Success is relative. Many gaming companies would kill for a blockbuster franchise that’s an annual top-seller like Call of Duty. But for embattled publisher Activision anything short of top billing month after month isn’t enough, and Call of Duty has recently been falling short more and more.
When it comes to Netflix, just being on the platform alone is sometimes enough to carry even the worst films to prominance. So far this year, we’ve already seen a horrible Gino Carano movie do shocking numbers, as well one of Tom Cruise’s worst movies ever doing huge numbers when it comes to views.
The thing is, those movies at least has a little star power going for them. When it comes to Netflix’s newest terrible thriller, Keep Breathing, there is no discernable reason as to why this tv show is doing so well. According to FlixPatrol, this new TV series burst onto the scene a few days ago and manged to grab the top spot on the entire platform.
For anyone that’s never heard of Keep Breathing (aka most people on earth), the show tells a story of what happens when a small plane crashes in the middle of the Canadian wilderness, forcing the loan survivor to battle the elements and odds in order for her to survive.
While it may sound like an interesting concept on paper, fans and critics alike agree that Keep Breathing is full of hot air. So far, the show has a Rotten score in both sections of Rotten Tomatoes, with 14 critics reviewing it and averaging out 43 percent and 98 user ratings also coming to a consensus of a 43 percent audience rating.
Keep Breathing is directed by Maggie Kiley and Rebecca Rodriguez and stars Melissa Barrera as Liv. You can check out this plane crash of a show yourself right now on Netflix.
Featured Image Source: Netflix
Xenoblade Chronicles’ third installment is here for Nintendo devices. The latest DLC possesses battle mechanics and a combat system similar to its predecessor. During the battle, Xenoblade Chronicles 3 allows players to change Battle Tactics in order to switch between different attacking combos. If you’re wondering how to change Battle Tactics in Xenoblade Chronicles 3, then we’ve got you covered with everything about it.
During a Xenoblade Chronicles 3 battle, you can hold down ZL on your Nintendo device and press up, left, or down on the d-pad to change battle tactics. This will bring up the “Tactics” screen in the lower left corner. Here’s what each button will perform:
Xenoblade Chronicles 3 is filled to brim with a variety of Talent Arts, and Blade Talent Art is one of them. It allows your character to perform exceptional moves during combat and takes time to charge after using it. If you’re wondering how to use the Infinity Blade Talent Art in Xenoblade Chronicles 3, then we’ve got you covered with everything about it.
The Infinity Blade Talent Art unlocks in Xenoblade Chronicles 3 after Noah destroys colony nine. This talent art ignores the enemy defense stat with a 1000% power multiplier and can be equipped to Noah regardless of the class.
God of War Ragnarok is releasing fairly soon, and the Taiwanese arm of Sony Interactive Entertainment found a rather original way to celebrate.
With the upcoming new adventure of Kratos and Atreus coming in November, a massive sand sculpture portraying them is being exhibited at the 2022 Fulong International Sand Sculpture Arts Festival.
The statue will be on show until the festival ends on October 10, acting as a reminder that the game is just around the corner.
As the name implies, the event is a popular annual festival focusing on beautiful sand sculptures held on Fulong Beach, in the New Taipei City municipality, about 40 km from downtown Taipei.
It’s fairly common for the sculptures showcased at the festival to be inspired by pop culture, with movies (especially Disney movies, which are very popular in the island country) being a common theme for the artists.
You can check the God of War Ragnarok sculpture out below, in a tweet from the official PlayStation Taiwan account.
Several preorder store pages for the upcoming wrestling game All Elite Wrestling: Fight Forever went live today, revealing the game’s publisher, new screenshots, consoles, and cover athletes.
Gematsu first spotted the listing on Amazon UK earlier today, but now the game is available for preorder on Amazon. The listings reveal that the game will cost $60 and is coming to PC, PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch.
The Amazon description revealed some of the match types that will be available in the game with “Single, tag-team, 3-way, 4-way, ladder, Casino Battle Royale, Falls Count Anywhere, Unsanctioned Lights Out, Exploding Barbed Wire Death and online co-op multi-player matches!” AEW star and co-Executive Vice President Kenny Omega said earlier this year that the game would allow cross-platform multiplayer and the ability to defend championships online.
The preorder page has a release date of Dec. 31, 2022, but is a placeholder date. No release date has been announced yet, though some reports have claimed a tentative release date for this September.
Today Level Infinite and Hotta Studio revealed another trailer of the upcoming online RPG Tower of Fantasy.
The trailer focuses on freedom and creativity, starting with the character and outfit customization available in the game, and following up with the many vehicles you can ride.
We also get a small segment showing the freedom to have fun in many ways, including going on theme park rides with friends.
A second video was also released starring some of the developers of the game talking about the global release and what makes them feel connected to the rest of the gaming world. It’s a good chance to see some of the people who work on Tower of Fantasy.
You can watch both videos below.
In June Sony rolled out a revamped, tiered version of its long-running PlayStation Plus subscription, combining the benefits of the existing service — free monthly games, cloud saves, online multiplayer access — with an expanded version of its PlayStation Now game library. That library, an ever-growing catalog of nearly 400 PS4 and PS5 games, is available to subscribers of PS Plus’s top two tiers: Extra ($15 USD/month) and Premium ($18), the latter of which also included a Classics library from earlier consoles.
We know it can be hard — stressful even — to sort through that many games and determine which may be worth your time. And so we’ve curated this list of what we consider some of the 33 best PlayStation Plus games available to subscribers of the Extra and Premium tiers, listed alphabetically. (We’re not including those Premium-tier Classics only to focus on the more recent games available to a wider group of PS Plus subscribers.)
For a full list of games that you can use to create your own custom lists and manage your backlog, check our PS Plus Premium Games and PS Plus Classic Games lists on IGN Playlist.
*How long to beat (HLTB) estimates courtesy of IGN sister site How Long to Beat. The lowest number represents the average time required to mainline the story; the higher represents the average time required to earn 100% completion.
In its first 60 days of release, Elden Ring became one of YouTube's biggest ever gaming launches, seeing well over 3 billion combined video views.
In stats shared exclusively with IGN, Elden Ring saw 3.4 billion views in the two months after launch, dwarfing the next name on the list, GTA 5 on 1.9 billion. Of course, YouTube has grown since GTA's launch in 2013, making that something of an unfair comparison – but the far more recent Red Dead Redemption 2 (2018) saw 1.4 billion, so it's clear quite how successful Elden Ring has been.
YouTube Gaming stops short of calling it the biggest gaming launch ever, but it's clear that FromSoftware's open world masterpiece has set an incredibly high bar for games on YouTube in the future. In large part, that's down to the hunger for different kinds of video about the game, from Let's plays, to guides, to lore explainers.
YouTube Gaming also provided a list of other stats around the biggest launch videos for Elden Ring:
Most Viewed launch videos:
Square Enix is celebrating the 100-day Anniversary of Echoes of Mana. The mobile action-RPG based on the Mana series launched in April 2022, and it'll celebrate its 100th day in operation in August. To commemorate the milestone passing, the developers are giving away rewards to players, as well as adding more new content to enjoy.
Starting on August 4, 2022, the Echoes of Mana 100-day Anniversary campaign launches. Players who log in during the event period will receive various rewards, including 100 summons worth of tickets from the gacha. Other rewards include a 4-star memory gem item.
Another addition to the campaign is a new scenario event, "Labyrinth of Lost Heroes". The event features a new story and several new characters. The first is a 3-star Sumo "Resolve Renewed" version. This character and the 3-star memory gem "Fearsome Foursome" can be acquired by clearing event-specific missions. A summon banner gives players the chance to earn the 4-star Duran "Trusted Shield" version, and the 4-star Escad "Beholder of Justice" Version. The 4-star memory gem, "Finalizing Fate" is also on offer in the banner.
Check out preview images of the characters in the gallery.
[gallery columns="4" link="file" ids="933050,933049,933048,933055"]
Besides the event, the Echoes of Mana 100-day campaign also signals the arrival of the latest main quest chapter. Chapter 8 of the main story adventure is titled "Voidfig: Torment's Terminus". Players will confront the Ebon Knight, after their long series of encounters elsewhere in the Main Story.
Video games, like all art forms, can inform and inspire people…and their sex lives. Popular culture might like associating games with crushed cans of Monster Energy and glasses held in the middle with tape, but some video games are sexually active. Some, like the ones in this slideshow, can welcome their ready players…
Today Electronic Arts released its financial results for the first of the fiscal year 2023, related to the period between April 1 and June 31, 2022.
You can find a summary of the publisher’s financial performance in the table below.
Said results are defined “strong” with net bookings ahead of expectations. Both net revenue and income were up year-on-year.
The press release also includes the traditional statement from chief executive officer Andrew Wilson.
WB Montreal’s next game set in the Batman universe, Gotham Knights, is fast-approaching its targeted release date of Oct. 25, 2022. Set in a timeline separate from Rocksteady’s titular Arkham series, Gotham Knights sees the Bat Family step up to protect Gotham City after the death of Batman and Commissioner Jim Gordon. At the moment, there are four confirmed playable characters that players will be able to prowl Gotham City with, and in case you missed it, here are all of the playable characters in Gotham Knights.
Last month, EA announced new rules and restrictions on paid mods, early access, and how creators can advertise their creations. And this led to many unhappy responses and ongoing controversy within the Sims community.
There’s been a raft of intriguing strategy RPGs this year, but one of my favorites so far is Symphony of War. It’s been climbing the charts on Steam in recent months, and for good reason. From a distance it looks like another Fire Emblem knockoff. Up close it’s doing enough interesting things to stand on its own, and…
God of War Ragnarok is one of the most anticipated games of 2022 and has people around the world hyped, as the kids say. But it’s only coming to PlayStation consoles. Well don’t worry Xbox players, someone has spent at least 20 minutes developing an Xbox version of God of War. Except it uh…sucks, looks terrible, and…
Right now a combination of a Box discount and an Ebay voucher code are making two MSI AiO liquid CPU coolers extremely cheap. The 360mm CoreLiquid 360R is down to £60 when you use code AUG15, while the CoreLiquid 280R is down to £52 using the same one. This is a massive reduction from their original prices and a frankly unbeatable deal for a liquid cooler with decent fans, RGB lighting and good thermal performance.
Logitech and Tencent Games are partnering to create a handheld device tailored for cloud gaming. There are no images of it yet, but the handheld will support multiple cloud gaming services including Xbox Cloud Gaming and Nvidia GeForce Now when it launches later this year.
Today, during Electronic Arts’ quarterly financial conference call for analysts and investors, chief executive officer Andrew Wilson and chief financial officer Chris Suh talked about single-player games.
Wilson explained that single player-games are part of Electronic Arts’ strategy to fulfill the players’ expectations and motivations and actually help grow the publisher’s network and the time players spend within the network and playing EA’s games.
As such, they’re a “really, really important part” of Electronic Arts’ overall portfolio.
“The way we think about this is really less about which game, and more about which motivations that these games fulfill.
So we know that our players have these core motivations, inspiration, escape, social connection competition, self-improvement, and creation. These things that bring us together as players of games and the creation of worlds and the building of characters, and the telling of stories is really important in the fulfillment of some of those motivations.
So when we think about our portfolio and we think about building it out, we really think about it on two key vectors. One, how can we tell incredible stories, and two, how can we build tremendous online communities? And then how do we bring those two things together?
So the way you should, when you look at our portfolio, what you should be looking for is, how are we doing that? How are we building these worlds and telling their stories? How are we developing global online communities? And how we bring those two things together for the fulfillment of motivations.
Cheat codes in The Sims 4 are valuable tools to make High School Years a bit easier. So, if you decide to utilize this feature, we’ve tested and compiled this list of cheats for the game that can benefit careers, improve performance, and automatically gain achievements.
The High School Years pack has introduced many new cheats, including acquiring traits and particular Sentiments. Here is a list of codes that currently work on The Sims 4.
With an official Discord chat integration on the way, the Podcast Unlocked crew discusses other features they'd like to see get an update or overhaul along with Xbox's Summer Spotlight program that's been a little underwhelming, though it did introduce the team to a particularly cool giraffe. Plus, the team discusses some awesome community creations for Halo Infinite and The Simpsons: Hit and Run.
Subscribe on any of your favorite podcast feeds, to our YouTube channel, or grab an MP3 download of this week's episode.
For more awesome content, check out our recent interview with Harvey Smith, who answered all of our Redfall questions after the gameplay reveal at the Xbox Showcase:
For more next-gen coverage, make sure to check out our Xbox Series X review, our Xbox Series S review, and our PS5 review.
With the finalization of Activision-Blizzard's acquisition by Microsoft imminent, EA is on the cusp of taking its place as the largest major standalone developer and publisher in the industry. Which of course has sparked plenty of questions about whether or not EA itself might one day be acquired.
One of those rumors cropped up last May in a Puck report that revealed EA had been approached by Comcast CEO Brian Roberts about a potential acquisition — but it fell apart due to disagreements over price and structure.
Though EA has repeatedly declined to comment on "rumors and speculation," CEO Andrew Wilson did answer a question on the subject of acquisitions during today's Q1 earnings call, reiterating that he didn't think the publisher could "be in a stronger position as a standalone company."
"Our...objective is always to take care of our people, our players, and our shareholders," he continued. "Should there ever be a way for us to do that differently than the way we're doing it today, I of course have to be open to that, but I would tell you today we feel very very confident and excited for our future."
The first developer update video of The Last Starship focused on combat, which I thought looked pretty swish. The second developer update video for Introversion's space-everything game says, hey, this game isn't about combat, and talks about user-made ships, mining vessels and, in an additional video, early player opinions of the playtest.
We spotted a rare discount on Lenovo's brand new Legion 5i Pro 16 laptop, and it's a high-end model with a 12th-gen Core i7 processor, RTX 3070 Ti graphics card and a stunning 16-in 2560x1600 165Hz display. Normally this laptop retails for £1500, but thanks to an Ebay code (AUG15) you can take £60 off. This isn't a massive discount, but it's a notable price reduction for a laptop that is literally brand new with the latest-gen tech inside.
We Are OFK, a narrative game about an indie-pop band, will launch its first two episodes on August 18th. The following three episodes will then release weekly on August 25th, September 1st and September 8th. There's a new trailer below and it looks gorgeous.
Third-party developers continue to work on add-ons for Microsoft Flight Simulator, and new reveals and a release have been shared today.
We start with Aerosoft, which revealed the livery list of the upcoming Airbus A330 by way of project manager Mathijs Kok.
Next is a developer that has been silent for a long time. After almost a year under the radar, Devinci revealed that work on Kobe Airport (RJBE) in Japan not only has continued but it’s almost completed.
The developer also shared a new gallery of screenshots that looks very promising.
Atlus has revealed another demon that will be included in the upcoming JRPG Soul Hackers 2 with one of its daily trailers.
This trailer showcased Silky, a demon inspired by Celtic mythology that debuted in Ronde for Sega Saturn in 1997. It also appeared in the recent Shin Megami Tensei V.
Like most daily trailers, we also get the daily horoscope, which sees Aquarius at the top of the fortune ranking and Pisces at the bottom.
You can check the trailer out below.
Soul Hackers 2 launches for PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, and PC ( both on Steam and on the Windows Store) on August 26, just one day after the Japanese release on August 25.
Today, during Electronic Arts’ quarterly financial conference call for analysts and investors, chief executive officer Andrew Wilson was asked to comment on the media speculation that alleged that the company was trying to be acquired.
Wilson belittled said speculation, mentioning that he couldn’t be expected to comment on it, and then went on to do just that (albeit indirectly), explaining that EA “couldn’t be in a stronger position” than today as a stand-alone company.
That being said, he explained that should there ever be a way to take care of EA’s people, players, and shareholders in a different way, he has to be open to the idea, but he feels very confident and excited for EA’s future.
“First, I’m sure you don’t expect me to comment on rumors and speculation from some, you know, small, small red media outlets, but be that, as it may, I would tell you, I think we are in an incredible position.
We are soon to be the largest standalone independent developer and publisher of interactive entertainment in the world. I think we have the most incredible teams in our industry on the planet and as Laura [Miele] said earlier, we’re attracting more and more incredible creative talent.
We have a community that’s 600 million strong that is growing and certainly, we’re willing… Our aspiration is to be able to… to engage a billion people in play across the planet.
I think we’re growing across platforms, we’re growing across business models, and we’re growing across geographies.
Jeanie Buss, the owner of the NBA’s Los Angeles Lakers, had her Twitter account hacked earlier to day as part of a PlayStation 5 scam.
Bernard “Bren” Chong, a coffee magnate, app entrepreneur and owner of the Bren Esports team, has been accused by Filipino authorities of being part of a P1.87 billion (USD$33 million) drug bust in Manila.
Marvel Snap’s Nexus Event was a huge source of controversy two weeks ago, when it was revealed that the event was nothing more than an opportunity for players to participate in a gacha event and buy lootboxes for a chance to get some new cards. That didn’t go over well with the player base, to say the least, and Second Dinner had since put out a statement, saying that all future Nexus Events would be disabled as they went back to the drawing board with their monetization plans.
Today, the team put out another update regarding Nexus Events, and it’s a huge one. Essentially, with the release of the next Marvel Snap patch, all players who spent Gold on the Nexus Event will get full refunds. In addition to that, everyone will be getting Jane Foster –who was a new card released with the Nexus Event– for free. New accounts will be able to unlock her in Pool 3.
The murderers of Dead by Daylight get a whole new look and personality in the upcoming game, Hooked on You. Players will get the chance to build relationships that could either be wonderful or deadly. Here is a list of all the characters in this latest Dating Simulator.
Take a dip in the ocean and fall in love with the notorious killers of Dead by Daylight. Find out which characters you can interact with in Hooked on You and learn more about them in this unique rendition.
Elden Ring is a massive game in which player choice is at the fore, set in a massive open world known as The Lands Between. From the moment you emerge into Limgrave, the game’s starting area, you are free to head in any direction you like. It can be a little overwhelming, so let’s take a look at the best Elden Ring progression route to keep you on the right track.
It’s worth noting that the beauty of Elden Ring is its open-ended nature, and while the game does nudge you towards specific areas at specific times, you should get off the beaten path once in a while. Wandering into Caelid during your first hours can be a fun, if terrifying, experience! But, for the purposes of this guide, we will focus on directing you toward the bosses that gate story progression, leaving you to experience the rest of the game as you see fit.
In order to beat Elden Ring, 10 mandatory bosses are standing in your way (although lesser bosses are preventing you from reaching each of them), which you will need to defeat on your journey to become Elden Lord. Each is quite tough and will require practice and some grinding in order to overcome. We will try to keep this guide as spoiler free as possible, but for full guides to each boss encounter, follow the links provided.
Following the tease published a few days ago, D3 Publisher fully revealed its new game Samurai Maiden.
The game is defined a “Girls Sword-fighting Action” title and it’s releasing this winter for PS5, PS4, Nintendo Switch, and PC. And yes, if you’re wondering, this includes North America and Europe.
Those who purchase the PS4 version will also be able to upgrade to the PS5 version for free.
The title, which is strictly single-player, is developed by SHADE Inc, which you may know for Kandagawa Jet Girls and Bullet Girls Phantasia.
The character design is by illustrator Miwano Rag, and the cast of voice actors announced so far is as follows.
Below you can check out a trailer, the first screenshots, and an official description.
Welcome to the Outback-inspired life simulator Dinkum, where you’ll find creatures and plants that would be right at home in Australia. Dinkum is essentially a cutesy combination of Minecraft, Stardew Valley, and Animal Crossing. And just like those titles, Dinkum allows you to plant fruits, among other plantlife. If you’re having trouble figuring it out, here’s our helpful guide on how to bury fruit in Dinkum.
It should be as easy as diggin a hole and dropping the fruit in, right? Well, it is. However you’re skipping a few prerequisites before you can bury fruit in Dinkum. You also need to be aware of the difference in soil.
For starters, you need the right license, which applies to most everything in Dinkum. If you want to, say, build a bridge, you’ll need the correct license. In the case of digging holes (yes, you need a permit for that), purchase the Excavation License.
Generally speaking, playing the game will net you Permit Points. Complete quests, milestones, activities, and converse with the nearby NPCs.
The Excavation License and Shovel cost 500 and 900 Dinks, respectively. In total, you’ll need 1,400 Dinks to obtain both.
Playing games is always a fun pastime, but when you can do it with friends, that usually makes it even better. In the farming/life simulator that is Dinkum, you don’t have to face the wild Australian outback alone, as you can get your friends along for the ride. If you have been wondering just how to enjoy multiplayer in Dinkum, here’s what you will need to know.
Dinkum allows for up to four players to enjoy themselves together, but it is not exactly a straightforward process. Here are the steps you will need to take to make it happen:
This will allow the game and their character to be saved.
There are certainly many video games out there that allow players to explore a different kind of life in a variety of settings. However, not many of them focus on the wild Australian outback, and that is where Dinkum comes in. The indie simulation title has only been in Early Access for a short time, but has garnered plenty of fans along the way. For those just starting out and wondering just how to get tin sheets in Dinkum, let us lend a hand.
You will definitely need to get yourself some Tin Sheets as part of your early progression, especially if you are looking to build John’s Shop. Although Fletch isn’t the most informative, Tin Sheets can either be obtained by sawing a Tin Bar in half or by being lucky when using the metal detector.
By using a Tin Bar on the saw, it will be run through the machine like lumbar, and results in a Tin Sheet that can be collected on the other side of the tool. If you take a closer look at the tooltip for Tin Sheets, this information will be made known to you as well.
The various combinations of letters in Wordle are enough to challenge even the sharpest of wordsmiths, but that doesn’t mean you are without help. In this guide, we’ll go through all of the 5-letter words with O and U as the only vowels 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.
Stop thinking too much about the potential answers and get some guidance in Wordle instead. In this guide, we’ll go through all the 5-letter words starting with YO to lend you a hand on your quest to maintain a hot 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.
