AKA the Squid Sisters) ran down the news at the start of each play session, while Splatoon 2 introduced us to Pearl and Marina (AKA Off The Hook). We don't know who the figurehead announcers of Splatoon 3 will be as of this writing.

Splatoon 3 comes to Switch on September 9. For more on what this third entry in the franchise brings to the battlefield, check out the latest gameplay trailer here or learn about its improvements on the series' wave-based cooperative mode, Salmon Run: Next Wave, here.

Author
Brian Shea

Barbara, Yanfei, and Noelle are on the Genshin Impact Yelan and Xiao Banners

1 year 11 months ago

Barbara, Diona, and Noelle are on the Genshin Impact Yelan and Xiao Banners

Now that the Yelan banner and Xiao rerun banner are about to appear in Genshin Impact, HoYoVerse revealed details regarding other units on them and exact dates. As is common for banners running at the same time, they each feature the same three four-star units as additional featured characters. In this instance, Barbara, Yanfei, and Noelle will also appear at a higher rate. After the banners appear on May 31, 2022, they'll run until June 21, 2022.

Yelan is a five-star Hydro archer in Genshin Impact. She’s new to the game. However, she was teased ahead of her debut via Archon Quest appearances. Xiao is a five-star Anemo polearm user. Both hail from the Liyue region.

As for the four-stars, they each come from different elements than the five-stars. Barbara is a Hydro character who uses catalysts. She’s also a healer. Noelle is a claymore-bearer who can put up shields and heal the party. Yanfei is a Pyro catalyst wielder with AOE fire attacks.

Author
Jenni Lada

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Arenas mode comes to New World

1 year 11 months ago

Players can now "start their personal PvP quest for rewards" in New World's newest mode, Arenas.

Arenas come as part of the MMO's latest update, which also ushers in expedition mutators, a Varangian Knights quest chain - where you can "continue the story of the Varangian Knights and their conquest for power" - a PvP rewards track, and "a whole host of other updates".

"Step into the Arena to test your skills against other combatants!" Amazon explains in the game's latest blog post. "3v3 Arenas are a new small-scale PvP game mode where teams of three can face off for fame, glory, and riches. You might even win a few unique housing items."

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Author
Vikki Blake

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Two new ghosts are on the way to Phasmophobia

1 year 11 months ago

Change is afoot for Phasmophobia fans, and two new ghosts are on the way.

Development Preview #3 - now live for your reading pleasure on Steam, where the game is still available as an early access title - reveals what's coming up in the next few weeks and months for the ghostbusting party game.

First up, two more ghost types are joining the spooky menagerie. The names on the reveal image have been intentionally smudged to keep us in suspense, but one says Morai or Morcai - maybe? - and the other, if you squint a bit, looks like Decogen. Or something beginning with D, anyway.

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Author
Vikki Blake

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Microsoft Flight Simulator PMDG Teases Boeing 737-600 Reveal; Nellis Air Force Base Released; Storm Add-On Gets New Trailer

1 year 11 months ago

Third-party developers had some new reveals and releases to share about upcoming add-ons for Microsoft Flight Simulator.

SoFly will soon release its Storm addon, which includes weather presets related to storms and hurricanes, on top of voiced missions to enjoy them.

The addon will be released on May 31. 2022 for £9.99.

Here’s what you can expect and a brand new trailer.

Access Fully Voiced Missions
Over 35 varied missions are fully voiced to provide you an exciting, thrilling and educational experience. Over 50 hours of entertainment.

Introduction and Discovery Flights
Get in-depth knowledge about how hurricanes are made with our interactive flights.

Educational Airliner Lights
Fully voiced and interactive airliner flights take you on journeys finding historic hurricanes.

Tough Landing Challenges
Test your skills in a variety of landing challenges. Can you land in a CAT5 hurricane?

Story-Driven Missions
Deliver goods, collect data and battle aircraft failures in a variety of thrilling missions.

Global Storm Presets
Try out a number of additional storm presets that cover the whole world in dangerous environmental conditions.

Next, comes a release from LatinVFR, which launched Nellis Air Force Base near Las Vegas, Nevada, United States.

Author
Giuseppe Nelva

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Divination is a Short Game That Explores Consequences

1 year 11 months ago

Divination is a Short Game That Explores Consequences 1

The idea of the butterfly effect can be fascinating. How much of a difference can one decision make? Divination is a game that attempts to explore that. It very briefly tasks someone with acting as a potentially robotic fortune-teller. Your choices across four sessions end up influencing society.

Divination’s concept is an intriguing one. As the game begins, even you have no idea who you are. You see a date. You watch a brief news report. A guest arrives. After introducing themselves, they’ll ask a question. You have the option to ask them a few questions, to learn more about the situation. For example, one visitor appears to be a scientist. His wife and daughter were in an accident. His daughter has been unconscious since. After he picks the runes, you take them and arrange them to determine the future.

Divination is a Short Game That Explores Consequences 2

Author
Jenni Lada

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Mahoyo Release and Pre-order Date Set for December 2022

1 year 11 months ago

mahoyo release

Mahoutsukai no Yoru now has a firm release date. Previously Type-Moon Games only confirmed that the visual novel, colloquially known as Mahoyo, would arrive on the PS4 and Nintendo Switch in December 2022. The day for Witch on the Holy Night is now set: December 8, 2022 in Japan. Pre-orders for the game are also open as of May 28, 2022. As announced prior to the full release date being known, Mahoyo will support English, Japanese, and Chinese text options.

Check out a new trailer previewing how Mahoyo will look upon release.

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

Mahoutsukai no Yoru first saw release on PC in 2012. It's based on the story penned by Type-Moon co-founder Kinoko Nasu, which was a foundational work for almost all of Type-Moon's productions since. These include Tsukihime and Fate/Stay Night, and their various spinoffs and related titles.

The Mahoyo release date trailer features voice acting, and teases the first interactions between Aoko (voiced by Haruka Tomatsu), Soujuuroh (voiced by Yuusuke Kobayashi), and Alice (voiced by Kana Hanazawa). Characters like Tomibaru Tsukiji, Kojika Kumari, and Hosuke Kinomi are also introduced. The trailer also teases action scenes showing off Alice and Aoko's powers.

Author
Josh Tolentino

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DNF Duel for PS5, PS4, & PC Gets New Trailer Showcasing Single-Player Modes

1 year 11 months ago

Today Nexon and Arc System Works revealed another trailer of their upcoming fighting game DNF Duel.

The trailer focuses on the offline single-player modes available for the game, including Free Battle, Arcade, and Survival.

This follows similar trailers that showcased the story mode and the practice modes.

You can check them out.

DNF Duel is coming for PS5, PS4, and PC on June 28, 2022. You can check out more videos showcasing the basics of the game.

Dungeon Fighter Online, which inspired this title, is one of the most played games in the world if you look at actual revenue, so it was pretty much a matter of time for it to expand to other genres and markets.

Author
Giuseppe Nelva

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NieR: Automata & Replicant Getting 2B & Kaine Play Art Kai Figures

1 year 11 months ago

Square Enix made two new action figures dedicated to the popular NieR series available for pre-order, portraying 2B and Kaine respectively from NieR: Automata and NieR Replicant ver.1.22474487139…

The figure portraying 2B is actually the deluxe edition of the one released in 2021, which means plenty of new accessories.

You can find it at AmiAmi priced at 16,300 yen, which translates into approximately $128. She will release in December 2022 and stands at approximately 254 mm tall.

The package includes the following:

  • Main figure
  • Alternative hand part x4
  • White short sword
  • White Contract
  • Pod 042
  • Effect parts
  • Body part
  • Alternative face part x2

If you’re interested in Kaine, you can also pre-order her on AmiAmi for 18,600 yen, which translates approximately into $146.

She will release in January 2023 and she’s 257 mm tall.

Here’s a list of her accessories.

  • Main figure
  • Alternative hands x7
  • Alternative face
  • Alternative outfit
  • Grimoire Weiss
  • Tsuki no Namida
  • Twin Swords
  • Blade

Below you can check out a gallery of screenshots for both.

Author
Giuseppe Nelva

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Five Fate/Grand Order Figures Shown at WonHobby G 2022

1 year 11 months ago

artoria under the same sky figure header

During WonHobby G Spring 2022, Good Smile Company unveiled upcoming figures of characters from Fate/Grand Order and related works. They are in various stages of development, which allow for an estimate as to the order they will come out. So far, there is no information on how much they will cost or when to expect them.

The first Nendoroid is one of Chloe von Einzbern. Though she does appear in Fate/Grand Order as a playable character, Good Smile Company will release her under the Fate/kaleid liner Prisma Illya name. The unpainted prototype shows her with a big smile and blushy cheeks, and she is holding one of her swords.

The next Nendoroid is one of Cu Chulainn as he appears in Fate/Grand Order. He is holding the Gae Bolg, which will be one of the optional parts that he will come with. Cu Chulainn will look like he does in his first ascension.

Author
Stephanie Liu

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Soul Hackers 2 for PS5, PS4, Xbox, & PC Reveals Chironnupu With New Trailer

1 year 11 months ago

Today Atlus released another daily trailer of its upcoming JRPG Soul Hackers 2, focusing on one of the demons that will appear in the game.

We take a look at Chironnupu, a demon relatively new to the Shin Megami Tensei series that also recently appeared in Shin Megami Tensei V.

As usual, the trailer also includes a daily horoscope displaying Scorpio at the top of the fortune ranking, and Cancer 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.

Author
Giuseppe Nelva

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Persona 5 Royal Getting Gorgeous Kasumi Figure by Amakuni

1 year 11 months ago

Amakuni and AmiAmi have made a figure portraying Kasumi Yoshizawa from Persona 5 Royal available for pre-order.

You can find her at AmiAmi for 22,000 yen, which translates approximately into $173.

She’ll be released in July 2023, so the lead time is definitely long.

The scale is 1/7 for approximately 25 cm in height. The prototype was sculpted by Vispo and painted by Pinpoint.

You also have a couple of accessories, like the optional mask and the alternate hand holding the gun.

If you’d like to see what she looks like, you can take a look at the gallery below.

Author
Giuseppe Nelva

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Fast Four Words is a Wordle-like race to think of as many words as you can

1 year 11 months ago

Fast Four Word is a clever idea. It's a Wordle-like in which you begin with a four-letter starting word and must enter a new word which changes just a single letter. So if the starting word is AHEM, as it was yesterday, you could change the first letter and enter THEM.

From there, you have 44 seconds to chain together as many new words as you can, with plenty of other twists to make it more challenging.

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Author
Graham Smith

Spiritale My Hero Academia Himiko Toga Figure is Perched Atop Her Collection

1 year 11 months ago

Square Enix opened pre-orders for the new My Hero Academia Himiko Toga figure from Taito's Spiritale line. She'll cost $284.99. Pre-orders are open with no end date. However, in Japan the figure can only be pre-ordered for ¥27,500 until July 24, 2022. She'll show up in November 2022 in Japan. The North American release window is March 2023.

This figure of Himiko is a 1/7th scale one. That means she’s just under eight inches tall around 200mm. She’s wearing her blood sucking machine, so she can use her Transform Quirk. There are also a number of knives stuck into the toys and accessories she’s sitting on.

Here's a closer look at the figure from different angles.
[gallery columns="5" ids="928382,928383,928384,928385,928386" link="file"]

And this is the official video showing her from different angles.

Author
Jenni Lada

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The Community Spotlight 2022.05.28

1 year 11 months ago

Welcome to the latest edition of the Giant Bomb Community Spotlight! I, @zombiepie, am once again honored to be your host as we look back on the best community-created works from the previous week.

First, in case you missed it, Rorie dropped a comment in regards to the current state of Giant Bomb premium. While it doesn't address everything, definitely check it out if you haven't read it yet.

Continuing with the site-related housekeeping, for those of you that noticed the "Manage Cookies" button on the lower left part of the site, the engineers are aware of the problem and will try to have a solution soon! Feel free to drop a comment in the thread provided in the link above if you continue to experience this issue well into the week or it is making site navigation especially difficult right now. With all of that in mind, let's jump into the proper Community Spotlight!

Tweets

Author
Marino - Brad Lynch

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How Shredder's Revenge continues the side-scrolling beat 'em up revival

1 year 11 months ago

One of the great pleasures of recent years has been the revival of the side-scrolling beat 'em up - a genre whose prime was in the 90s, and one that's since been entangled and obscured by the crushing vines of nostalgia. I've always loved the swagger and style of Streets of Rage, only to go back to the original trilogy and be somewhat disappointed by the simplicity of it all.

It took Dotemu's unlikely revival of Sega's series with 2020's Streets of Rage 4, developed alongside Guard Crush Games and Lizardcube, for me to fall back in love with the genre. Here was the scrolling beat 'em up modernised not just in terms of how it looked - though it did look sublime - but also in how it played, with a variety and depth that makes it a pleasure to return to on each and every one of the many platforms it's found its way onto now.

Dotemu's next revival, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder's Revenge, already had my attention, and having played through a couple of levels it's got me thinking this could well be the measure of Streets of Rage 4. Taking the much-loved multiplayer 1987 outing as an inspiration - and thus drawing upon Konami's arcade golden age - while also steering closer to the original animated series, this is another side-scrolling beat 'em-up that feels remarkably fresh.

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Author
Martin Robinson

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Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic 2: The Sith Lords comes to Switch next month

1 year 11 months ago

Surprise! Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic 2: The Sith Lords is coming to Nintendo Switch on 8th June 2022.

Confirmation came by way of Disney's Star Wars Celebration 2022, which confirmed the 2004 Xbox game is now on the way to Nintendo's handheld system.

"Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic 2: The Sith Lords is coming to Nintendo Switch on June 8th, 2022!" Nintendo exclaims on its official YouTube channel.

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Author
Vikki Blake

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Embracer establishes the Embracer Games Archive to "save as much of the games industry as possible"

1 year 11 months ago

The company formerly known as THQ Nordic, Embracer Group, has announced new plans to preserve video games to "archive and save as much of the video games industry as possible".

"For us, games are more than just games. Its culture!" the company announced on the shiny new web page for the Embracer Games Archive (thanks, PC Gamer). "It is something created by great people with creative ideas. By building a large archive of physical games, we want to preserve and tribute the games culture for a long period of time."

While newly launched, the project has already successfully archived 50,000 "games, consoles, and accessories" at its hub in Karlstad, Sweden, and employs a CEO, archive assistant, technical engineer, and supply manager.

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Author
Vikki Blake

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Gotham Knights will reportedly release without Russian voicework or subtitles

1 year 11 months ago

The Russian version of Gotham Knights has allegedly been cancelled.

That's according to The Happy Warrior, which says sources at Warner Bros. Montreal have confirmed the publisher has cancelled the Russian version "due to the political fallout from the Russian invasion of Ukraine".

The rumour is further compounded by confirmation that Gotham Knight's Russian sub-site has been taken offline; the URL now results in a 404 error (it was still live as at 12th May, according to archive.org). Similarly, the Steam page makes no mention of Russian-language support, hinting that both Russian voicework and subtitles have been removed (thanks, VGC).

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Author
Vikki Blake

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PUBG developer Krafton sends a PI to a dataminer's home

1 year 11 months ago

Prolific PUGB dataminer, PlayerIGN, has allegedly had "PUBG show up at [their] front door".

The dataminer revealed that earlier this week, a private investigator turned up at their home and handed them a letter demanding that the leaker's social media posts be removed.

The letter - allegedly from PUBG developer Krafton - also wanted copies of PlayerIGN's direct messages in order to decipher "how [they] got said information".

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Author
Vikki Blake

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Here Are the Anime Figures From WonHobby G

1 year 11 months ago

anime figures good smile company wonhobby g

Good Smile Company revealed a large number of upcoming anime figures during its WonHobby G exhibition. This article will not cover every single anime series and release, but the full list is available through the official WonHobby G website. None of these figures have release windows or price points yet, and they differ in how far they are in the development process.

Upcoming anime figures (separated by figure type) from Good Smile Company’s WonHobby G include:

Figma

  • Empress (Black Rock Shooter: Dawn Fall)

Nendoroid

Author
Stephanie Liu

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Here Are the Video Game Figures Revealed at WonHobby G

1 year 11 months ago

wonhobby g video games kirby header

During WonHobby G Spring 2022, Good Smile Company revealed a number of upcoming figures of video game characters. They are all in varying stages of development, and their release windows are unknown. More information on when they will launch and how much they will cost will appear in the near future.

The full list of upcoming video game figures is on the WonHobby G Spring 2022 website. Here are some of the highlights:

Figma

  • HK416 (Girls’ Frontline)

[gallery columns="1" ids="928440" link="file"]

Nendoroid

Author
Stephanie Liu

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Screenshots from that cancelled Marvel MMO are now online

1 year 11 months ago

Remember that Marvel MMORPG that we discovered had been recently cancelled? Well, now we can see what we're missing courtesy of new screenshots uploaded to an artist's portfolio on ArtStation.

Ramiro Galan - a principal designer at Pixelkings - shared a handful of never-before-seen images on their digital portfolio, showing off what appears to be the cancelled game's character creation screen.

"Here is a series of styles and screens by Ramiro Galan for a cancelled Marvel MMO title," the album's description tells us. "Emphasis was on rich and vibrant colours with stylistic tones that pay homage to Spider-Man Into the Spiderverse. All design, 3D materials, lighting, and post process FX were done by Ramiro Galan."

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Author
Vikki Blake

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Dataminer hints that this character may be on the way to Evil Dead: The Game

1 year 11 months ago

A dataminer has uncovered further references to Ruby and her Demon Spawn secreted within Evil Dead: The Game's files.

Ruby - who hails from Ash vs. Evil Dead - has yet to make an appearance in the main game, and her absence from the roster was a surprising omission to some given the plethora of other characters from Evil Dead stories, both old and new.

Now - thanks to a second batch of datamined voice files from our hero roster - it seems like she will indeed be making an appearance, seemingly batting for the Demons in these particular scenarios, although it's not totally beyond the realm of possibility that she may turn up as a survivor, too - hopefully we'll get an official reveal soon.

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Author
Vikki Blake

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Figures of Sora, Aqua, and Marine From Hololive Announced

1 year 11 months ago

marine header

During Good Smile Company’s WonHobby G announcements, it showed off three upcoming Hololive figures. Pop Up Parade figures of Minato Aqua and Tokino Sora will appear in the near future. The prototypes for both, as well as one of a Houshou Marine figma, already have paint on them, giving a good idea of how the final product will look.

While there are no release windows yet for any of the Hololive figures, they look mostly complete. The Minato Aqua figure has her making a heart with her hands, while Tokino Sora has one arm high in the air. Both of these are Pop Up Parades, which means that they have a fixed pose you cannot change.

[gallery columns="2" ids="928419,928418" link="file"]

Since the Houshou Marine figure is a figma, you will be able to move her limbs and body as you wish. From the picture on the WonHobby G website, she appears to have joints on her elbows, knees, ankles, and chest. It is unclear if you will be able to remove her captain hat.

[gallery columns="1" ids="928420" link="file"]

Author
Stephanie Liu

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Modern Warfare 2 artwork hints that Call of Duty may be coming back to Steam

1 year 11 months ago

Artwork for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 - yes, the new one - has popped up on Steam.

The discovery has fans speculating - and hoping - that this may mean that, after a seven year absence, Activision is moving away from battle.net exclusivity on PC and bringing its first-person shooter back to Valve's PC client, Steam.

As spotted by u/Kalinine and posted to Reddit, the Modern Warfare 2 Ghost artwork "show[ed] up on Steam". When pushed for clarification, the user added: "it shows up at the bottom of the DLC page for some Call of duty games like Black Ops 3".

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Author
Vikki Blake

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Hitman 3's PC ray tracing upgrade is beautiful - but comes with a big cost

1 year 11 months ago

Hitman 3's ray tracing update is out, with the brilliant Io Interactive upgrading its hit title with ray traced reflections and shadows, along with Nvidia DLSS AI upscaling - but alas not AMD's freshly minted FSR 2.0. Intel XeSS support is due further on down the line, but for now, it's all about the RT upgrades, their astonishingly large hit to performance and the extent to which DLSS can mitigate that cost.

Getting right down to it, you are presented with two ray tracing options: ray traced reflections and ray traced shadows from the sun. These are binary selections - on/off - but ray traced reflections actually tie into the standard reflections quality setting, where the low to high settings there control the RT quality. First is the resolution of the reflections: moving from high to medium and then to low gradually reduces the amount of rays shot out used to calculate the reflection. Lower the quality softens them and introduces a touch of instability in motion, although it must be said medium usually looks very similar to high in this regard at native resolution output.

Then there is roughness cut-off - the extent to which RT is calculated according to the roughness of the surface. The rougher a surface, the less impactful an RT reflection will be, so introducing this cut-off is a good way to claw back some performance. The effect is subtle in Hitman 3, but the low setting makes it so that rougher surfaces do not get RT reflections, scaling as you move up to medium and high.

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Author
Alex Battaglia

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Fairy Fencer F: Refrain Chord for PS5, PS4, & Nintendo Switch Reveals Two of its Songs

1 year 11 months ago

Compile Heart released two videos of the upcoming JRPG Fairy Fencer F: Refrain Chord, focusing on the music.

In fact, the videos don’t show any gameplay but reveal two different songs included in the game.

The first is “Inori no Neiro” (Tones of Prayer), which is a song performed by the friendly diva Fleur, while the second is “Goku Yoru Hyousetsu” (Snow of the Polar Night) performed by the enemy diva Glace.

You can sample them both below.

Fairy Fencer F: Refrain Chord will release in Japan for PS5, PS4, and Nintendo Switch on September 15, 2022. At the moment, no western release has been announced. Compile Heart just revealed the game for Japan and usually their western arm Idea Factory International takes a little longer to announce a localization.

Author
Giuseppe Nelva

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The Summertime Rendering Manga Comes at a Good Time

1 year 11 months ago

The Summertime Rendering Manga Comes at a Good Time

We’ve been seeing quite a few stories with mysteries to solve and secrets lately. The kinds of tales that get you wondering what a person could or should have done differently. For example, someone might wonder about that when playing a game like Gnosia. Summertime Rendering presents another situation that makes people wonder what exactly is happening. And, with Udon releasing its first three volumes at the end of May 2022 and last three in August 2022 and Disney+ showing the anime in Japan, it’s really an ideal time to dive in.

The Summertime Rendering manga begins with a mysterious encounter. A young man named Shinpei is on a boat with a friend named Ushio. After she chastises him for not coming home often enough, she offers advice about telling people hello, looking for her, and protecting someone named Mio. Only after that introduction does Shinpei “wake up.” It turns out he’s on a ferry heading to Hitogashima to attend Ushio’s funeral. It’s also then that Mio comes racing on her bike to meet him.

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Jenni Lada

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Star Wars: The Bad Batch Returns With Season 2 This Fall on Disney+

1 year 11 months ago

If you love the adorably gruff cast of Star Wars: The Bad Batch, you have reason to celebrate, as they’re coming back for a second season.

During Star Wars Celebration, Disney announced that the popular animated series is coming back this fall, streaming on Disney+.

The announcement was made with a trailer, which you can watch below. It shows plenty of familiar faces and a few new ones.

Star Wars: The Bad Batch originally debuted in May 2021. The first season ran for 16 episodes portraying the clones of the Bad Batch as they try to find their way in a changing galaxy.

This Star Wars Celebration, which was hosted in its traditional venue at the Anaheim Convention Center, California, had a lot of news for the fans of the popular franchise, including games and more linear content.

Electronic Arts announced a sequel to Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order, titled Star Wars Jedi: Survivor, coming to PS5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC in 2023.

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Giuseppe Nelva

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