July 2022

A new bundle of discounted indie games on Itch.io is aiming to raise $150,000 towards reproductive rights and women’s charities following the US Supreme Court’s overturn of federal abortion rights last month. The Worthy Of Better, Stronger Together bundle is organised by streamer and musician Abbey ‘Scruncho’ Smith of horror game publisher Dread XP, and features 169 games. Picking up the bundle aids the National Organization For Women and the Center For Reproductive Rights in equal measure.

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Katharine has been raving about Tangle Tower ever since she reviewed it a couple of years ago, and I finally sat down and played it this weekend. I can confirm it's really good! A lovely point and click mystery with some tricksy puzzles, but unlimited goes so you still get to feel clever - plus the story plays with some mystery tropes in really fun ways. But the real joy is its characters. It's a cast of suspects that are both wacky and relatable, and I love them.

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Every weekend, indie devs show off current work on Twitter's #screenshotsaturday tag. And every Monday, I bring you a selection of these snaps and clips. This week, my eye was caught by a train ride through endless winter, a submarine controlled by connecting cables, some striking art styles, and yes, another cat.

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Having a deep understanding of map layouts is majorly important in any tactical shooter, and Valorant is no exception. Given the game only has eight of them, and now just seven since the removal of Split, learning every nook and cranny is a big part of improving your game sense and performance. Those who play Valorant regularly should know all of them like the back of their hands. But do you? Faced with a Valorant map quiz, could you identify them based on tiny images from random places? Let’s find out.

Here, we’ve compiled a dozen images from obscure locations across Valorant’s different maps, and we’re challenging you to name which map they’re from. Some should be fairly easy to recognize, while others will be much harder. We’ll assign an appropriate rank to you depending on how many you can name! Good luck.

Bandai Namco released two more characters trailer of its upcoming fighting game JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: All-Star Battle R.

While during the weekend we saw a trailer focusing on the trio of Stone Ocean, today we get two more dedicated specifically to Jolyne Cujoh and F.F.

Of course, we also get to see Jolyne’s stand Stone Free in action and F.F.’s stand form, Foo Fighters.

Wondering how to get Truffles in Stardew Valley? Then, we’ve got just the guide for you. The Truffle is a rare mushroom in Stardew Valley and can be used to produce truffle oil, which can then be sold in exchange for vast sums of money. However, before any of that, you will first need to get your hands on Truffle. Here’s how you can easily do this.

How to Get Stardew Valley Truffles

It’s pretty easy to get Truffles in Stardew Valley. You can get Truffles in Stardew Valley by releasing an adult Pig (which needs a Deluxe Barn). The pig will search for the truffle, which will be dropped on the ground every day. But how do you get pigs? 

That’s simple, too. All you need to do is build a barn, then upgrade it twice until it’s a Deluxe Barn. Now, simply buy a pig from Marnie’s ranch for 16,000g. Once that pig reaches the adult stage, it’ll search for truffles outside as long as you keep it fed and happy. Also, make sure the pigs have a terrain without paths or other objects on it. 

Pigs will not find truffles in the winter (or when it’s raining), though, so that’s a good time to purchase baby piglets and raise them to adulthood. If everything goes alright, pigs will produce a truffle every day. Those who have bonded well and have higher friendship levels might possibly find more than one truffle per day. 

Apart from pigs which are the primary source of getting Truffles in Stardew Valley, you might occasionally find the traveling cart selling a truffle for the price of 1,875g at the lowest, and 3,125g at the highest. You can not only make truffle oil using truffles but also donate one. 

Stardew Valley has different events happening each season that you can choose to participate in. The second event you’ll encounter is the Flower Dance festival that takes place on the 24th of Spring. At 9:00 AM, you’ll get a notice on your screen that’ll let you know the festival has started and it’s time to get your dance on.

Stardew Valley Flower Dance Location

In order to attend, you’ll have to go south from your Farm between the two pink blossom trees to the Cindersap Forest location. Go south east and the festival will be taking place near the area where the Wizard’s Tower is.

You can’t miss it, just follow the path that you’re allowed to take as everything else in that large area will be closed off with detours and flags signaling the festival.

The Flower Dance is open from 9am to 2pm on Spring 24, so if you do want to attend, we recommend heading there in the morning so you don’t miss out.

One of the joys in gaming is wanting to wrap yourself in nostalgia and throw on a game from a past console that you used to spend hours on. For some titles, the multiplayer servers still exist. Though, there are 15 Ubisoft games that will be losing their multiplayer access right on Sept. 1.

Ubisoft gives further details about what exactly will be unavailable with the server closures. In most cases, it simply makes multiplayer on online features unavailable. However, in the case of several PC titles, you’ll be losing a little bit more. “Additionally, the installation and access to downloadable content (DLC) will be unavailable.”

For the list below, it only applies to the original releases of these titles, servers for remasters will remain open for the time being. The affected games are on PC, Xbox 360, PS3, and Wii U.

• Anno 2070
• Assassin’s Creed II
• Assassin’s Creed 3
• Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood
• Assassin’s Creed Liberation HD
• Assassin’s Creed Revelations
• Driver San Francisco
• Far Cry 3
• Ghost Recon Future Soldier
• Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands
• Rayman Legends
• Silent Hunter 5
• Space Junkies
• Splinter Cell: Blacklist
• ZombiU

The case of Space Junkies is a little unique, “as a multiplayer only title, you will be unable to play the game going forward.” Those who want to enjoy the game will have until September when it will become unplayable.

We all know that all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy, but did you know that writing reams of text in a fictitious video game can also have similar consequences?

Well, thanks to Reddit user lfatalframel, we now have evidence which suggests that penning the world-building lore in The Medium may’ve seriously rubbed one writer up the wrong way. Specifically, the aforementioned Reddit user discovered an in-game magazine with the ramblings of what seem like a madman.

Want proof? Check it out for yourself down below:

Stardew Valley throws random quests at you to complete so that you can have a respite between the banalities of day to day farm life. One of these is from Linus, the Pelican Town homeless person that lost his blackberry basket. You’ll have that basket back for him in no time. Here’s where Linus’ basket is in Stardew Valley.

Unfortunately, Linus himself gives no word on where the basket could be, because he doesn’t remember. Fortunately, what Linus can’t tell you, we can!

You’ll first receive the message in your mailbox about Linus’ basket on the Fall 8 in Year 1. Once you’ve read the message, you can then proceed to track down his missing item.

How to Find Linus’ Basket in Stardew Valley (Where Linus’ Basket Is)

Linus’ basket can be found by the side of the road near the tunnel in the Backwoods area.

From your farm, head east. This will lead you to the bus stop area where you’re going to want to walk onto the actual road and then follow it west.

Head down the road and off-screen to the left will lead you to another area where, upon reaching the end of the road, you will find the basket laying off the side. Grab it when you’re there!

Here’s a picture of the specific area in Stardew Valley, in case it helps you.

It's Monday, it's DF Direct Weekly - which as the name heavily implies - is Digital Foundry's weekly show, where team members take a break from their current projects to discuss the latest gaming and technology news. What's excited us the most this week is the 'shadow drop' of Valve's Portal and Portal 2 for Nintendo Switch. These games are timeless: brilliant examples of excellent design that don't actually require immense hardware to look and play wonderfully. Nevertheless, it's great to see 720p60 and 1080p60 gameplay from the Switch in mobile and docked permutations respectively - and we'll be covering the package in more depth in more extended form this week.

For the purposes of the Direct discussion though, John shares his first-hand knowledge of port before the team move onto the emergence within 24 hours of a modded version of the game that injects Half-Life 2 assets to remarkable effect. It turns out that Portal was written around the Source Engine and Half-Life 2 specifically, meaning that a semi-working 'port' of the classic title could be realised very quickly. It's a great story, but more than that, the possibility of an actual official Switch port of the game and its subsequent episodes is mouthwatering. Fingers crossed that Valve takes heed.

A fan made video focusing on 2013's The Last of Us highlights some of the most impressive details hidden within the game that many may have missed.

Ahead of The Last of Us Part 1's release for the PS5 (and eventually PC), content creator Speclizer has revisited the first game in Naughty Dog's post-apocalyptic world.

They have since shared a compilation of the incredible inclusions from Naughty Dog, many of which can be easily missed on your average playthrough. I am talking about things like Joel's buttons being embossed with the words "Naughty Button" or being able to spot Tess' bite before she reveals her infection.

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Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes is the latest entry in Nintendo and Koei Tecmo’s Warriors series, which spans The Legend of Zelda and Fire Emblem. Like Hyrule Warriors, which received a Breath of the Wild-specific sequel in Age of Calamity, this new Warriors game is set in the Fire Emblem: Three Houses universe. Three Hopes integrates the world, characters, and lore of the 2019 hit, and you can dive deeper into what I mean by that in my review. 

I interviewed Nintendo Co. Ltd. supervisor Genki Yokata, Intelligent Systems character designer and supervisor Toshiyuki Kusakihara, Team Ninja head and producer Yosuke Hayashi, and Koei Tecmo Games director Hayato Iwata to learn more about Three Hopes. We dove deep into the making of this new Musou, how the teams integrated Three Houses into it, and what it was like expanding this highly beloved take on Fire Emblem’s world. 

Game Informer: We’ve had a more general Hyrule Warriors and then a very specific Breath of the Wild take on the formula. There’s also been the more general Fire Emblem Warriors, and now a very specific Three Hopes take on the formula. How does the team decide, ‘Okay, we want to make a Warriors game on this specific entry i.e., Three Houses?”  

We've seen sequels rise above and plummet below their precursors. Months ago, I said Overwatch 2 was a redemption arc. And now that the Beta is out on my preferred platform (Xbox), I've gotten the chance to sleep-dart and pulse-bomb my way through multiple game types, arenas, and heroes without the difficulties of mouse and keyboard controls. In other words, I'm confident that Overwatch 2 might not look like a completely different experience from its forebear, but it definitely plays like one.  

Witch on the Holy Night, the English localization of Mahoutsukai no Yoru, is getting a worldwide release in 2022. To help prepare people for what to expect, Aniplex and Type-Moon released a new trailer at Anime Expo 2022. This shows gameplay segments that introduce the characters and the localization for the game.

Here is the Witch on the Holy Night English trailer. It begins by introducing the two leads, Soujyuro Shizuki and Aoko Aozaki. Aoko is learning magic from Alice Kuonji, and after certain circumstances Soujyuro ends up coming to live in a mansion with Alice and Aoko.

In addition to the game, a new movie based on it is in development. Ufotable is handling it.

Witch on the Holy Night will appear in English on the Nintendo Switch and PlayStation 4 in Winter 2022. The Japanese release of Mahoutsukai no Yoru will appear on both platforms on December 8, 2022 and include English, Japanese, and Chinese subtitles.

The post Witch on the Holy Night English Trailer Appears appeared first on Siliconera.

Square Enix's latest FFVII Remake concept art shows off Avalanche member Wedge. While it doesn't show off his pet cats, it does look at him in a more professional sense. The design documents show off his outfit and two of the different kinds of weapons he uses in the game.

First, here's Wedge's general design. People can see his armor, the extra ammunition he carries, and the outfit and bandana he wears.

Next are some of the weapons Wedge uses in the game. Unlike in the original FFVII, he sees quite a bit of combat in the remake. For example, he'll be running around at one part when Cloud and Avalanche infiltrate Shinra warehouses. First, here's a closer look at his grenade launcher.

It’s super effective!

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Rather than following the more traditional release schedule of repeatedly delaying the Cyberpunk anime for months at a time, until finally releasing it long before they’ve finished coloring it in, Netflix has instead opted to have Cyberpunk: Edgerunners come out on time. And to celebrate this September’s streaming…

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Japan loves Pokemon, so it isn’t surprising that the popular critters are used to advertise pretty much everything, from whole prefectures to airports and airlines.

This time around, the administration of Miyazaki Bouganvillea Airport in the southern island of Kyushu have decided to go big with a massive life-sized statue of an Alolan Exeggutor.

If you’re familiar with the pokemon in question, you probably know this is no small feat, as an Alolan Exeggutor is nearly 11 meters tall (10.9m or 35.75 feet).

The statue portraying the massive dragon and grass pokemon has been placed in the airport’s main hall where its leaves at the top reach all the way up to the third floor.

You can check it out below to see how impressive it looks, courtesy of Twitter users 【公式】ポケモン情報局, メイト, 3XXXとりぷるえっくす, and 実生（ミオ）.

Cuphead: The Delicious Last Course DLC on Nintendo Switch

It’s been almost five years since Studio MDHR debuted its eye-catchingly unique 1930s’-inspired Walt Disney and Fleischer Studios-era action-platformer. Snapping up numerous awards, accolades, and critical acclaim back in 2017, Cuphead went on to become an uber-popular indie hit. Now, with the team’s latest, much-anticipated expansion The Delicious Last Course finally here, is it the closing swansong that the titular hero deserves? Or is it a stodgy dessert that will give you the squits? Well, we can 100% confirm right now that it’s definitely not the latter. Phew!

Much like its title suggests, The Delicious Last Course serves as a welcome palate cleanser following the anarchic, balls-to-the-wall action of the original, and whisks players away to a brand new island brimming with nefarious bosses that are hellbent on seeing you pushing up the virtual daisies.

The story is a simple one: our brotherly duo, Cuphead and Mugman, are determined to help out an ol’ pal of theirs, Ms. Chalice, by bringing her back from the dead. Thing is, they need to cook a magical recipe in order for her to cross back over to the other side. This involves setting sail to an unexplored island and — yep, you guessed it — wreaking havoc on the local flora and fauna.

If you’re not sure how to get Earth Crystals in Stardew Valley, then here’s what you need to know. Earth Crystals are a type of Mineral in Stardew Valley which are used for crafting, gifting, and more. The game has a ton of materials for you to collect and knowing how to get every one of them can be a hard task. So, here we will explain how you can easily get your hands on some Earth Crystals.

How to Get Stardew Valley Earth Crystals

The mines are the best place to find and farm Earth Crystals in Stardew Valley. You can get Earth Crystals in levels 1-29 of the mine. They spawn from floors 1 to 39, and can even be obtained from killing Duggies, which spawn on levels 1-29. You can also get them from Geodes and Omni Geodes.

Mages released another trailer of its upcoming game Alice Gear Aegis CS: Concerto of Simulatrix.

The trailer showcases mainly three of the actresses featured in the game, who are also among the most popular and visible in Alice Gear Aegis, Rei Takanashi, Kaede Agatsuma & Rin Himukai.

They’re showcased in a variety of dialogue scenes and outfits.

As usual, the video appears to be recorded from the Nintendo Switch of the game, as shown by the button prompts at the bottom of the screen.

You can check out the trailers below.

Stardew Valley has tons of different fish that can be caught in its seas, lakes, ponds and rivers. The Perch is one such fish that you can catch and not only is it a convenient source of money (G) to help you fund your various farming upgrades, but it can also be used in combination with Cloth to create the Fishing Vest at the Sewing Machine. Here’s where to catch Perch in Stardew Valley.

Stardew Valley Perch Locations

Perch can only be caught in Winter in the following locations:

• Cindersap Forest Pond
• Mountain Lake
• River

We’ve marked these locations on the map below.

If you need one quickly, it can also be found in Garbage Cans during the Winter season.

While writing a post about the Deus Ex randomiser mod last month, I tried to find a high-resolution clean version of the venerated immersive sim's box art to use as a header image. I trawled through archives of official sites hoping to discover that the marketing department had released it as a wallpaper or something, to no avail. But I did find a load of other official Deus Ex wallpapers which are so delightfully turn-of-the-millenium. Scanlines! Lensflare! Photoshop Difference Clouds filters! Come, admire, enjoy.

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When discussing the founding of Starward Industries, game director Marek Markuszewski brings up all the points you might expect from a new team. The company wanted to gather a group of experienced but still-passionate developers, all focused on the idea of creating something ambitious despite the studio’s smaller size. The surprise, however, comes from the studio’s approach to narrative. According to Markuszewski, Starward looked for stories that weren’t already “exploited” by media when figuring out its first project. It wanted to tell a story that hadn’t been told.

Admittedly, where Starward landed was a story told before – almost 60 years ago, in the novel The Invincible, written by Stanisław Lem. In it, the crew of the Invincible spacecraft investigates the planet Regis III for its missing sister ship. There they discover self-replicating machines that, over time, become more hostile. It ponders questions about what it means to be alive, the ever-increasing role of technology in everyday life, and has more than its fair share of retro-futurism, proper nouns, and heady jargon.

For Starward, comprised of developers previously from CD Projekt Red, Techland, and more, it was the right fit for its narrative ambitions – something dense and literary. And for what it’s worth, video game adaptations of novels are relatively rare.

In this vlog, we visit the Requiem Café in Anaheim, CA, to tour their Persona 25th Anniversary celebration, a collaboration with Atlus West featuring coffee and tea drinks inspired by the Persona series – we tried the beverages named after Joker and Philemon! This coffee shop takeover contains a real-life recreation of The Velvet Room, the famous space between consciousness and unconsciousness in the Persona video games. We also visit the gift shop to scope out exclusive Persona 25th-anniversary merch!

If you enjoy this vlog, let us know! It's the first one we've done in a long time, and we'd like to do more in the future. Thanks for watching, and be sure to subscribe to the Game Informer YouTube channel.

Sometimes, a game is great at hiding its true nature. Ground Divers is a fantastic example. It looks cheerful and bright. I mean, you’re outright using CHEER Crystals to power your mining frame robot. Said robot is adorable, as are many of the creatures lurking beneath the earth. It seems like this is a happy, friendly world! But it isn’t! None of those subterranean abominations are your friends! Everything is trying to kill you! Even trying to dig deeper means death! But I mean, at least it’s an entertaining way to go.

The world is in big trouble. People abused and used up natural resources. Which means folks are scrounging for power now. This has lead to to the titular Ground Divers. They’re groups of individuals that use mining frames, essentially mech suits, to dig below the ground for new energy sources. Players are the latest member of Studio Tsuruhashi, a group that uses a new mining frame called Tsuruhashi to take on assignments and search for precious commodities. (Tsuruhashi itself being named after a person who found revolutionary Rare Matter that helped solve an energy crisis before.) Your goal is to go through different missions to acquire materials, energy, and knowledge.

A Genshin Impact Bouncing Blobby Slimes web event is now active. As usual, it is a way to take part in an activity in a browser to earn Primogems. This time, the event involves clicking at the right times to determine the strength of a slime's jump to ensure it moves from platform to platform.

Here's the official announcement.

Web Event "Bouncing Blobby Slimes" Now Online: Take part to obtain Primogems and other rewards. Time to take on an adventure in The Chasm with Slimes!

>Click to Take Part in Event<https://t.co/SUW0Qny4cf

〓Event Duration〓
2022/07/04 – 2022/07/10 23:59 (UTC+8)#GenshinImpact

— Genshin Impact (@GenshinImpact) July 4, 2022

In the mood for a retro-style FPS, I dug around the new releases on Steam, and poked at a few, not really clicking. Until, that is, I found Hands Of Necromancy, and then played it all weekend. This is a Hexen-like FPS, with enormous, sprawling maps, a whole bunch of weapons, an array of enemy types, and some fresh…

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As previously established, today is the day all gaming websites that don’t hate their readers, their country, their God, post as much as they can about unknown indie games in penance for all that triple-A blah that occupies our lives. So read on for another 10 games you’ve never heard of before, but will be so glad…

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Mary DeMarle, narrative designer and lead writer on Deus Ex: Human Revolution and Mankind Divided, and on the more recent Guardians Of The Galaxy, is now senior narrative director at BioWare. The switch comes just a couple of months after Embracer Group bought Eidos Montreal and said they saw potential for Deus Ex spin-offs, sequels and remakes.

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At Anime Expo 2022, Trigger Inc. showed off the opening animation for its upcoming show Cyberpunk: Edgerunners. It is available on the Netflix YouTube account. This is not a creditless video, which means that you will see all of the staff who worked on the show in the opening. The song is “This Fffire” by Franz Ferdinand.

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

Cyberpunk: Edgerunners is an anime that takes place in the Cyberpunk 2077 universe. Studio Trigger first announced it in June 2022, along with a trailer of what to expect from it. Cyberpunk: Edgerunners will be a standalone story, and you will not need to have played Cyberpunk 2077 to understand it. The opening features protagonist David, with the backdrop consisting of the psychedelic colors that often appear in Imaishi’s works.

The story of Cyberpunk: Edgerunners follows David, who is a Streetkid-turned-mercenary, in Night City. In a world that focuses on technology and body modification, he tries to stay alive amidst the various politics. Along with him is Lucy, who also has her own set of physical augmentations. For example, she has wires in her arms that she can use as weapons.

Nintendo showed a quick peek at another Splatoon 3 map called Mincemeat Metalworks. This overview shows the space from different angles. Folks can see some of the surfaces that can be inked during a Turf War, as well as certain places that can be used to give an advantage by reaching certain heights.

Here's the brief video offering an overview of Mincemeat Metalworks in Splatoon 3.

Squid Research Lab here with a meaty discovery—this is rare imagery of a new multiplayer stage: Mincemeat Metalworks! The facility was made FROM scrap metal in order to make MORE scrap metal. Also, there was a sea here that evaporated. Surely unrelated to heavy industry! pic.twitter.com/Z5RTmLMml4

— Splatoon North America (@SplatoonNA) July 4, 2022

This is the second Splatoon 3 map Nintendo showed off. The first is Undertow Spillway. It is an abandoned area near a dam with water hazards and other features to make Turf Wars challenging.

And yes, he’s seen the ‘Chrissy, wake up’ remixes

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The official Twitter account for the Splatoon series has been casually dropping minor news via the Squid Research Lab for the upcoming Splatoon 3 game, and today it revealed something a bit more major. A brand new multiplayer map has been announced, and it’s called Mincemeat Metalworks.

Mincemeat Metalworks is a facility made from scrap metal in order to produce even more scrap metal. The reveal explains how there used to be a sea at the location that evaporated. The setting makes sense for Splatoon 3’s apparent apocalyptic plot.

You can get a glimpse of what the Mincemeat Metalworks stage looks like in the reveal tweet below.

Developer Vic Game Studios released a couple of new trailers of the upcoming Black Clover Mobile game.

The first trailer reveals a the game’s rendition of a popular character who will be an NPC in the game, Sister Lily Aquaria.

We also take a look at one of the familiar environments of the game, which is of course Hage Village, reproduced in detail including the Grimoire Tower.

Since we missed them when they were released (nobody’s perfect) we’re also including more recent trailers including Asta, Yuno, and their skills.

You can watch them all below.

Earlier today we posted about a bundle on Itch.io raising money for reproductive rights. Well, it's not the only one. The Indie Bundle For Abortion Funds is offering over 750 items, most of them games, for a minimum donation of $10. All the money raised will go directly to National Network for Abortion Fund's Collective Power Fund.

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