June 2022

From moody period pieces to triumphant underdog stories

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The 7th member of the Sparrow Academy is the team mediator

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Which is a real shame

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Catch the original Spider-Man trilogy before it webslings its way off streaming

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Nintendo has revealed that a Direct Mini: Partner Showcase is happening tomorrow. 

As many have predicted and expected, Nintendo is hosting a Direct tomorrow, but it's not the typical Direct many were hoping to see happen sometime this month to coincide with the rest of the big June gaming showcases. That's because it's a Direct Mini that's also a partner showcase. This means it will be a smaller-scale Direct (see: mini) focused on third-party titles. However, this doesn't necessarily mean we won't see anything from Nintendo's first-party studios because surprises can happen – just don't go in expecting it. 

A new #NintendoDirectMini: Partner Showcase is on the way! Watch on-demand via our YouTube channel beginning Tuesday, June 28 at 6am PT for roughly 25 minutes of info on upcoming third-party #NintendoSwitch games.

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The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker is a beloved game in the long-running Zelda series, but when it was first revealed, the reception was mixed. Some were completely on board, ready for this new take on the franchise, while others weren’t too happy about the visual style of the game. The latter party apparently included Legend of Zelda creator Shigeru Miyamoto. 

According to a translation of an old issue of Nintendo Dream Magazine by DidYouKnowGaming, Wind Waker director Eiji Aonuma said Miyamoto “literally cringed” when he first saw the game’s visual style, as reported by Video Games Chronicle. 

“If I had gone and talked to him from the very beginning, I think he would’ve said ‘How is that Zelda?'." Aonuma said in the magazine. “Miyamoto had trouble letting go of the realistic Link art style until the very end.

“At some point, he had to give a presentation against his will. That’s when he said something to me like, ‘You know, it’s not too late to change course and make a realistic Zelda.'” 

Miyamoto is a legend, obviously, but it might’ve been a good thing that Aonuma trusted he and his team’s instinct and continued forward with Wind Waker’s art style – the game’s all the more memorable for it. 

One of the developers behind the component games of Sega’s Sonic Origins collection has spoken out on Twitter to defend their team in light of the collection’s numerous alleged bugs. Headcannon founder Simon Thornley, also known as Stealth, took responsibility for some of the collection’s issues in a lengthy series of tweets, but said that “a lot was beyond our control”.

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HoYoVerse announced the Genshin Impact Core of the Apparatus event is about to begin. This is a new activity designed to help people build furnishings. The goal this time will be to collect materials. These can then be used to help an NPC achieve goals, then get rewards like free redemption vouchers and Primogems.

Here’s how to take part. First, someone will need to be at least at Adventure Rank 30. You’ll also need to finish Archon Quest Chapter 2 Act 1’s “Ritou Escape Plan” quest and the “Chisato’s Letter” side quest to take part. If you did both, then you can meet with Bertrand in Inazuma. Bertrand will provide a Material Collector to the player. This can be used to get materials via Core Activation, Elemental Charge, and Source Material Collection. When you do that, you can create robotic furnishings. When you do, you’ll get redemption vouchers that let you get your own robotic furnishings. These should be able to go in the Serenitea Pot.

As for the other rewards for taking part and making robotic furnishings, four are mentioned. Free Primogems and Mora will be a part of Genshin Impact Core of the Apparatus, as usual. People can also get Hero’s Wits to increase their characters’ levels and Weapon Ascension Materials to improve owned weapons.

Once again, Square Enix showed art from Final Fantasy VII Remake and compared it to the original game. This time, it involves a minor vehicle. The new FFVII Remake concept art and screenshots show off the Shinra Hauler SA-37, a car that appears multiple times in the game. It also showed up in Crisis Core: FFVII.

The Shinra SA-37 is a three-wheel car that appears at certain points in FFVII Remake. It features a mako engine. The description points out how it “survived” certain events in the game. First, there’s a piece of concept art here. It shows that this is essentially a truck. It looks at how items can be stored in the back of it.

Next, here are some screenshots of the original Shinra SA-37. It both appeared on display at the Shinra building and the team drove in it.
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When Persona 5 Royal comes to the PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X, and PC, it will also include the game’s DLC. The latest details went over which add-ons will be included with the base game. These additions will include extra costumes, items, personas, and songs. [Thanks, Persona Channel and Persona Central!]

Here are some of the pieces of DLC that will be included as part of Persona 5 Royal on the PS5, Xbox systems, and PC.

Life can get in the way of kicking back and enjoying your video games. There’s no doubt that quite a few are collecting dust right now that you haven’t set aside time for. And you still haven’t scheduled those doctor’s appointments. When you only have an hour to spare, here’s a look at the top 5 best games.

The Outer Worlds

Wait, an RPG? Not Skyrim or Fallout 4, but The Outer Worlds. You won’t have to travel miles in one direction, hoping to find something meaningful to do. The Outer Worlds is a smaller, more tightly-crafted experience. Co-director for The Outer Worlds, Leonard Boyarsky once said that the size of the game and length are “roughly comparable to a KOTOR 2.”

Because of this, you can get quite a lot done in a single hour. The areas are small in comparison to vast, open-world titles, but the content is readily available and always within reach. In a single hour, you could finish a few side quests or even prepare your next session by clearing out a few buildings for loot.

The Endless franchise is a series of strategy games developed by Amplitude Studios, loosely connected by overarching lore. Twinfinite was invited to attend a digital preview event for Amplitude Studios’ upcoming title, Endless Dungeon, which shares many gameplay elements with its predecessor, Dungeon of the Endless.

Endless Dungeon takes things to the next level, exchanging Dungeon of the Endless’s pixel-art style for 3D graphics and fully rendered character models, but retaining the charm of its aesthetic.

You take command of a rag-tag band of heroes, adventurers, and scoundrels as they attempt to escape from a mysterious space station, with every escapee dying in the attempt finding themselves back at the Saloon, a gathering place for these lost souls.

F1 22 on Xbox Series X

Following a rather controversial final day of the 2021 season, which saw Max Verstappen snatch the driver’s championship from the clutches of Lewis Hamilton in the final lap in a rather liberal interpretation of the rules, it’s fair to say that the pinnacle of motorsport has skyrocketed in popularity. With the help of Netflix’s Drive to Survive series, Formula 1 is more of a mainstream sport than it arguably ever has been. In the 2022 season, the sport has undergone a number of major rule and regulation changes aimed at making the sport even more interesting to watch, with more wheel-to-wheel action and cars able to follow more closely than ever before.

As such, F1 22 has a lot riding on it. Can it put itself in pole position over its predecessors with a wealth of tweaks and adjustments to the core driving gameplay, or will it spin out on the final corner? Well, it’s a bit of both.

Codemasters and EA claim that F1 22 brings reworked handling and tyre models as well as updated physics to mirror the new cars, rules and regulations of the new real-life season. From my experience over a number of Grand Prix weekends, including three separate practice sessions, qualification, and the mid-length Grand Prix race itself, there’s arguably very little difference to how your car handles in the moment-to-moment gameplay. There’s a little more emphasis placed on ensuring your car’s setup is just right for the tight corners of Monaco or the long straights and gradual turns of Saudi Arabia, but I couldn’t say the general handling and racing gameplay of the series has been completely rewritten in F1 22.

Today Square Enix made a few Nier: Automata figures available for pre-orders, focusing on beloved androids YoRHa 2B and A2.

The figure portraying 2B is actually a reprint of one that was originally released in 2019, produced by Flare and sculpted by REFLECT’s Mitsumasa Yoshizawa.

She’s available for pre-order on Ami Ami in two versions, regular and deluxe priced respectively at 15,640 (approximately $116) yen and 22,570 yen (approximately $167).

The difference is that the deluxe version includes Pod 042 and alternative parts like the face without the visor and the torso without the skirt.

The release window for both is December 2022.

The big news is that Mitsumasa Yoshizawa sculpted a brand new figure portraying A2, and that one is coming in May 2023 in three different versions.

We have the regular version, the regular short hair version, and the deluxe version, priced respectively at 19,600 yen (approximately $145) for the regular versions and 34,450 (approximately $255) for the deluxe versions.

The long hair version comes with the Type-40 tactical sword and the full camisole (and long hair, duh), while the short hair version has the Cruel Arrogance and no camisole bottom.

The deluxe version comes with all the options if you want variety in your display.

You can check them all out in the gallery below.

Epic Games has announced the upcoming skin that’ll headline the Fortnite Crew Pack for the month of July, and it’s the shadowy, witch-like Phaedra. The pack for the month will also include ongoing access to the PVE experience, Fortnite Save the World.

The news comes via a blog post on the official Fortnite website, which reveals that existing subscribers will receive the Crew Pack plus Save the World (if they don’t already own it) beginning June 30, at 8pm ET/ 5pm PT.

Phaedra, will also come with a Ceph Back Bling, resembling a black squid, as well as the Stygian Parasol pickaxe, resembling a black umbrella. The Gothic Shadesoarer Glider, resembling an open version of an ornate black umbrella, will round out the usable cosmetics, with an Inky Reflection loading screen giving you something new to look at while you’re loading in and out of lobbies.

Even though both Friends and The Big Bang Theory ended in 2004 and 2019, respectively, there’s no denying that they left a gaping hole in hearts all around the globe.

Indeed, while offshoot shows like Joey and Young Sheldon have helped to fill that gap, it’s safe to say that the original sitcoms remain the most resonant and beloved amongst the fanbase.

Of all the different characters on both shows though, Ross Geller and Leonard Hofstadter stand out as the two linchpins of both respective groups of friends thanks to their warmth, sensitivity, and overarching romance narrative that ostensibly takes center stage in many ways.

With that in mind, then, we thought that a quiz testing your knowledge of both of these loveable gentlemen is in order. All you have to do is identify who said what. Was it everybody’s favorite paleontologist, Ross Geller? Or was it everybody’s favorite King of the Nerds, Leonard Hofstadter? It’s your call.

So, without further ado, grab your keyboards, laminate those roommate agreements, and come join us in Twinfinite’s latest trivia quiz. Can you identify all of these Ross Geller and Leonard Hofstadter quotes? Good luck, and don’t forget… PIVOT!!

Work has begun again on an eye-catching fan remake of cult classic The Simpsons: Hit & Run - now with a round of impressive new features.

A fresh video detailing work on the project has revealed the remake's newly-stitched-together open world, and promises further additions in future - such as improvements to the game's vehicles, the addition of online multiplayer, a quest system and revamped graphics.

The project's re-emergence now is a little surprising, since an earlier version was previously pulled offline from creator Reuben "Reubs" Ward's Patreon to avoid getting into any potential legal issues.

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A packed week of gaming news forms the basis for the latest episode of DF Direct Weekly - our 67th episode! Taking point on our topics this week are a couple of great Sony stories, kicking off with the arrival of the European iteration of Sony's PlayStation Plus subscription service. On the one hand, there's little doubt that the 'extra' tier hits it out of the park in terms of the sheer wealth of titles available for PS4 and PS5 users - even if the extreme value does put the high price of Sony's new titles into even sharper focus. But what about the thorny topic of the premium tier's classic games?

Unfortunately and inevitably, it's an unfortunate initial showing for fans of Sony's amazing library of older games in that we are seeing 50Hz titles badly fit into a 60Hz output - but there is hope, with Sony announcing that where possible, 60Hz renditions of those games will be made available. John, Alex and I discuss the news, hopeful that this disappointing scenario will eventually be resolved in the way Sony says it will, but at the same time wondering how we got into this mess in the first place. After all, the same criticisms were levelled at the PlayStation 2 classics range for PlayStation 4, yet years later, we're still in the same situation. If and when those 60Hz games are available, we'll be taking a look at them - but even with this situation addressed, Sony still has lots of work to do with its emulator to make these titles truly shine and to match the kind of features the retro community has delivered.

OpenAI's latest AI learned to play Minecraft by watching 40,000 hours of YouTube.

The company, which specialises in artificial intelligence, has developed a video pre-training (VPT) algorithm that allows its AI to learn through viewing.

Unlike previous attempts at creating Minecraft algorithms, OpenAI's plays in the same environment as humans using the equivalent of mouse and keyboard actions, making this a huge leap in AI technology.

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Let the tears flow. Dungeon of the Endless is a game with an easy lyricism. It is a bright, cruel poetry of doors and what lies behind them. You have crashed your spaceship and now you are underground somewhere. A catacomb of doors. You must get a crystal from one end of each maze to another, but along the way?

You control several people with their own quirks and abilities. You move between rooms gathering the threads of an economy together. You spend money on turrets and other treasures that you can place in certain spots. Enemies when discovered attack in waves, headed right for the crystal. That's why the doors are so powerful an idea here: what lies behind each one, something very good or very bad? Eventually you will have sounded out each level, and you must prepare yourself to move the crystal - which is when the enemies attack en masse.

Dungeon of the Endless is absolutely stellar. I love it to its melancholy roots. It's a one-off, or so I thought. Because here's Endless Dungeon from the same team. And Endless Dungeon looks like...

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Former Sega of America president and Sony Computer Entertainment America founder Bernie Stolar has died at 75.

Below is an obituary written by Steven L. Kent, author and gaming journalist, sent to Game Informer for use, in full: 

Bernard “Bernie” Stolar, a former top executive at Atari, Sony Computer Entertainment America, and Sega of America, passed away at the age of 75.

“Bernie was a low-key guy. He kept his ego in check,” remembers Vince Desi, founder of Running with Scissors. “I’ve known Bernie for a long time, and I’ve never heard him raise his voice. He was a gentleman in an industry where there really aren’t many.” 

Stolar’s introduction to the video game business came with the 1981 release of an arcade game called Shark Attack. Created by Pacific Novelty and manufactured by Game Plan—an Illinois-based pinball manufacturer, Shark Attack was a game in which players controlled a white shark as it ate its way through groups of skindivers. 

Stolar was given the unenviable task of informing Universal Studios CEO Sid Sheinberg about the project. After released the movie Jaws in 1975, Universal claimed a certain ownership on shark-themed entertainment, and Sheinberg was notorious for suing companies he felt had infringed on his studio’s intellectual properties. (In 1982, Sheinberg would unsuccessfully take Nintendo to court claiming Donkey Kong infringed on his studio’s version of the movie King Kong.)  

After negotiating for permission to manufacture 1,000 Shark Attack machines without paying royalties, Stolar built 990 machines and pulled the plug on the project. 

The most wishlisted game on Steam, The Day Before, is being developed entirely by volunteers according to its developer’s website. Fntastic say they accept full-time and part-time volunteers to work on their games. Watch a video about volunteering that’s featured on the company’s website below.

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First announced last year, Endless Dungeon is a top-down, tactical roguelite hero-shooter set in Amplitude's Endless universe - yer Endless Legend and Endless Space types. Lots of things with no end, basically. It's also a sort of sequel to Dungeon Of The Endless, a turn-based game from 2014 that laid a lot of the groundwork for Endless Dungeon's core loop of dungeon runs and wave survival. I got to sample one of its earliest levels with three different heroes in a recent hour long preview session, but came away with mixed feelings. If you can get a foothold in a run it's fantastic, but getting that foothold can be frustrating in its current state.

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The Day Before is currently the most wishlisted game on Steam, but it’s attracting attention for a very different reason. The studio currently uses “volunteers” who are paid with “participation certificates” and free codes, which are, you know, great for paying rent.

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If there’s one thing that’s helped The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker stand the test of time, it’s the game’s distinctive art style. But it turns out this now-defining aspect stoked some controversy in development. According to a slew of old interviews, resurfaced and translated by the folks at DidYouKnowGaming?,…

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Diablo Immortal may be a solid mobile version of Blizzard’s hack-and-slash dungeon crawler, but it’s no secret the game has been mired in controversy due to its egregious microtransactions. It was previously speculated that maxing out a single character could cost as much as $100,000. However, it now seems the…

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There’s a new Honkai Impact 3rd The Journey of Painting Stars event video, and it features Griseo talking about how it will work. Which makes sense, given it is a battlesuit event going over her addition to the game. It it, she establishes how she and Mr. Knight (as well as the players) will be fighting to protect “all the colors in the world.” She notes the goal will be to “find the Depicter’s paintings and retrieve the world’s colors.”

The new JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: All-Star Battle R trailer is here, and this time Pet Shop is the star. For those unaware, Pet Shop is both an actual falcon and an ally of DIO who uses the Stand Horus. He shows up in Stardust Crusaders as the guardian of DIO’s mansion.

Here’s the full JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: All-Star Battle R trailer for Pet Shop. It directly references the events of Stardust Crusaders. In the third part of the story, Pet Shop and Iggy’s battle is quite notable. The video also shows off the various moves Horus is capable of. It uses ice-based attacks, and the video shows how that means Pet Shop can send off icicles to damage a foe.

"SKRAAAAAW"

Pet Shop is soaring into #JJASBR and ready to send icy chills down the spines of his opponents. pic.twitter.com/8mKmiXsHlU

— JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: All-Star Battle R (@jojo_games) June 27, 2022

In case you missed some of the past JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: All-Star Battle R trailers, here are other characters Bandai Namco showed off.

Today the Japanese arm of Atlus provided more information about the Xbox and PC ports of Persona 5 Royal.

We learn that the game is shipping with over 40 DLC included from the get-go, while those were purchasable separately when Persona 5 Royal was originally released for PS4.

As a caveat, there is no information about the PS5 and Steam versions for now, which is not too surprising considering how fragmented the reveals about these ports have been so far.

Of course, we will keep you posted on this as soon as Atlus announces something one way or the other.

Persona 5 Royal was announced at the same time as Persona 4 Golden and Persona 3 Portable, and Atlus mentions that we should stay tuned for more information about those.

Persona 5 Royal will release on PS5, Xbox Series X, Xbox One, Windows, and Steam on October 21.

Persona 4 Golden will release “soon” on Xbox Series X, Xbox One, Windows, and PS4 (it’s already available on Steam).

Persona 3 Portable will release “soon” on Xbox Series X, Xbox One, Windows, Steam, and PS4.

As we already know, all three games are coming on Game Pass as well, while it wasn’t officially mentioned whether the Game Pass version of P5R will get all the DLC as well.

The dates for One Piece Day Livestream have been announced and here’s when it is and how you will be able to watch it. Eiichiro Oda, creator of the series recently announced a special new “One Piece Day” live stream event, packed with new reveals and announcements. While the main series ended sometime back, there have been several spinoffs and crossovers and a lot of things are currently in the works such as a new movie coming to theaters across Japan, upcoming video games, and more. 

The two day event will have some major reveals for fans and for those wondering when the One Piece Day Livestream is or how to watch it, we have you covered. Here’s all you need to know.

When Is The One Piece Day Livestream?

The One Piece Day Livestream is going to take  on July 22, 2022 at 8:50AM UTC and July 23, 2022, at 1:00AM UTC and guarantees an “ultimate festival” where fans will get to know more about all of the projects that are being worked on. You can check out the official announcement for One Piece Day below:

Seeing as Mad Maggie is only one second old by this point, there aren’t a whole lot of skins available for her. However, there are still some pretty nice ones. Here are the top 5 skins for Mad Maggie in Apex Legends.

Top 5 Skins for Mad Maggie in Apex Legends

Surprisingly enough, not all of these are legendary skins. One of them are time-sensitive, as it simply requires owning the season 13 battle pass.

As teased a few days ago, Microsoft and Rare released the cinematic trailer of the next adventure that will become playable soon on Sea of Thieves.

The adventure is titled “The Forsaken Hunter” and it’ll go live on June 30. It’ll be playable until July 14.

The trailer focuses on Merrick, who definitely appears in big trouble after mysteriously disappearing after his triumph at Golden Sands.

Adventures are story-driven live events added to the game every month for about two weeks. They’re arranged in trilogies through each season and let players take part in shaping up the overarching story of Sea of Thieves.

You can watch it below and see if you can predict what’s going to happen.

In the meanwhile, we recently saw the first tease of Season 7 during the Xbox & Bethesda Games Showcase, and that will launch on July 21st.

Sea of Thieves is currently available on PC, Xbox One, Xbox Series X, and Xbox Cloud Gaming. You can also grab it via Game Pass.

Today, it was revealed that One Piece would be getting two livestreams next month, both of which would be broadcasting an event on the official Youtube channel that celebrates the anime. According to the account, fans will be able to join in and celebrate One Piece Day 2022 on July 22, 2022 at 8:50AM UTC and July 23, 2022, at 1:00AM (UTC).

Anyone interested in setting a reminder or notification for the event can do so by clicking on either of the videos down below.

While there hasn’t been exact info given on what fans can expect from the One Piece day livestream, the details section of the videos did state that everything about the anime – manga, anime, movies, music, games, and goods – could possibly be shown off.

There’s always some debate about popular animated shows regarding if they count as an anime. Part of that debate is Hamtaro, a cutesy animated show revolving entirely around hamsters. We’re here to quash this argument once and for all to answer if Hamtaro is an anime.

Whether or Not Hamtaro Is an Anime

Twinfinite recently put out our own guide as to what makes an animated show an anime. This guide, or rubric, mentions that it is primarily the aspect of being a Japanese animation production that makes something an anime. Due to this, Hamtaro is absolutely an anime, having been produced in Japan and aired there two years before being dubbed and released for English audiences.

Further on from that is the fact that the Hamtaro show was adapted from a manga, something that is by and large unique to anime. There’s also a large gap in how much of Hamtaro was released in the west versus Japan. Only 105 episodes of Hamtaro were aired in English, whereas Japan had 296.

What Is Hamtaro?

Hamtaro is, as said, an anime about hamsters that first aired in Japan in 2000. Yes, it’s pretty old.

For a bit more of a detailed summary written by Crunchyroll:

Back in the depths of February, we began our search for a section editor to take on our growing reviews section and bring their expert editing skills to every part of the site. Today, at long last, I'm happy to say we've found that person, and we've also given them the proper job title they deserve. Please say hello to Rachel Watts, our brand-new reviews editor.

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Nvidia DLAA (Deep Learning Anti-Aliasing) is more of a niche prospect than its upscaler cousin DLSS (Deep Learning Super Sampling), though it shares the same ultimate goal of making your PC games look sharper. Like DLSS, DLAA uses a dash of AI brainpower to stitch together frames with more detail than conventional anti-aliasing techniques like TAA and MSAA – only with DLAA, there’s no upscaling involved. That means no performance gains, but for those with sufficiently powerful Nvidia RTX GPUs, potentially superior image quality at all resolutions. Even better than DLSS, mayhaps.

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Following reports Sony was discontinuing the sale of its PS Plus retail cards from stores, the company has now released PlayStation gift cards with denominations for its new look subscription service.

As spotted by Push Square, you are now able to purchase a gift card for £84's worth of PS Store credit from outlets such as Amazon UK. This is the annual cost to sign up for PlayStation's new PS Plus Extra tier.

Similarly, you can buy a voucher for £100, and that would cover someone's Premium subscription for 12 months.

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