July 2022

Blizzard and NetEase's Diablo Immortal has notched up $100m in player spending after two months, almost entirely without the game's Chinese market.

That's according to reliable app store analytics firm Sensor Tower, which compared Diablo Immortal's start to that of Pokémon Go (which took just two weeks to rake in $100m) and Fire Emblem Heroes (10 weeks).

Diablo Immortal revenues now seem set to accelerate, since the app arrived belatedly in China this week.

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New videos of the Nier secret church have been released that appear to reference Nier Replicant. The plot thickens!

As we've reported, reddit user sadfutago has been posting videos of a secret church area in Nier: Automata that has been previously unseen since it was released five years ago. Even Yoko Taro chimed in.

Now they've posted new, extended videos to reddit with more gameplay of the church area. They show a different character - 9S - battling a "black blocky guy" the poster is struggling to beat, as well as new written dialogue in Japanese.

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Sony is finally adding support for 1440p displays to the PlayStation 5, to the cheers of many players, particularly those on PC, with high refresh-rate QHD monitors.

This has been a long requested feature by PS5 owners, and a feature that the Xbox Series X/S has supported since launch.

The feature is currently only available for users signed up to the beta firmware channel, but it should be released to all users very soon.

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There I am, admiring a particularly luminescent blue tuber in my hydroponic garden, when an alarm begins to blare. Pirates, raiding from the skies! A minor inconvenience, sure, but one worth dealing with swiftly, so I hop on Blort - my trusty translucent pet sphere - and roll purposefully, if not exactly speedily, toward the throbbing heft of my organic ship, the whir of a friendly robot drone jabbering somewhere behind me.

And then it's up, up, up, we go, past my newly renovated capital ship and its armada of frigates (the latest addition, a pulsating tentacled mass, wiggles encouragingly), past a space station recently commandeered by pirates, and then, with a little more room to manoeuvre, it's time to do my worst. Within seconds the pirate threat is no more and peace, for now at least, is restored. Before I go home, though, I summon the imposing hulk of the inter-dimensional Space Anomaly and head in for a friendly rendezvous. Cake has been promised.

No Man's sky has, it's fair to say, come a long, long way since its undoubtedly controversial launch in 2016. What was once a game of low-key, curiosity-driven exploration across a beautiful, often haunting, procedurally generated universe has morphed into something far bigger, far bolder, and, I think, after countless revisions and refinements, quite brilliant indeed.

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The Twitter account for Digimon games Tweeted out a request for players to avoid posting about story content past Chapter 5 of Digimon Survive. Players will be free to talk about events past Chapter 5 two months after the release of Digimon Survive. That means you will be able to freely post about the whole game from September 29, 2022. This is so all players will have an equal opportunity to enjoy Digimon Survive for the first time.

That is not to say players are completely unable to talk about the entirety of the game. The Twitter account says they are free to do so if they make it clear their post contains spoilers, such as with hashtags. Spoiler hashtags on social media are often used by spoiler-averse players to filter that sort of content from their feeds. Bandai Namco didn't specify if it would take any enforcement action against spoilers (such as via takedown requests).

https://twitter.com/digimon_games/status/1552338028353437696

Requests like this are not new in the game industry. For example, Spike Chunsoft has requested that streamers and those posting on social media to avoid posting videos showing what happens after Chapter 1 of the Danganronpa games. The game also automatically prevents players from taking screenshots or videos past Chapter 1.

Zombies have returned to Call of Duty Warzone in a limited-time mode called Rebirth of the Dead.

While we last saw zombies in the now blown-up Verdansk map, this time they will be invading Rebirth Island, which was first introduced with the release of Call of Duty Black Ops Cold War.

The new mode, developed by support studio Beenox, has had some significant changes from the previous mode to better fit into Rebirth Island's smaller map design.

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Many have hoped Rockstar will one day release a Bully remake or sequel, but currently these hopes seem unlikely to bear fruit.

Now, however, a fan has taken matters into their own hands, and remade a trailer for the game in Unreal Engine 5, bringing it into the modern age.

YouTube channel TeaserPlays, a "Graphics Designer studio", has released its vision of Bully today (thanks, Dexerto).

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Steam now supports Nintendo's classic controllers released for the Switch.

The patch notes from Valve state: "Added support for Nintendo Online classic controllers". That means you can use your NES, SNES, Mega Drive, or N64 wireless controllers with PC games.

If you're looking to grab a controller, though, they're available exclusively on Nintendo's store for Nintendo Switch Online subscribers.

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After three years, the Pokémon Centre pop-up store will be returning to London in August.

The last time a pop-up was held in the UK was from 19th October to 15th November back in 2019 at Westfield Shepherd's Bush location.

This year, the pop-up will be held alongside the Pokémon World Championships at ExCeL London from 17th to 21st August. The Pokémon World Championships is an invite-only esports event run by The Pokémon Company, but the store will be open for anyone to attend.

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My wife plays GTA Online a couple of times a week. It's not hard to see why she's stuck with it. Rockstar's endlessly unspooling criminal playground is weird and sometimes creaky, but it's still beautiful - no other company has captured the rosy opioid bloom of LA light like this - and it's still fun. More than anything, it's unpredictable: whenever you go into GTA Online, you always come out with some kind of story.

Last night Sarah was busy, so I fired it up alone. I wanted to check out the new GTA Online Criminal Enterprises update. But this is important for what follows: I don't regularly play the game myself. I watch it from the sofa a lot, but I almost never pick up the controller.

Criminal Enterprises brings quite a lot to GTA Online as far as I can tell. New weapons and new vehicles are just the start of it. There's also a suite of story missions, though, and this is what I was interested in.

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The death of a sim can be an emotional time. The Grim Reaper shows up with his scythe in hand, the family gathers around to send their loved one off, and a period of mourning descends upon the house. But, if a Sim has lived a good, long life, this can also be a chance for celebration in recognition of time well spent.

However, a new glitch was accidentally introduced in a recent update for The Sims 4, and it is fast tracking this whole process. This means that some elderly sims have been dropping dead well before their time. As well as this, children are rapidly becoming teens, teens becoming young adults and so on.

Players are reporting this all happening after a visit to create-a-sim (CAS), or during the loading screens. This is even when the game's "Long Lifespan" is enabled.

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The fans of Gundam Evolution have spoken. According to Gundam Evolution rankings taken by Bandai Namco, Gundam Unicorn is the most popular Gundam work. The data was gathered via surveys sent to participants in the Gundam Evolution closed network tests. Among other questions, Bandai Namco polled players on their favorite Gundam movies and series. Collected from players in both the North American and Japanese tests, they form a picture of which series are Gundam Evolution players' favorites, at least in those territories.

Bandai Namco shared the collated Gundam Evolution rankings via its official Twitter account. They're divided between Japan, North America, and a combined result for both territories.

https://twitter.com/gundamevolution/status/1552351959008497664

On the Japanese side, the Gundam Evolution rankings placed Gundam Unicorn in first place, followed by the Char's Counter Attack film. Gundam 00, Gundam Hathaway, and the original Gundam series made up the rest of the top 5. Universal Century series dominated the top rankings overall, making up 7 of the top 10 places. Zeta Gundam, The 08th MS Team, and Gundam 0083 Stardust Memory all placed. Of the original settings, Iron-Blooded Orphans and Gundam Seed joined 00 for the top spots.

Fuga: Melodies of Steel is known for having a cutesy, furry-adjacent aesthetic that belies the tension in its gameplay and drama in its story. CyberConnect2 appears to be continuing in that mold, going by its new trailer for Fuga: Melodies of Steel 2.

The company uploaded a new video laying out the story on July 28, 2022. You can see it below.

Note: The Fuga: Melodies of Steel 2  trailer and the rest of the article may spoil elements of the first game.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OolRShEoq9I

The Fuga: Melodies of Steel 2 trailer recalls a "secret movie" from the first game. That movie unlocks when players turn all the white gears on the title screen to orange. It previews the continuation of Fuga's story in Fuga 2, along with some rough concept art and voice acting. The new trailer follows most of the same beats, but uses more complete, colored art instead of rough sketches.

As in the secret movie, the trailer's story picks up after the conclusion of the first game's true ending. It also confirms earlier leaks about the premise. The Taranis, the giant tank from the first game, has gone berserk, taking some of the children hostage. To fight it and rescue their friends, the remaining children board the Tarascus, the tank piloted by Shvein Hax to make war upon those responsible. The trailer closes with Malt vowing revenge against his enemy, promising to find them and kill them.

PlayStation has today announced several new features coming to PS5 Beta, including the much-requested native 1440p support, gamelists, and other quality of life updates designed to improve the overall user experience. A detailed article over on the PSBlog runs through the particulars of each new feature.

The new resolution functionality essentially offers players the option to run the game at a native resolution according to their television for improved performance or to improve anti-aliasing by super-sampling down to a smaller resolution.

Today Star Citizen developer Cloud Imperium Games is launching the new major update for its space simulator in ongoing development.

The new update, numbered Alpha 3.17.2, brings the server capacity up to 100 from the previous 50, which will help players find company while they wait for the introduction of server meshing, new missions, interesting features, and the Anvil Centurion flak vehicle.

Perhaps the most interesting element is the Siege of Orison dynamic event, which will prompt players to liberate the gas giant’s floating platforms with trusty lead and lasers.

Here’s a full breakdown of the new features.

The highly anticipated second wave of the Mario Kart 8 Deluxe Booster Course Pass is arriving next week on August 4. Nintendo has released a trailer to introduce and highlight the courses the eight courses included in this wave.

The eight courses that will be included in this second wave, and the original game that each one appeared in, are as follows:

Turnip Cup

• Kalimari Desert, N64
• Mario Circuit 3, SNES
• Waluigi Pinball, DS
• New York Minute, Tour

Propeller Cup

• Sydney Sprint, Tour
• Mushroom Gorge, Wii
• Snow Land, GBA
• Sky-High Sundae, a brand new course that will later be added to Mario Kart Tour

This wave of new courses added to Mario Kart 8 Deluxe is just the second of a total of six that will eventually be added to the game. The first wave of eight courses was added back in March.

Four more waves of eight courses each will be released one at a time by the end of 2023. This means that a grand total of 48 additional courses will ultimately be added to the game. As you can see, they consist of courses from previous Mario Kart games, but it also appears as though brand new courses that will eventually be added to Mario Kart Tour can also appear.

The Mario Kart 8 Deluxe Booster Course Pass costs $24.99 as an individual purchase. If you are subscribed to the Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pack, you will be able to play the courses at no additional cost.

You can watch the trailer that features each of these eight courses coming to the Mario Kart 8 Deluxe Booster Course Pass below.

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

This time around, we can enjoy a look at Shigekiyo “Shigechi” Yangu, straight from Diamonds is Unbreakable.

Of course, we also get to see his stand named “Harvest” in action.

You can watch the trailer below.

Michael ‘Shroud’ Grzesiek’s addition to Sentinel’s professional Valorant team last month was a move few saw coming, and given the player’s enormous following on Twitch has a lot of fans excited. A large part of the intrigue is, of course, how he’ll perform after so many years away from the competitive scene, and how long his tenure with Sentinels will last. Well, Shroud spoke about the matter himself during stream from the team’s bootcamp yesterday evening, and it turns out that he’s potentially in it for the long haul.

“If franchising is a thing, and it is in LA, which is where I live, there’s a very good chance I will continue to play professional Valorant,” Shroud explained to his stream. He continued: “Is it with Sentinels? I don’t know, are they in franchising? I have no idea.”

Franchising is set to transform Valorant’s professional scene in 2023, changing the dynamic of how teams are involved with the game’s highest level of competition. Instead of the open qualifying system for the Valorant Champions Tour, which has existed up until this point, only a dozen or so partnered esports organizations will be involved in various super leagues around the world. Riot Games has been conducting interviews with North America’s most prestigious organizations all year, and question marks over Sentinels’ status still remain.

Depending on whether Sentinels make it in, which could rest on their performance at the Last Chance Qualifier (LCQ) to attend Champions next month, it sounds as though Shroud may or may not stick with Sentinels. From his comments, he might otherwise entertain moving to an organization that did make it in to continue as a professional.

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VRChat’s had a hell of a week. On Monday, the wildly popular virtual reality social game announced that its next update would implement Epic Games’ Easy Anti-Cheat (EAC) technology, prompting immediate outrage from a large portion of its playerbase. That update landed Tuesday, and since then, VRChat’s struggled to…

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Ding dong, the wicked witch is dead. In other words, the player-hated, troll-approved Oppressor Mk. II jetbike in Grand Theft Auto Online has finally been nerfed following nearly half a decade of terror. While many players are happy about the change, others have shared concerns that it has made the expensive vehicle…

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Flux is the first of cyberpunk thought-poser Citizen Sleeper’s free DLCs, and it launches into the game today. It’s the start of a series of three free episodes coming to the game, and features a new story that should last players around 1 or 2 hours. Catch a glimpse of what to expect when you watch the trailer below.

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The first ever Life Is Strange tie-in novel, subtitled Steph's Story, has been announced for next year. The novel will be a prequel to last year's Life Is Strange: True Colors, and will follow recurring character Steph Gingrich and her bandmate-slash-girlfriend Izzie on the tour that will eventually lead them to Haven Springs, the game's setting.

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An update to Minecraft: Java Edition is causing frustration among players over the possibility of being kicked out of their own private servers. Minecraft’s 1.19.1 update released yesterday, but its introduction of a player reporting tool has been worrying players since the update went into pre-release in June. While you’re pondering the future of Minecraft, you can watch a really awkwardly timed, tongue-in-cheek video from Mojang below.

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Amazon has announced the free games available as part of its August Games with Prime lineup.

They are: StarCraft: Remastered, Zak McKracken and the Alien Mindbenders, Beasts of Maravilla Island, Recompile, ScourgeBringer and Family Mysteries: Poisonous Promises.

All six titles will be available from 1st August for Prime Gaming members.

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A year ago today, the "A Better Ubisoft" group penned an open letter in solidarity with Activision Blizzard workers which also called out Ubisoft's own management for its handling of misconduct scandals in the past.

This group has been campaigning for improved working conditions since the company was hit with allegations of a toxic work environment, including numerous accounts of sexual harassment and assault concerning multiple employees at the company.

However, the group says, its demands for change have not been met despite Ubisoft boss Yves Guillemot vowing he would do "everything in [his] power to ensure that everyone... feels welcomed, respected, and safe".

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Life is Strange is getting its first tie-in prose novel, titled Steph's Story.

The book, which is set to launch on 21st March 2023, will chart the life of fan-favourite D&D lover Steph while on the road with her bandmate Izzie.

This sounds like the time period which directly precedes last year's True Colors and its Steph-focused DLC chapter Wavelengths, which I enjoyed. That DLC included a few voice clips from Izzie in the form of memories, and hinted at a sad end to Steph's time roadtripping while in a musical duo.

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Yesterday, EA had its big gameplay reveal for FIFA 23 which showed off all the fancy current-gen features in action.

But some eagle-eyed fans noticed that the polish for the trailer was not all there.

Skip to 3:06, and you'll notice a player doing a T-Pose as the narrator discusses how the improvements to the game make it feel more like "real world football."

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Publisher Asmodee Digital is pulling its Pandemic game from the Nintendo eShop, and is disabling online multiplayer in its Switch version of Catan.

For the former, an announcement on Twitter stated the game would be pulled from 31st July, although existing owners will not be impacted.

"The initial digital game was released 9 years ago, and we no longer feel the current quality and reliability are on par with what Pandemic deserves on digital platforms," reads the statement.

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Nintendo has detailed the second dollop of Mario Kart 8 Deluxe DLC headed to your Nintendo Switch on 4th August - and there's some proper bangers in the roster.

N64 classic Kalimari Desert is included, as is DS masterpiece Waluigi Pinball. Mushroom Gorge from Mario Kart Wii, Snow Land from Mario Kart Advance, plus Mario Circuit 3 from the SNES are also in.

These are joined by New York Minute and Sydney Spring from smartphone spin-off Mario Kart Tour, plus the new Sky-High Sundae track - a future Mario Tour addition.

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Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance 2 is old, clunky and boring, but at the same time I am entranced by it. This is history I'm playing; the game is 18 years old. There's nothing you can do short of remaking it that's going to make it feel young and exciting again - and Wizards of the Coast tried that last year with Dungeons & Dragons: Dark Alliance, and look how that turned out (clue: not well). So all those lumps and bumps I feel while playing it - all those things that have been smoothed by the many waves of action role-playing games since - I don't mind them. In fact, I love them, because they're what revisiting Dark Alliance 2 is all about.

Quick history lesson: Dark Alliance was an experiment, really, in bringing Dungeons & Dragons to console. Interplay didn't want a slower, wordy adventure like BioWare's Baldur's Gate but something more suited to a console audience - something faster, something more action-packed. So it enlisted Snowblind Studios (which would go on to make something of a spiritual successor in The Lord of the Rings: War in the North - remember that? We gave it 4/10) to make one. There was reticence but when BG Dark Alliance came out in 2001, it was surprisingly well received, so a sequel was greenlit.

The meta of the Pokemon TCG is constantly changing, and with it, the price of building what most would consider an unbeatable deck. Constructing a conventional winning team can cost upwards of $200 or $300, if not more, if you’re attempting to use rare and popular cards. Fortunately, there are strategies you can use that won’t break the bank, which is why we’re here to break down the top 5 best Pokemon TCG Standard format budget decks.

Lunatone/Solrock Deck ($34.00)

Best Pokemon TCG Standard Format Budget Decks

The Lunatone/Solrock decks have been making the rounds within the Pokemon TCG community and for good reason.

Today Microsoft revealed the new batch of games that will be granted in August 2022 to Xbox Live Gold and Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscribers at no additional cost.

Below you can read the full list. All the games are playable on Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S, while only the last two are playable on Xbox 360.

• Calico ($11.99 ERP): Available August 1 to 31
• ScourgeBringer ($16.99 ERP): Available August 16 to September 15
• Saint’s Row 2 ($9.99 ERP): Available August 1 to 15
• Monaco: What’s Yours is Mine ($14.99 ERP): Available August 16 to 31

If you’re not familiar with the games, you can read an official description for all of them below.

Calico

You’ll need to channel the right cat-titude in the totally charming and fuzzy sim game Calico. It’s up to you to rebuild the town’s run-down cat cafe. Create your character, choose fun clothes to wear, whimsically decorate your place for cats and human visitors, and of course fill it up with the adorable animals. With magical potions, you might even be able to ride your giant cat to work. This game is low stress, creative, and simply paw-some.

ScourgeBringer

Slash your way through a post-apocalyptic world as Kyhra, the deadliest warrior of your clan. Explore the fast-paced roguelite platformer ScourgeBringer. Attack your enemies and bosses that guard the secrets of the Scourge. The ever-changing dungeon holds mysteries and mementos of past explorers that can help you move forward and, perhaps, redeem all of humanity.

Saint’s Row 2

Today Square Enix released an announcement about the previously-revealed expansion of the Final Fantasy XIV North American Data Center.

The message, signed directly by producer and director Naoki Yoshida, explains that the server vendor has informed Square Enix of a delay in the delivery of the necessary equipment due to the ongoing semiconductor shortage.

As a result, despite efforts by Square Enix to find an alternate solution, the first phase of the expansion won’t happen in August as previously announced. It will be delayed to November 2022.

The first phase will include the opening of a new logical data center with four new worlds.

A second phase, which is supposed to add four more worlds to the same logical data center, remains scheduled for spring or summer 2023.

Yoshida-san accompanied the announcement with its apologies to those who were looking forward to the new servers.

Final Fantasy XIV is currently available for PlayStation 4, PS5, and PC. The Endwalker expansion has been released a few months ago and you can read our recent review.

The final season of Better Call Saul is almost at its end, and fans simply can’t get enough of the drama that’s been unfolding these past few episodes. Whether it’s all of the death or the emotional heartbreak, the show is proving once again that series creator Vincent Gilligan is still a master of his craft.

And while there are still a lot of questions left hanging in the air, one of the big ones fans are still waiting to have answered is: where are Jesse Pinkman and Walter White?

During a panel at PaleyFest LA earlier this year, Better Call Saul co-creator Peter Gould revealed that the Meth-making duo would be making an appearance this season, so what better episode to show up in than the one named after their show? That’s right, the next episode is indeed called Breaking Bad.

The title card of the next episode was revealed earlier this week, accompanied by the synopsis of “The partners escalate their enterprise to new levels.” Just about everything about this screams that Jesse and Walter will be showing up on Monday.

Of course, the title and synopsis could just end up being bait, as Gilligan is known for subverting expectations when it comes to how he writes each episode. Combine this with the fact that the previews are all about Gene, and it wouldn’t too shocking if we either don’t get Jesse and Walter this episode, or maybe we just get them in a flashback sequence.

What do you think? Is Gilligan trying to throw fans for a loop? Will Gene Break Bad? Or are Walter and Jesse returning? Be sure to let us know in the comment section below.

Today Square Enix released the key artwork of the upcoming patch 6.2 for its super-popular MMORPG Final Fantasy XIV.

The artwork, which is downright gorgeous, shows Themis, Erichthonios, and another character who is almost certainly Lahabrea.

This is rather appropriate because the new raid which will feature them, “Pandæmonium: Abyssos,” is one of the key additions of the update.

The update comes in late August and doesn’t yet have a firm release date, but you can check out the full artwork below alongside a summary of its content.

During February’s Nintendo Direct, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe got a lot of overdue attention with the announcement of 48 race tracks – new and old – coming to the arcade racer by 2023. The first wave dropped in March alongside a 2.0 update. Wave 2 is just around the bend and promises the Turnip and Propeller Cups next month. This means we’re getting some familiar courses across multiple consoles, including the Super NES, Gameboy Advance, Nintendo 64, Nintendo DS, Wii, and Mario Kart Tour games. Here are the details for each cup based on a recent press release:

Now's the time to claim Japan's seedy underbelly for yourself. Yakuza: Like A Dragon is packaged into the free PlayStation Plus August catalog. However, eight other Yakuza are coming to the subscription service starting this month.

According to the official PlayStation blog, Extra and Premium members can download/play Kazuma Kiryu's classic, crime-riddled journeys in Yakuza 0, Kiwami, and Kiwami 2 next month. Later this year, those same subscribers get access to Yakuza 3 Remastered, Yakuza 4 Remastered, Yakuza 5 Remastered, and Yakuza 6: The Song of Life. That's hundreds of hours of fantastic Ryu Ga Gotoku content. Be sure to check out our reviews or previews for the games below:

A new Valkyria Chronicles exhibit will appear in Japan ahead of the series' 15th anniversary. A pre-opening of the Raita Honjou & Valkyria Chronicles Exhibit will take place at Phrase Gallery Akihabara from July 31 to September 4, 2022.

This exhibit will primarily feature illustrations from the Valkyria Chronicles series. There will be a focus on Valkyria Chronicles Duel, the mobile and PC browser card game that ran from 2012 to 2015. A shop selling merchandise related to the series will appear for the duration of the event. The venue will also double as Raita Honjou's personal art exhibit. Raita Honjou provided character designs for the Valkyria games, as well as for other titles like Fate/Grand Order. As such, the venue will also feature art and products other than Valkyria Chronicles and Sega-owned IPs.

The exhibit will be open five days a week. People in Japan will be able to visit the venue on Tuesdays and Wednesdays from 14:00 to 18:00 JST, and Fridays to Sundays from 12:00 to 20:00 JST. The venue will not be available on Mondays and Thursdays.

The Valkyria Chronicles series' 15th anniversary will fall in April 2023. Sega released the first game in Japan on April 24, 2008. The series' latest entry, Valkyria Chronicles 4, came out in 2018 for the PS4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, and PC.