June 2022

UPDATE 29/06/22: Following Monday's story regarding volunteers at Fntastic, the developer has provided a new update to Eurogamer.

"Essentially, the word 'volunteer' comes from the Latin word 'voluntarius', meaning 'willing' or 'of one's own choice'," it explained.

"Anyone who is open to life can become a volunteer with Fntastic, and there are two types of volunteers. Today we have over 100 full-time internal volunteers (employees) from Singapore, Russia, the Netherlands, Thailand, Ukraine, Finland, Kazakhstan, and Belarus who work as engineers, artists, HR professionals, etc. We also have 40 external US and worldwide volunteers (supporters) who help with testing and reviewing our products at a very early stage."

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Apparently outside of being a 16-time WWE world heavyweight champion, a surprisingly decent rapper, and occasionally intangible to the human eye, John Cena is also a huge mark for the Metroid series.

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Today in Mad-Libs: That Sounds Too Good To Be True Edition, legendary game designer Hideo Kojima was reportedly working on a project that pitted a team of detectives against superpowered humans. That game is now dead, according to Kojima, because it bore too much similarity to The Boys, Amazon’s hit show about more or…

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If not for Steve Blum's distinctive voice in the slick trailer for Neon White, I would have waited to see what other people thought of this flashy game that immediately made me think of Phantom Dust. But I let myself get suckered in. Blum is a siren for anime nerds like me. The moment his voice hits your eardrums, you're entranced. Which is why I am so disappointed that Neon White just isn't for someone like me.

This action game is a speed runner's dream. In fact, every single mission is presented as a string of bite-sized jobs. The better your time, the better your score and overall rank. Which is great, in theory. I get that these first jobs are all tutorials. However, the start/stop of running a level, then waiting for the next to load, pulled me out of the game. Especially when Neon White's load times took longer than the courses themselves. I thought maybe it was just me. Maybe the reason the game felt like slogging through quicksand was this genre wasn't for me. So I asked my spouse to run the tutorial section. He came back with the exact same response.

Windows PC owners can now play a new Hololive Vtuber fangame called HoloCure. Kay Yu released the first build of the free game on June 23, 2022. It is an action title in which members of Hololive En fight to save their fans. People can get it off of itch.io.

As this is an early build, not everything is implemented yet. At the moment, people can use Hololive Myth members Amelia, Gura, Ina’nis, Kiara, and Calliope, Hololive Hope member Irys, and Hololive Council members Kronii, Mumei, Sana, Fauna, and Baelz as they attempt to save their fans by fighting monsters. Each character has their own movesets and weapons. There is also a leaderboard feature, though it is temporarily turned off. This is due to the number of people playing and resulting scores data load.

Here's an initial trailer for HoloCure. In addition to Kay Yu's efforts, both DuDul and Smpletan worked on its art.

IT'S ALMOST TIME! The first demo of my Hololive fangame project will be soon available for all, free of course. If everything goes well, it will be ready sometime late June.

The first demo will include all of EN for now.

Please look forward to it~
日本語もあります！ pic.twitter.com/3MEgfjH6GV

— Kay Yu (@kaynimatic) May 31, 2022

Nintendo’s gradually been going over some returning Splatoon 3 weapons, and the latest to show up are the blasters. These are the weapons that are designed to blast opposing players with ink. In particular, two were shown off this time. People can see how the Luna Blaster and Range Blaster will look this time.

First, here’s the Luna Blaster. It’s appeared in the series since the original Splatoon in both standard and Neo forms. A Kensa version also showed up in the sequel. It fires slightly faster than the Range Blaster.

Next is the Luna Blaster. With a rapid fire rate and explosive ink coverage, it’s great for close combat. And it's see-through! We hear the new design is so hot that it’s hard to find at stores. Our intern assures us that she didn’t walk straight past it. But it IS see-through... pic.twitter.com/Ur8wz0chbe

— Splatoon North America (@SplatoonNA) June 27, 2022

The next Splatoon 3 blaster is the Range Blaster. It showed up as a weapon in both of the original games too. It is the slower of the two weapons, but works at a greater range than the Luna Blaster.

Yes, it’s an announcement for an announcement, but we’re definitely on board for whatever this could be. Seeing as we already have the Oct. 25 release date for Gotham Knights, it definitely can’t be that.

There’s even truly not that much to break down out of the announcement. Below is the tweet from the official Gotham Knights twitter account. We have no idea what this could mean.

It’s just the simply “Tomorrow. 6AM PT.” that we have to go on. The video doesn’t give anything else either, those are just the symbols of Nightwing, Batgirl, Red Hood, and Robin. The only speculation could be that green heart emoji. If that is hinting at something, it could be a DLC character? Though, it could also be hinting at the reveal of the Joker, as we don’t know where he fits into the Gotham Knights story as of yet.

Earlier today a brand-new expansion was announced for the digital card game, Hearthstone. Murder At Castle Nathria is the second expansion to release this year and the first since Voyage to the Sunken City launched back on Apr. 12. Like past years, this second expansion is set to release in late Summer on Aug. 2.

Murder at Castle Nathria Cinematic Trailer

First off, the cinematic trailer for Murder at Castle Nathria was released on YouTube. Since it is a cinematic trailer, not much of the information is relevant to how this set will actually play in Hearthstone. However, it has plenty of background information to help build up the story behind the cards that are releasing later this summer.

In the trailer, it appears as if Sire Denathrius of Castle Nathria has been killed. There’s an unmistakable chalk outline of where he must have been murdered and Murloc Holmes is on the case. Down below is the full story summary from Blizzard as well as the cinematic trailer.

Come investigate Hearthstone’s next expansion! Sire Denathrius, the ruler of venthyr, was accused of causing an anima drought in the Shadowlands. He thought a nice gathering at Castle Nathria might help clear the air, but instead he has been found dead! Now Murloc Holmes has been called to solve the case.

After weeks of exciting episodes, the Forger family adventures are sadly over for now with the release of its Part 1 finale. But, fret not; the anime has already confirmed a second installment to continue Twilight’s critical mission. So, let’s find out when Spy x Family Cour 2 comes out.

Spy x Family Cour 2 Release Date

Spy x Family Cour 2 comes Oct. 1, 2022. This news came by way of a blog post earlier today, which announced the exciting anime news alongside a cute new key visual.

Earlier this year, we saw a teaser trailer for Spy x Family Cour 2, as it shows the Forger family embarking on a high-stakes mission where they must protect the fate of the world. At the same time, Operation Strix is still in full effect; however, information on this aspect is vague.

Due to the show’s heartfelt and thrilling moments, Spy x Family has continued to grow in popularity throughout the community. The journey of the Forger family, which includes Loid, Yor, and Anya, has gained a loyal fanbase that highly regards the show as a “must-watch” anime of the season.

During its annual Spark 2022 conference, Tencent Games unveiled Code: To Jin Yong, a new open-world action title steeped in wuxia literature and created in Unreal Engine 5.

The upcoming game comes from LightSpeed Studio, a Chinese team most notable for developing Apex Legends Mobile and PUBG Mobile. Code: To Jin Yong is an adaptation of a series of wuxia (a genre of fantasy martial arts) novels by acclaimed author Jin Yong, whose works have been extremely popular in China since the 1950s. The game features heroes from Yong’s novels and leverages Unreal 5’s power, such as photogrammetry technology, to create dazzling martial arts combat and physics that fans of wuxia films should appreciate. Check out the gameplay demo below to see it in action. 

Code: To Jin Yong has no release date or confirmed platforms, but Tencent’s press release states it will be available globally “in the near future.” What do you think of this first look at the title? Let us know in the comments!

Gamescom returns as a hybrid in-person/online event this August, and the pieces have begun falling into – and in several cases, out of – place. Although several big publishers have already pulled out of what’s arguably the biggest convention in gaming, Ubisoft has confirmed it will have a presence at the show.

See you at @gamescom!

August 24-28, stay tuned for more news... pic.twitter.com/lPQDovmc1e

— Ubisoft (@Ubisoft) June 27, 2022

Ubisoft’s attendance is noteworthy because other heavy-hitters such as Nintendo, Sony, Take-Two, and Activision are skipping the show this year. Although there’s no confirmed list of attendees, THQ Nordic will also attend and plans to reveal four unannounced games. 

Valve’s handheld PC and most successful Steam Machine to date is wrapping up its Q2 2022 reservation fulfillment today and will be moving on the Q3 preorders starting next week. The devices will also be manufactured at an increased pace, so those who thought they might have to wait a while longer to pick one up may be in luck.

Valve tweeted today from its Steam Deck account that those who preordered the Steam Deck and have an expected Q3 2022 fulfillment date should check their email inboxes starting on June 30. The announcement of the latest group of preorder shipments comes paired with the reveal that Valve is increasing production of the handheld, essentially doubling the previous quarter’s output. 

“Hello! Some great news on the production front. We just sent the last batch of Q2 emails, and we’ll start sending Q3 reservation emails on the 30th,” says the @OnDeck tweet. “Production has picked up, and after today we’ll be shipping more than double the number of Steam Decks every week!”

Hello! Some great news on the production front. We just sent the last batch of Q2 emails, and we’ll start sending Q3 reservation emails on the 30th.
Production has picked up, and after today we'll be shipping more than double the number of Steam Decks every week! pic.twitter.com/kAHE0zRrV7

Post-apocalyptic mod Fallout: London will arrive next year, the development team have announced with a new video released as part of the Fallout For Hope charity initiative. It’s a DLC-sized mod for Fallout 4 that’s bringing the unchanging nuclear war across the pond. Doff your bowler hat out of respect for all the nuked chippies, and watch the trailer below.

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Following Fall Guys' successful, if slightly controversial, switch to free-to-play last week, developer Mediatonic has been plugging away to fix any launch week woes, and those continuing efforts have now manifested in a new patch which, among other things, should now enable PS5 players to get into games while in parties.

Beyond that headline fix, and tweaks to resolve a seperate bug preventing players from hearing party members in voice chat, Mediatonic's latest patch notes suggest an update primarily targeting smaller issues across all versions of the game, rather than anything particularly seismic, with other fixes including a range of visual issues on Switch. Here's the full list of tweaks and adjustments, for the curious, as per the Fall Guys Twitter account:

Fall Guys' transition to a free-to-pay model seems to have paid off for Mediatonic. Despite some server wobbles on launch day, the developer reported Fall Guy's new monetisation model - combined with its launch on two new platforms in Xbox and Switch - managed to push the game's player base over the 20m mark just 24 hours after its free-to-play release.

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Pokémon fan and card game player Matthew Verive used 60 giant novelty cards to play at the Pokémon North America International Championship on June 24. Those cards are huge, and would not fit in my womanly pockets. The three-day championship had events for a few competitive Pokémon games, including the OG Trading Card…

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Sometimes you just wanna explore wastelands all by your lonesome. But Fallout 5 is years away, and Fallout 76 is…fine, albeit multiplayer and developed under brutal working conditions. So many looking for the next big solo Fallout experience have been closely watching the development of Fallout: London, an…

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Valve’s Steam Deck is a cool handheld PC you probably don’t wanna modify too much. However, if the creative juices start flowing and you feel the need to tinker with it, Valve user experience designer Lawrence Yang is at least advising against a mod that increases the literal size of the Deck’s SSD. The reason?…

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A few days ago, I was playing Neon White, which is what I mostly do these days when I’m not doomscrolling Twitter. I had set a fast but not perfect time on a level and was replaying to beat someone on my friend-filled leaderboard. Nothing was working. Then, on run 503 or so, I spotted an angle that would let me shoot…

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Square Enix announced a livestream going over new information about The DioField Chronicle will appear on July 2, 2022. It will begin at 8 p.m. JST/4 a.m. PT/7 a.m. ET/1 p.m. CET. It will be available via the Wasyagana TV YouTube channel. Along with the livestream covering the latest information about The DioField Chronicle, it will also feature a first look at its gameplay. [Thanks, Gamer!]

The channel mentioned that reposting the video or making clips is strictly prohibited. However, linking to the video will be completely fine. While viewers will be given a glimpse of The DioField Chronicle gameplay, there are no specifics regarding what kind of content will be shown. This means it is unknown if there will be a new trailer or breakdown of significant story characters.

Brigitte’s first five Legendary skins in Overwatch all focused on her character as more of a battle-hardened warrior and engineer. Her main focus isn’t always healing, but she has the ability to restore her teammate’s health. This Medic skin very clearly identifies her as a healer with the red and white logo that resembles the Caduceus. Here’s everything you need to know about how to get the Medic Brigitte (Legendary) skin in Overwatch with Twitch.

How To Get Medic Brigitte (Legendary) in Overwatch With Twitch

First off, this partnership between Overwatch and Twitch are teaming up to host Support a Streamer, an event that coincides with the Overwatch 2 beta. People who gift subscriptions to certain streamers on Twitch during a specified time period will unlock the Medic Brigitte Legendary skin.

Today Tencent and its development studio LightSpeed Studios announced its first game in Unreal Engine 5, Code: To Jin Yong.

The title is a wuxia-style martial arts action game based on the famous novels by acclaimed Chinese writer Jin Yong (hence the title).

The game promises to showcase the adventures of many of the heroes created by Jin Yong, including Yang Guo, Qiao Feng, Linghu Chong, and more.

Epic Games’ engine will provide the physics to portray spectacular martial art techniques, while photogrammetry technology has been used to design an immersive world that is described as “vast and grand.”

Apparently, the global release of the game is coming in the “near future” and it has been presented with a trailer that you can watch below.

We also get a video introducing LightSpeed Studios itself. If you’re unfamiliar with the name, it’s an international studio with development arms in China, United States, Singapore, Canada, United Kingdom, France, Japan, South Korea, New Zealand, and the United Arab Emirates.

Its most prominent past project is the mobile version of PUBG.

You can check out both videos below.

Brooklyn 99 is a workplace sitcom about the fictional police precinct the 99. Fans of the series may think they know everything about the show, but this quiz will be sure to put all of your knowledge to the test.

How well do you know Jake, Amy, Rosa, Captain Holt, Terry, Charles, and Gina? These characters have a lot more secrets than even you may remember.

This quiz may make you realize you need to go back and rewatch the series to see if you’ve spotted all the little details and references. If you ace this quiz you’ll be on your way to becoming Captain of the Brooklyn 99.

(Image Source: NBC Universal)

During round 2 of the Melty Blood: Type Lumina official tournament, developer Type-Moon announced that the game is going to get more DLC characters.

To be precise, four additional fighters are coming in 2022, two in the summer and two in the winter.

Their identity has not been revealed and their price has not been decided, which means they’ll possibly not be free like the previous DLC characters.

Each character will come with their own story and with a battle stage.

On top of the characters, the game will continue to receive free updates including expanded features, adjustments to balance, bug fixes, and more.

Considering that summer is already here, the wait to know the identity of the first DLC character shouldn’t be far away.

Melty Blood: Type Lumina is currently available for PS4, Xbox One, Switch, and PC via Steam.

Want to know how to do the 100 baby challenge in The Sims 4? This interesting objective isn’t for the faint at heart, as it requires a lot of hard work to complete. Here is everything you need to know.

The 100 Baby Challenge is exactly what it sounds like—a challenge that pushes you to have 100 babies in The Sims 4. Seriously. While many challenges in The Sims 4 community also tend to have some sort of story element attached to them, the 100 Baby Challenge is far more plain and simple.

There is no particular explanation you have to keep in your brain as to why your Sim is going to be spend the vast majority of their life being pregnant. It’s all just a part of the fun and it’s actually far more challenging than you might expect.

How to Do the 100 Baby Challenge in The Sims 4

To get started with the 100 Baby Challenge in The Sims 4 you will have to start with the soon-to-be mother. Create a female Young Adult Sim and move her into whatever lot you desire. The only rule to remember at this point is that no cheats can be used while attempting to complete this challenge. So if you want a massive nursery for all your little ones or lavish backyard to escape a house filled with babies crying, you’ll simply have to work for it. Feel free to start low and save your money as there are no restrictions on moving to different lots.

While you have the freedom to move about as you please, this challenge is packed with a variety of different requirements and restrictions that help make the 100 Baby Challenge even more difficult. Here are the general guidelines:

Whispers of a Metroid Prime remaster for Switch have been circulating for quite some time, but a new report has claimed Nintendo is finally almost ready to share the fruits of its labour, and will be releasing the long-rumoured game at the end of this year.

That's according to the persistently leaky Jeff Grubb, who shared the news on Giant Bomb's Game Mess Mornings show, saying he'd been told "pretty definitively" that an updated version of Metroid Prime 1 - what he referred to as Metroid Prime Remastered - was set to be one of Nintendo's "big holiday games" for 2022.

"In the past, this is something I'd heard was in the works," Grubb explained, "they have things happening with that game. Now I’ve been told that their plans are to release that game this holiday - I think almost certainly to line up with the 20th anniversary in November."

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For those of you who’ve been longingly (...or jealously) watching as a lucky few get to play around with their fancy, new Steam Decks, well, I’ve got some good news. Valve has announced it will start sending out Q3 Steam Deck reservation emails later this week. And, it also confirmed it’s ramping up actually shipping…

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

Today’s video showcases Seiryu, a demon that has been part of the series since basically forever and has also appeared in the recent Shin Megami Tensei V.

The trailer also includes the traditional daily horoscope, with Libra at the top of the luck ranking and Scorpio at the bottom.

You can check the video out below.

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.

Today, a Chinese AAA studio announced that it would be adapting a famous wuxia novel series into a martial arts game. The demo trailer showed off stylish combat that heavily incorporates exaggerated aerial movements, which are a common hallmark of wuxia cinema but which I’ve rarely seen so gracefully replicated in…

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It’s like clockwork: A game comes out with a robust competitive component…and is instantly inundated by players who rocket to the top via nefarious, unsanctioned means—cheaters, in other words. The latest victim is Neon White, a multi-genre speedrunning game developed by Angel Matrix and published by Annapurna…

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Developed by Ubisoft exclusively for the Nintendo Switch, Mario + Rabbids: Sparks of Hope is the follow-up to Kingdom Battle, which was a bit of a surprise hit when it came out a few years ago. It didn’t take long for Ubisoft to announce a sequel, and if you’re wondering when Mario + Rabbids: Sparks of Hope is set to release, here’s what you need to know.

Mario + Rabbids Sparks of Hope Release Date

Mario + Rabbids Sparks of Hope launches Oct. 20, 2022. The news was originally leaked a day early by Ubisoft, as fans caught a posting of the release date on the website. Today, the Nintendo Direct Mini confirmed that the game would indeed be coming to Nintendo Switch around Halloween.

The game was announced last year, and it was revealed that the gameplay loop for Sparks of Hope would be very similar to Kingdom Battle. Players will be able to choose from a roster of characters from both the Mario and Rabbids series, and take part in a variety of XCOM-like tactical RPG battles.

However, Sparks of Hope is also set to have a much larger scope than the first game, and players will be able to visit locations past the iconic Mushroom Kingdom. There will be new levels taking place in all sorts of galactic locations, which should help to keep things feeling fresh for a while.

That’s all you need to know about when Mario + Rabbids: Sparks of Hope is coming out for now. Be sure to search for Twinfinite for more news and information on the game.

That’s right, Overwatch is teaming up with Twitch during the second Overwatch 2 beta to bring you a reward for watching and gifting subs to Twitch streamers playing Overwatch 2. The reward will be the “Legendary Medic Brigitte” skin. The skin is will unlock for immediate use in Overwatch 1 and then carry over to Overwatch 2 when it releases.

To participate, you must gift three subs to any streamer after the start time of June 29, 2022, at 11:00 a.m. PDT. The subs can be any tier, but you must be sure to gift them after the above start time, doing it before won’t be counted. It seems that you will be able to mix and match who the three goes to, and it doesn’t have to all be one for streamer. You can find the full details and the list of streamers here.

These subs also cannot be given anonymously. Altruism is always nice, but if you’re doing this for a skin, you have to make yourself known.

There is a list of 124 streamers participating in this, so there is a high chance you’ll be able to watch your favorite(s). Notable streamers such as music legend T-Pain (yes, he streams) and Fextralife are taking part.

Overwatch 2 is set to release Oct. 4, 2022 for PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, Nintendo Switch, and PC.

Square Enix opened pre-orders for a Flare NieR: Automata 2B figure. Two versions are available, which include a standard and DX version. The standard version will cost 17,380 yen (or roughly $128). The DX version will cost 25,800 yen (or approximately $191). Pre-orders can be placed through the Square Enix e-STORE. The figure will ship on December 24, 2022.

The figure is based on a prototype by sculptor Mitsumasa Yoshiwaza, also known as Reflect. The standard version of the 2B figure comes with a display stand and features the android holding her signature sword. The DX version will come with several accessories. This will include a second face plate, which features 2B without her blindfold. Additionally, the DX version will include a Pod 042 accessory, a removable skirt attachment, and two display stands.

You can take a look at the figure below.

[gallery columns="4" ids="931109,931110,931111,931112,931113,931114,931115,931108" link="file"]

Square Enix will also release a Flare NieR: Automata A2 figure. Like the 2B figure, a standard and DX version will be available. The DX version comes with an additional weapon and additional accessories to allow for more poses.

Hearthstone is taking a trip to the Shadowlands for a fancy dinner party hosted by the definitely-not-nefarious Sire Denathrius. "Hosted" is appropriate in the past tense because someone has murdered the now-former leader of Revendreth and the Venthyr. Now there's a soiree full of suspects and locations to investigate to find out who did the dirty deed in Murder at Castle Nathria.

A strong entry-level gaming laptop is down to a bargain basement price today. The Dell G15 offers an RTX 3050 Ti graphics card, Core i5 10200H processor, 512GB SSD, 120Hz screen and normally costs £849 - but today you can use code VOUCHERCODES8 to get this 1080p gaming laptop for £532.

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Lenovo's G27q-20 G-Sync/FreeSync gaming monitor is down to £200, a fantastic deal for a 1440p 165Hz model in a 27-in screen size. Here's why we rate it.

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Hey, remember this time last year when Reubs whipped up a more modern version of the classic Simpsons: Hit & Run in just a week? Well he’s back in 2022, and has far more ambitious goals for the project.

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