Genshin Impact's 2.8 update will launch on July 13th, and a new trailer has introduced the characters and locations that will be added, re-added or refreshed. That includes a makeover for the Golden Apple Archipelago, and a new character called Shikanoin Heizou, who is a young detective.
Third-party developers shared interesting news and assets today about Microsoft Flight Simulator aircraft and scenery add-ons.
We start with new screenshots LearAvia Lear Fan 2100 by Lionheart Creations, which apparently is close to its release.
Today Atlus released its daily trailer of the upcoming JRPG Soul Hackers 2, focusing on one of the locations that will be featured in the game.
This time we get to take a look at COMP Smith. As the name suggests, it’s a store where you can upgrade your COMPs, which are basically the main weapons and summoning devices in the game.
Like most daily trailers, we also get the daily horoscope, which sees Capricorn at the top of the fortune ranking and Gemini at the bottom. Looks like it’s my lucky day today.
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.
I like anime, but I possibly like anime intros even more. At their best they're a rush of style and energy, they often feature better animation than the show that follows, and they are regularly scored by first rate Japanese jazz, rock or blues tracks.
Netflix just posted the intro to the upcoming Cyberpunk anime, Cyberpunk: Edgerunners, and it's got a Franz Ferdinand track over the top - but hey, it's still pretty good.
If you’re looking for a full list of answers to the Dislyte Esper Pop Quiz event that’s going on right now, we’ve got you covered on that front.
The Esper Pop Quiz is a mini quiz event that’s just gone live in the game, and it’s meant to build up a bit of anticipation for Frigga and the upcoming Ruler’s Law update. There are a few rewards to nab here too, so it’s definitely worth doing.
Two quiz questions have now been released in Dislyte. We’ve listed all questions and answers down below, and as long as you answer correctly, you’ll be treated to three Gold Records by the end of the event. If you’ve been answering them as they’ve been releasing, you should be able to get all three Records this week.
| Question | Answer |
| Which mythology is Frigga from? | Norse. |
| Which city does Abigail live in? | Utgard. |
| What is Abigail’s current occupation? | Mayor. |
The good news is that even if you get the answer wrong, you’ll still be treated to a nice compensation reward. Here’s what you’ll get, depending on your answer:
Do note that you’ll only get the rewards every two days, which is when the next question releases, and the previous answer is revealed.
Tower of Fantasy is a new free-to-play MMORPG from Hotta and Level Infinite, and it’s slated for a full release later this year. Pre-registration is now live, with plenty of rewards to nab once the game hits various milestones. To hype you up for the game, Level Infinite has dropped a new trailer showing off some story elements to look forward to.
You can check out the trailer down below:
The trailer is very brief, but hints towards an inevitable disaster that the player character will have to face and overcome. We see Sally, who’s the main girl that gets featured in basically every piece of promotional material for the game, asking Zeke to shoot her as blood runs down her face.
I gotta say, from my time with the beta, I definitely didn’t think Tower of Fantasy’s story would get this dark and dramatic. It’s definitely a welcome surprise if handled correctly, as it’s pretty rare to find really heavy stories in typically lighthearted-looking and casual games.
Tower of Fantasy is set to be released for PC via Steam and mobile devices later this year.
Operator Skills have varying degrees of usefulness in CoD Mobile. That’s not to say some are outright bad; perhaps niche would be the better description. Some Operator Skills are obviously better than others; several are better utilized in the higher echelons of skill. Whatever the case may be, let’s take a look at the best Operator Skills in CoD Mobile, no matter what skill level you are.
Tempest is only as good as its wielder in CoD Mobile, but when used correctly, it can easily improve your KD. The problem here is simply getting used to how the Tempest handles, specifically its charge-up time. Once you get the timing right on the Tempest, it takes out enemies in a single hit, in addition to arcing between nearby enemy players.
Today Spike Chunsoft revealed new screenshots and gameplay details of its upcoming JRPG Made in Abyss: Binary Star Falling into Darkness.
Today we take a look at the “Deep in Abyss” mode, which places the player in the role of a new cave rider that can be fully customized.
It’s a single-player exploration mode that lets you grow in rank by completing missions and go deeper into the caves as you progress.
We hear a few tidbits about the story and a full explanation of the gameplay loop, on top of the screenshots that you can find in the gallery below.
If you’re looking to recruit the iconic Gatekeeper in Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes, we’re here to help you out.
The Gatekeeper was barely a character in Three Houses, and was pretty much only there to tell you that there was nothing new to report. However, he quickly grew in popularity among the player base, and now he’s back in Three Hopes, and as a playable character to boot.
Recruiting the Gatekeeper can be a little time-consuming, as getting him isn’t as simple as just beating the game and unlocking him straightaway. You’ll need to complete the story a couple of times at least. Here’s what you need to do:
It doesn’t matter which route you go through or which house you choose. Just roll credits twice.
Again, your choice of house doesn’t matter here. Just pick one, and finish up the tutorial chapters.
The Gatekeeper can be found standing guard near the entrance of the camp. Speak with him to recruit him, and he’ll automatically join your roster.
Do you remember when, earlier this year, Horizon: Forbidden West came out and Sony said it would plant trees in the real world for everyone who earned the Daunt trophy in the game? Actually, did anyone earn that trophy? Well done if you did. Anyway, that was made especially by Sony for something called the Green Game Jam.
You've probably never heard of it. That's because it's a fairly new thing run by the fairly new Playing for the Planet Alliance, which was formed in 2019 by people from the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) to get the games industry working together to tackle the climate emergency. Part of this involves companies committing to improving their business operations, environmentally speaking; and part of it comes from using the many games they make, which reach many millions of people, to enact real, positive change. This is where the Green Game Jam comes in.
Again, the whole thing is fairly new and still establishing itself so we're not talking about entire games designed around climate change, though Tencent is making one called Carbon Island - an island-based city-building game. Mostly, what we're talking about is "green activations" in games: a term used to describe bespoke elements placed in games either temporarily, or permanently, and focused around an environmental theme.
After a tease last month, we have confirmation: Lollipop Chainsaw will receive a full remake in 2023.
Announced by publisher Dragami Games – which is led by the original game's producer, Yoshimi Yasuda – the game will arrive worldwide next year, although a formal title or platforms have not yet been announced. It will be developed by "a combination of development staff from the original version, including Yasuda as producer, and new development staff from Dragami Games."
The game will aim to recreate the original, but Yasuda explained that the remake will feature a couple of key differences. Due to the power of new-gen hardware, the new game will feature "a more realistic approach to graphics." Less welcome for fans will be the news that music licensing issues means that, as opposed to the first game's 16 licensed tracks, in the remake, "aside from a few licensed tracks, the soundtrack will consist of new music."
A brash blend of lightning-quick platforming, fast and frantic combat, and a peculiar, card-based resource system, Neon White is a slick and special speedrunning FPS that’s simple to understand but hard to put down. Think Doom Eternal’s platforming sections, only replace the grim hellscapes with the floating architecture of an abstract heaven and you’re part of the way there. Add a little of Trials HD trying to ride the perfect route over the corpse of Mirror’s Edge and you’ll be even closer. With its precise and elegant controls and its uncanny ability to make even an average shooter player feel lithe and lethal it’s extremely easy to get lured into Neon White’s loop, even if the story stitching it all together immediately overstays its welcome.
Neon White’s oddball premise – which sees sinners plucked from purgatory to serve as parkour pest-exterminators, clearing out a demon infestation in heaven as part of an annual contest where the winner gets to remain there – certainly sounds interesting on paper. In practice, however, it makes a large portion of Neon White a young adult visual novel where a bunch of brightly-coloured, dead millennials reminisce about their past lives and argue a bunch. I do appreciate the effort to slow down and add context to the 12 chapters and 97 levels developer Angel Matrix has built here – rather than just machine-gunning them directly into our veins non-stop, that is – but overall Neon White’s slightly over-assertive blend of pop-punk Christianity and off-brand anime didn’t grab me. You can fast-forward through it, but it’s always there.
Wordle is an already tough enough challenge without players guessing blindly. Instead, make your efforts count for more by making guesses with a reason. Narrowing down the possibilities for the answer will set you up for success without unnecessary frustration. In this guide, we’ll go through all of the 5-letter words ending in LD to give you a good idea of where to start and aid you on the quest to maintain your streak.
Note that the following list of words has been tested and will work in Wordle. However, if you spot any missing or incorrect words, please inform us via the comments below so we can take a look at the list and update it if necessary.
Armed with your newfound knowledge, it is time to take on the challenge proper. Select your pick from the list and use it as your answer in Wordle. Be sure to check the colors to get a better idea of where to make the right adjustments. Correct letters in the right position will turn green, yellow indicates a right letter in the wrong place, while grey rules out the letter entirely.
If you’re looking for a guide to the best gifts for every character in Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes, look no further. Here’s everything you need to know.
Every character in Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes has their own likes and dislikes, and figuring out which gifts to give them will help greatly in improving your support ranks with them. We’ve broken all of the characters down according to their houses, and we’ve listed all of their favorite gifts that will give you the biggest support boost for each of them.
Social media and the internet have witnessed an unparalleled boost, giving rise to new trends and catchphrases. “Caught a Vibe” lately has been trending a lot on TikTok and seems to have taken over the video-sharing application. If you have no clue what this means, then don’t worry, we got your back. Here’s what you need to know.
The internet has truly been a revolutionary invention and has changed how we interact and experience things. It even has its own lingo and it can get really hard to keep up with all the new nomenclature and trends.
Caught a Vibe or to catch a vibe means you share or get what others are feeling in the moment, i.e., you pick up the feeling or understand the mood. For example, if you “caught a bad vibe about him,” you might think that the person is dubious or up to no good. Apart from this, there’s even a song that went viral on TikTok, featuring the lines “caught a vibe.”
The lyrics are from “Meet Me at Our Spot” by Willow Smith and Tyler Cole who, together, go by “The Anxiety.” Both the singers saw their popularity explode when a live performance of their song went viral on the app. The Anxiety performed a live version of the track back in September 2021, which has since been viewed by more than 67 million viewers since it was first uploaded on YouTube.
It’s and understatement to say Fortnite is incredibly popular. Fortnite has found its way on just about every major device, from consoles to mobile devices. But what about Chromebook? Can you play Fortnite on a Chromebook? Yes, you can—and here’s how.
There’s actually a few different methods you can use to start playing Epic’s Battle Royale title on your Chromebook, and it’ll largely depend on whether or not your internet connection can handle streaming the game from the cloud.
If it can, then you can use the likes of Xbox Cloud Gaming, GeForce Now, or Chrome Remote Desktop Stream to stream Fortnite onto your Chromebook. For those with a less stable and slower internet connection, you’ll probably want to look into installing the Fortnite mobile APK on your Chromebook instead. We’ve outlined each of these options available to you below.
Many Chromebooks support the installation of APKs, the file format Androids use. This is a great option for playing Fortnite if your Chromebook has low specs.
Capcom has revealed Monster Hunter Rise's expansion Sunbreak - which adds new quest ranks, locales, monsters and never-before-experienced hunting actions to the game - has shipped over 2m units across the globe. Considering how recently this launched, that is some pretty good going!
In addition to this, the company also revealed that Monster Hunter Rise itself has also passed 10m units sold since its release.
Capcom equates these figures to "a variety of measures including ongoing free updates and the launch of a PC version, as well as with the release of a set that includes Sunbreak."
Aniplex and Lasengle officially began 5th Anniversary celebrations for the English edition of Fate/Grand Order. As with other anniversary celebrations, the FGO USA 5th Anniversary brought with it a brand-new playable Servant. For players who had "read ahead" to anticipate developments based on the Japanese edition of FGO, this particular Servant was much-anticipated. She's a Caster-class variant of Fate franchise alum Altria Pendragon (nicknamed "Castoria", "Castria", and "Saber (Caster)").
Caster Altria arrived on the FGO USA 5th Anniversary limited summoning banner. She's widely hailed among FGO players familiar with her on the Japanese version as a extremely powerful, support-oriented Caster. In that sense, she does for Arts-elemental Servants what Skadi did for Quick-elemental ones and Merlin did for Buster mains. She goes a step further by charging the Noble Phantasm gauges of her allies and having a Noble Phantasm that raises an impenetrable defensive barrier around the party.
While the world lacks a modern, official Avatar: The Last Airbender game, a new Elden Ring mod at least lets players pretend by adding firebending to the game.
As reported by PCGamesN, the firebending moveset mod from clevererraptor6 on Nexus Mods takes inspiration straight from the show, letting the player shoot fire from their finger tips, and even includes a "lightning generation" Ash of War for the most skilled fighters.
Available with the standard red flames or in Princess Azula's blue, the mod includes several different attacks depending on the input, and sound effects for each.
While pyromancy is already an established idea in Elden Ring, these attacks are directly inspired by the Avatar series and fans will recognise certain movements and combos as a result. There are plenty of little details that show clevererraptor6 is committed to authenticity – for example ensuring that the explosions caused by blue fire attacks still explode in red flames, as they do in the show.
With firebending now in Elden Ring, fans are also eager to see the remaining elements - air, water, and earth - added as well, but cleverraptor6 has yet to say if they're working on these too.
Anyone who's played one of Firaxis' XCOM games in the last ten years will have a story about missed shots. Shots that, even with a 90% chance of hitting their target, still end up going wide and punching a hole in your carefully laid plans. In the moment, they induce feelings of white hot injustice, but for many, they're an integral part of what makes XCOM, well, XCOM. Looking back on his time making XCOM 2, however, Firaxis' creative director Jake Solomon tells me that he, too, now feels the pain players have felt for close to a decade.
"It was really interesting for me to return back and play XCOM a couple of years ago, and man, when I missed shots, I was unbelievably frustrated. I felt the ghosts of everybody everywhere looking over my shoulder," he says.
After an FPS game that's not all about which assault rifle has the best vertical foregrip? Well, Snow War looks to fill that gap. As a modern revamp of an 18-year-old Half-Life mod by the same name, it's an FPS where bullets are spheres of snow and guns are human arms... and snowball-launching crossbows. Not to mention it's set in the 80's with a synthwave backing track. I'm sold.
Liam and I thought Overwatch 2's first PVP beta was fine! It was just hard to say just how much of that came down to the "2" in its title. We jumped back into its ongoing second beta, in the hopes that we'd finally wrap our heads around the game. Maybe we'd got it all wrong the first time around? It's the sequel to the biggest hero shooter out there! This time, this time we'd feel the "2" part come alive beneath our fingertips as we insta-locked Torbjorn on attack.
Dear reader, Liam and I emerged from our Overwatch 2 session having had a marvellous chat. We caught up on life, talked about Monster Hunter Rise, and how nice it is that the RPS Treehouse is complete again. Everything except Overwatch 2 itself was discussed... Which says it all, really.
The Major Mancake skin in Fortnite is basically a big old pancake man who’s reached the lofty rank of ‘Major.’ We like to think he’s the Major General of the pancake army, set to deliver some delicious justice to the Battle Royale island, but maybe we’re just very hungry. Whatever Major Mancake’s backstory, chances are you’re wondering how to get this syrup-soaked soldier so you can add him to your Fortnite Locker. Here’s everything you need to know to do exactly that.
The Major Mancake skin is unlocked by playing 100 rounds of Fall Guys, as part of the Crown Clash challenges to celebrate Fall Guys’ free-to-play release under the Epic Games umbrella.
Keep in mind that you only have until July 11 to play all 100 rounds of Fall Guys and unlock the Major Mancake skin, as the challenges will end on this day. As such, we highly recommend grinding out as many rounds as you can each day so you don’t leave it too late.
It’s also worth noting that you’ll need to make sure that your Fall Guys account is linked to the Epic Games account that you use for Fortnite. This can be done when you first load up Fortnite. Just make sure that you’re logging in with the same email address and password that you use for Fortnite, and the Epic Games services will do the rest.
Alternatively, you can go to the ‘Account’ option in the top right-hand corner of the Epic Games Store launcher on PC, select ‘Connections’ and then click ‘Accounts.’ From here, hit ‘Connect’ on the platform you use to play Fall Guys.
You can check out our complete Fortnite x Fall Guys challenges list for a breakdown of all challenges you’ll need to complete and their corresponding rewards.
Today Dragami Games announced the previously-teased return of Lollipop Chainsaw via an upcoming remake.
The announcement was accompanied by a message from Dragami Games CEO Yoshimi Yasuda, who provided insight into the story of the game.
He also explained that it has become challenging to find ways to play Lollipop Chainsaw today, so Dragami Games has acquired the intellectual property from Kadokawa Games to develop a remake with the support of Warner Bros. Games.
The remake’s release is planned for 2023 worldwide for unannounced platforms, and it will be developer by members of the original team and the team at Dragami Games.
The differences with the original will include a more realistic approach with the graphics to match the specs of modern consoles and the lack of some of the 15 licensed songs used in the soundtrack since acquiring the rights would be difficult.
Below you can read Yasuda-san’s comment and take a look at two images.
There’s no doubt that many of Valorant’s hardcore players absolutely love weapon skins, so if you’re wondering what time the Night Market starts in Valorant and how it works then you’re in the right place. Indeed, Valorant’s weapon skins don’t come cheap, so you’ll be pleased to know that there’s a new sale on the horizon during the game’s most recent Act.
The Valorant Night Market occurs once every Act. Here’s a look at previous Night Market dates:
With the launch of Patch 5.05, we know the next Night Market will arrive in 2 weeks’ time, Sept. 28, and last until October 11. Well, that’s if you’re in the US. It’s a little bit later for those in Europe. So, what time does the Night Market actually start? Since Riot Games typically initiates the start of a Night Market at the shop reset time, you should see it at 5PM PT or 8PM ET. If you’re a European player you won’t see it in your shop until 1AM early this morning.
While you wait for it, why not check out Twinfinite’s recent feature about 10 skins nobody wants to see in their Night Market!
The release of Splatoon 3 is marching ever closer, and as such we are starting to get some little drip feeds of what we can expect on the game's launch. The latest of these shows off an upcoming multiplayer stage for us all to run amok in called Mincemeat Metalworks.
"Squid Research Lab here with a meaty discovery - this is rare imagery of a new multiplayer stage," the Splatoon team tweeted.
"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 [ahem]!"
A new study has forecast how the video games industry will perform over the course of 2022, and suggests a year-on-year decline following a strong period of growth.
The sale of games, consoles and subscription services contributed to a enormous $191bn global total in 2021, which will fall slightly to $188bn this year, according to Ampere Analysis.
This follows extraordinary growth through the early stages of the pandemic, with a leap in spending especially noticable from 2020 onwards.
A new listing suggests PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S versions of What Remains of Edith Finch could be heading our way soon.
Spotted by TwistedVoxel, the ever-leaky Taiwanese Game Rating website now has both a native PS5 and Xbox Series X/S release of the game listed in its catalogue.
While there have been no official announcements made as yet, publisher Annapurna Interactive does have its 2022 showcase scheduled for later this month.
Bungie's under-wraps work with Chinese publisher NetEase involves a mobile shooter set in the Destiny universe, a new report has claimed.
Job adverts for a Destiny project were previously spotted last year by The Game Post. Required skills included a "willingness to travel to China" on a regular basis, and host Chinese partner teams.
NetEase invested $100m in Bungie back in 2018, though the companies have never officially confirmed what the two are working on.
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Ubisoft recently announced it would pull the plug on a number of its older games, stopping online and multiplayer support. Titles affected by this move include Anno 2070, Far Cry 3, Ghost Recon Future Soldier, and Assassin's Creed 2.
However, the powers that be at Ubisoft Mainz, developer of Anno 2070 are not going to let this hinder their game. Oh no sir.
The team behind the city-building and economic simulation game will now "dedicate some of [its] development resources to work on upgrading Anno 2070's aged online services infrastructure to a new system".
A remake of Suda51's cult zombie game Lollipop Chainsaw has been confirmed for release next year.
Release platforms are yet to be announced, though the original game arrived for both PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 back in 2012.
As teased last month, this return is being overseen by Yoshimi Yasuda, the original game's executive producer, as part of his new company Dragami Games.
Though much of the focus of last week's Final Fantasy XIV Letter from the Producer Live was on the upcoming version 6.2 update, patch 6.18 was much closer to arriving, with a deployment date of July 5, 2022. As the game went into maintenance to apply the update early on July 4, 2022, Square Enix posted the full Final Fantasy XIV 6.18 patch notes to the Lodestone community site.
The Final Fantasy XIV 6.18 patch and maintenance period is mostly focused on backend changes, like adding new servers and enhancing existing data centers. However a number of other changes are visible to players, particularly Data Center Travel, which allows players to move to different data centers in their region (such as visiting Crystal Data Center from Primal). Other adjustments were made to various Jobs' performance in PVP. PVP was overhauled in Patch 6.1, and a new PVP activity, Crystalline Conflict, was added. The next season of Crystalline Conflict also begins with patch 6.18, unlocking new rewards. Players can claim Season 1 rewards up to the end of Season 2. The other PVP mode, Frontline, also received mode-specific changes, such as slowing the rate at which the Limit Gauge fills. Damage modifiers for various job categories were also adjusted, with Tank and Melee DPS jobs receiving the most dramatic adjustments.
Dark Horse Comics continues to expand on the characters and world of Cyberpunk 2077. The publisher recently debuted their newest spinoff comic, dubbed Cyberpunk 2077: Blackout, and now IGN can debut an exclusive preview of the second chapter.
Check out the slideshow gallery below for a closer look at Blackout #2, from writer Bartosz Sztybor and artist Roberto Ricci:
Blackout follows a beleaguered protagonist named Arturo, who works as a braindance repairman. The wealthy citizens of Night City pay good money for these customized dreams, but when a citywide blackout leaves all braindance machines on the fritz, Arturo finally snaps and hatches a scheme of his own. Can a technician who literally makes dreams come true launch the ultimate heist?
Here's Dark Horse's official summary of Cyberpunk 2077: Blackout #2:
Arturo's heist scheme is set in motion-all he needs is a team-a trusted cyberpunk, the best driver in Night City, and an unlikely ally within one of the city's most corrupt institutions. Choices have consequences, but this time, the choice is his.
Cyberpunk 2077: Blackout #2 is priced at $3.99 and will release in print and digital forms on Wednesday, July 6.
Bungie is reportedly working on a first-person shooter Destiny mobile game that has been in development for more than two years.
According to a report from The Game Post, the developer has partnered with Chinese tech company NetEase to create the game. An employee of NetEase apparently posted on LinkedIn saying that they had worked with Bungie to develop "an unannounced FPS mobile game".
This was supported by an anonymous source familiar with NetEase's development plans, who told The Game Post of the mobile game's existence. It will allegedly not be connected to Destiny 2 but instead be a standalone title.
Reports about a Destiny mobile game first surfaced in September 2021 following several jobs being advertised for the project, and another posting in April this year saw Bungie searching for a mobile platforms engineer.
The developer hasn't confirmed anything itself, however, and we still know very little about what Bungie is working on despite Destiny 2 being released almost five years ago in September 2017. It has at least one new IP in development - which is set to be a character-focused multiplayer game with humour and RPG elements - but hasn't shared much about it.
In the dead of night I've been hearing things. At first, I thought it was the neighbours next door enjoying a bit of karaoke. Maybe some twigs banging off a discarded Tesco trolley, creating a beautiful tune. No, I'm convinced it was the dulcet tones of Kiryu singing "Dame da ne dame yo dame na no yo!", as a signal from the nether that Yakuza 0, Yakuza Kiwami, and Yakuza Kiwami 2 would be back on Game Pass having been removed last year. And by God, they're there! They're live! That's rad!
The most prolific indie studio of the last decade are preparing to bow out, with today bringing the early access launch of "the last game from Zachtronics", Last Call BBS. It's a puzzle-o-rama firing up a mysterious old computer to download pirated software from a BBS, letting us play everything from logic puzzles of circuits and flesh to a model kit-building simulation. I've played a wee bit and am keen to explore more, even as someone who is the absolute worst at Zachlikes.
Mobile games typically get a bad rep for being pay-to-win and riddled with microtransactions, and look, we’re not here to dispute that. It’s absolutely true. If you want to have any hope of breaking into the top 1% of the leaderboard rankings for any mobile game, you’ll need to shell out some cash.
However, that’s not to say that there aren’t a few good ones out there that are actually very friendly to free-to-play players or light spenders. With that in mind, here’s a rundown of the best F2P-friendly mobile gacha games you can play in 2023.
Formula One returns once again, with Codemasters' Ego engine remaining as the power plant at the heart of the experience. Due to the essential nature of the game, a superficial comparison of the new F1 22 up against last year's offering shows a lot of similarities: just like last year, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X are offering up native 4K resolutions with Series S at the back of the pack with a 1080p resolution, all systems using dynamic resolution scaling to maintain performance. There's also ray tracing support, 120Hz features - basically everything you'd want from the experience - but thankfully, no porpoising, meaning that the game of the sport steers well clear of this year's controversy.
For console users at least, F1 22 changes where it needs to. Obviously, the new cars, liveries and drivers are in place, while the circuits are tweaked in line with their real-life counterparts, along with a small boost to detail. Similar to last year's offering, ray traced reflections are also part of the mix. However once again ray tracing features only engage in out-of-race sections on console, such as replays, which are accompanied by a drop to 30 frames per second. Interestingly, Xbox Series consoles (even Series S) appear to benefit from some in-cockpit RT reflections not found on PS5 or even PC - likely a bug or omission. The good news for PC users is that RT can be enabled throughout the gameplay itself, albeit at a huge performance penalty.
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Microsoft has announced the next batch of games making their way onto Xbox Game Pass this month, and they include the return of several Yakuza titles and a certain Miss Peppa Pig.
From today, subscribers will be able to get their hands on Last Call BBS (PC), as well as Yakuzas 0, Kiwami and Kiwami 2 (all cloud, console, and PC).
The next wave of releases will come to us on 7th July, when DJMax Respect 5 (cloud, console, and PC), Matchpoint: Tennis Championships (cloud, console, and PC) and Road 96 (cloud, console, and PC) join the service.
A year or two ago I'd taken a fairly lengthy break from League of Legends. There was a period, as so many MOBA players, or MMO players, or other game-that's-big-on-Twitch players will know too well, where I was all in. I knew the moves of every champion of the 140-odd that were out at the time, I knew the name and purpose and general viability of every item, I knew the optimal jungling route, the amount of seconds between respawning dragons, the situational builds for my mains and the match-ups with every one of their counters. Then came the welcome break, at which point you think you must be too far gone to ever come back. There's too much going on, too much that's changed, no room on this rocket for old-timers like you.
The secret to LoL of course is that this is, in fact, the game. The learning, and re-learning, and re-re-learning. You can play it without all that, under a veil of ignorance, and it will remain excellent: the cycle of earning gold and experience from killing enemies and popping minions like bubble-wrap, to use to buy more items and gain more levels, to more effectively kill enemies and on and on. This will never not be immensely satisfying and narcotically moreish, even with the LoL player's true addiction - to competition - put aside. But if you stick just to that you will be missing something, a little special sauce reserved for those who tip over into min-maxing obsession.
Let's step back a bit, though. The state of League of Legends, midway through 2022, is that it is utterly gigantic. You've probably heard that many times before - but it's also gigantic in a way that feels unusually stable. For one, this is because LoL has achieved what seems to be the ultimate goal for many video games: to expand into things that are not video games.