October 2022

It feels odd saying "Overwatch 1", but Overwatch 1 occupies an important place in my personal and professional life. And all things considered, I do not miss it in the slightest. I spent so much time straining against the game's tug-of-war matches that I simply grew tired of trying really hard at it - or perhaps more accurately, trying not to launch my head through the nearest plaster wall.

Clearly, there was a time where I adored Overwatch, though. A time when I'd grind solo-queue most evenings until 3am, in a bid to climb the ranks ever higher. To what end? My own personal satisfaction, I suppose. I'd eventually hit Master (let me brag just once, okay) and then a few months later, I applied for a job at Gamer Network writing guides about Overwatch's intricacies. I moved to Brighton for my first proper job. Now, with Overwatch 2's release, it all feels like it's come full circle.

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Archtower is a roguelike and therefore bad, but... hnnnnnnngggh I like it. I might even come to love it, considering it's already so enjoyable even with a few years of early access left (a fact I forgot until I reached a "work in progress" marker several hours in).

You climb a tower and splat monsters and culty magic nerds. You loot, and avoid traps, chug red liquids, and occasionally die and have to start again. But I enjoyed every moment, and never once hit the usual aggravating points that push me out of the genre. It's good stuff all round, frankly.

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A new experience: Weird RPG is the first video game to make my lips numb. My character in the action-RPG is wearing magic tousers, see, which launch explosive basketball hoops every time I make noise into my microphone. Turns out, the most DPS-efficient noise is continually blowing to trill my lips like a child pretending to be a car. Weird RPG does have some fun ideas but sadly, it's too mundane an ARPG to be truly weird—or good. Still, I was delighted when I found a helmet whose stats get better the worse your graphics card is.

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Scrolling through Twitter, Daniel Griffiths' interest was piqued when he saw a post describing a mysterious phenomenon being shared in the Nier: Automata community: A2 opening a hidden door in The Copied City and strolling into a secret, never-before-seen area. Curious, he decided to pursue more knowledge, and landed in the Nier modding Discord server.

Like him, many other Nier: Automata players who caught wind of the phenomenon sat upright - metaphorically and perhaps literally - and flocked to both Reddit and Discord to check out what exactly was up with the secret area. It was dubbed the "church mystery" or "sadfutago's posts", among other monikers.

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The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim is an increasingly ancient beast, gnarled and twisted over the past decade-and-a-bit by many, many mods that sometimes conflict with one another. That’s why Tyler Hallada put together Modmapper, a free tool released earlier this year that shows which of the mods hosted at NexusMods affect which areas of Skyrim. Now, Hallada’s written about the experience of creating the tool in a blog post, and the reasons for taking on the project.

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Sci-fi thriller The Invincible is one of those games that feels like it's been knocking around for absolutely yonks, and every time there's a new trailer for it, you go, "Oh yeah! That one! The one with the robots and the Soviet Alien dot detector thing!" The most recent trailer for The Invincible arrived during this year's E3 madness, and featured astrobiologist Yasna having a suspenseful encounter with a big spider bot and its anti-matter death ray. It was only a five-minute long clip at the time, but I've now played an expanded version of that particular scene, and yep, I still don't much like the look of that there laser bot.

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People residing in Japan can now order the new figure of Persona 5 Royal's Yusuke "Fox" Kitagawa. Megahouse has opened pre-orders for the character's Lucrea figure on the Japanese Premium Bandai store. The figure will be available at 22,000 yen (~$150). [Thanks, Hobby Watch!]

While Yusuke first appeared in the original release of Persona 5 in 2016, this figure's pose takes inspiration from his Show Time combination attack with Ann "Panther" Takamaki, which Atlus added in the 2019 enhanced title Persona 5 Royal.

This figure will have an overall height of 188mm (~7.4 inches). The package will also include an alternate headpiece that lets the owner choose whether to attach the fox mask to Yusuke's face or not.

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It looks like the end of 2022 is going to have more than a whiff of Crash Bandicoot about it. Not only has Activision confirmed an 18th October Steam release date for the well-recieved Crash Bandicoot 4: It's About Time, it seems the publisher might just be gearing up to unveil the long-rumoured Crash Bandicoot Wumpa League at this year's Game Awards.

All this news comes via a bit of promotional tat Activision has been sending out to influencers and press, taking the form of Crash-themed pizza box with goodies inside.

As detailed in a video by YouTuber Canadian Guy Eh (thanks Games Radar), the promotional pizza box in question comes emblazoned with the words 'Aku Aku's Steam-in Pizza Shack', a not too subtle hint that the formerly Battle.net-exclusive PC version of Crash Bandicoot 4 will (as fans had already surmised) soon be making its way to Valve's storefront. And to clear up any doubt, that's made explicit by an attached label confirming an 18th October Steam release.

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Episode eight of She-Hulk: Attorney at Law marked the return of Charlie Cox in the Daredevil suit and his first appearance as the Devil of Hell’s Kitchen in the MCU. Besides his triumphant return as this fan-favorite hero, he also dropped some big bombs as Matt Murdock while in court and then later on at the bar with Jen.

The first big reveal happened during the court scene where Matt was defending Luke Jacobson in a case against Jen Walters and Eugene Patilio. During this scene, he tosses in a quick line about the Sokovia Accords being repealed. Just this single sentence opens up so many possibilities in the MCU. You can read more about that right here.

The other big line comes up later on in the episode following the trial that Jen lost thanks to Patilio mindlessly admitting he was misusing the suit Jacobson had given him. While speaking with Jen at the bar he talks to her about the practice that he has back in New York City. He talks about it in terms of it being more than just him there as well.

This is a not-so-subtle indication that Foggy Nelson and Karen Page are likely a part of Murdock’s life and work in New York. While they haven’t been confirmed to be a part of the upcoming show Daredevil: Born Again, it’s incredibly difficult to imagine a Daredevil story in the MCU without Nelson and Page. They’re essentially Murdock’s conscience when he may be close to going too far.

She-Hulk: Attorney At Law episodes one through eight are streaming on Disney+ right now and you can catch the final episode of the series on Thursday, Oct. 13.

Featured Image Source: Marvel Studios/Disney+

It would be an understatement to name Friday the 13th as one of the most well-known slasher franchises in horror, featuring the hockey-wearing Jason Voorhees. His hockey mask is just as iconic and easily recognized as Michael Myers’ death mask, Leatherface’s horrific visage, and Freddy Krueger’s razor-clawed glove. If you’re new to the franchise, the most common question people ask about the spirit of vengeance is: what does Jason look like without his mask? It’s a rather sore subject, to say the least.

Hackers never let folks catch a break, and massively multiplayer online role-playing games are always a target for heinous acts of data collecting. The latest victim? Square Enix’s super popular Final Fantasy XIV, which the company announced yesterday is currently experiencing “an attack by a third party” trying to…

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There are a lot of reasons why people buy Steam Decks, Valve’s new portable gaming PC. It lets them take beloved Steam games on the go. Others use it to get the most out of Xbox Game Pass on PC. And some people use it to run a Nintendo Switch emulator called Yuzu. Valve admitted as much in a recent YouTube video…

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In the midst of the fall gaming season, it’s very easy to lose track of games that aren’t the new hotness from big-name studios or that haven’t received enough advertising to catch one’s attention. Despite this reality, one dark action-adventure game managed to not only capture my attention but also to exceed my…

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UPDATE 10:05 a.m. ET, Tuesday October 11: A number of players have reported issues redeeming either Kiriko’s voice line or skin (or sometimes both). Kotaku has reached out to Blizzard for comment on this. For now, we recommend double-checking that your Twitch and Battle.net accounts have been relinked, that you’re…

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Ever since the release of Deathloop last year, fans have speculated that the acclaimed time loop shooter was, in fact, set in the same universe as Arkane Studios' much-loved Dishonored series - and now theorists can given finally themselves a pat on the back and pack away their cork boards: the developer has confirmed it is indeed so.

Creative director Dinga Bakaba broke the news during the latest episode of the Xbox podcast (thanks PC Gamer), confirming that Deathloop is "one of the futures of the Dishonored world."

When asked directly about the possible connection between the two games, Bakaba explained, "We have a number of systems [that mean] not everyone has seen the same thing [in Deathloop], not everyone has heard the same song hidden somewhere, not everyone has seen every room. So it was nice to see the community pick up the little clues that we did sprinkle everywhere that, yes, indeed, we envisioned Deathloop to be happening in the future after [the third Dishonored game] Death of the Outsider."

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If there’s one thing by Blizzard that’s universally acclaimed, even more than its games, is its CGI animated trailers. Overwatch has certainly used them to great effect to introduce its colorful heroes and looks like Overwatch 2 is no exception.

Now that the game is out, Blizzard released the animated short for the new heroine Kiriko, and boy, it’s good.

The short manages to underline both Kiriko’s cute side and her fighting spirit in one neat 10-minute package, also placing the accent on part of her backstory and the fact that she inherited both the martial skill from her mother and the fox spirt rituals from her grandmother.

I would go ahead and say that it’s the best Blizzard has made so far, but of course, that’s pretty subjective.

You can check the short below and judge for yourself. It’s worth 10 minutes of your time.

Overwatch 2 is currently available for PC, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, PS5, PS4, and Nintendo Switch. If you’d like to know whether it’s as good as its animated shorts, you can check out our review.

The Stranger possess powerful magic, and he uses it again in a Rings of Power episode titled The Eye. His magic requires spoken spells in Elvish and he utters the words envinyata, a kuite, and lote while healing a tree. Here’s everything you need to know on what this spell means in The Rings of Power.

What Do Envinyata, A Kuite, and Lote Mean in Rings of Power?

In Elvish, A Envinyata means heal, lote means flower, and a kuita means live. A volcanic eruption in the Southlands destroyed a perfectly good orchard where the Harfoots were planning to camp. The things the Stranger says in Rings of Power are casting a healing spell on the tree to help them out. He also refers to the tree as a flower, which explains the flower is taken by the white robed figures, and ends up reviving the entire orchard.

The Harfoots are grateful for the help and give him advice on finding the constellation he seeks. Unfortunately, the orchard is burned down again by the white-robed figures after Nori tries to talk to them, leaving the Harfoots short on food. Assuming that the figures mean the Stranger harm too, the Harfoots send a small party to warn him that the mysterious figures are hunting him.

That’s all we have on what the words in the Stranger’s spell mean in Rings of Power. Check out some of our other Rings of Power content, like the Rings of Power budget and where the stranger is from.  

Image source: Amazon

Despite his failures, Isildur has a lot of potential as a character: a mysterious voice calls to him while training to be a member of the Sea Guard, which eventually leads to him visiting Middle-earth. However, soon after arriving in the Southlands, a building collapses on Isildur, appearing to seal his fate. Here’s everything you need to know on is Isildur dead in Rings of Power.

Did the Volcanic Eruption Kill Isildur?

No, Isildur isn’t dead, and his father, Elendil, will be pleased when he finds out. He survives a volcanic eruption, so a building is no problem. The purpose of voices calling to him isn’t clear, but it probably has to do with his role in the Peter Jackson trilogy, where he’s a king played by Harry Sinclair.

Isildur becomes king of Gondor and fights valiantly against Sauron alongside King Gil-galad and the elves during the Lord of the Rings movies. Their combined army eventually forced Sauron to face Elendil and the elf king in combat, and they die to give Isildur a chance to kill Sauron; unfortunately, Isildur keeps the Ring for himself instead of destroying it and allows Sauron’s spirit to live.

That’s everything we have on does Isildur die in Rings of Power. Check out some of our other The Rings of Power content, like who the people in white robes are, the origin of the Stranger, and who Adar is.

Image Source: Amazon

With the premiere of the Chainsaw Man anime less than a week away, we are already getting big news regarding the series. At least, in this case, it is about the manga that spawned the anime.

If you’re all caught up on the Chainsaw Man manga this news will be especially welcomed. Summer of 2023 will see the release of a spin-off light novel called Chainsaw Man: Buddy Stories.

The Chainsaw Man: Buddy Stories light novel will be based on an original concept by Chainsaw Man mangaka Tatsuki Fujimoto but will be written by Sakaku Hishikawa. Tatsuki Fujimoto will most certainly be doing the art for whatever book scenes get single-page illustrations. The only hint we get about the content is the announcement tweet says it “delivers four new stories featuring iconic characters from the manga! and the cover image shown is of Denji and Power being goofy. It is unknown when this will take place in the manga.

You can see that cover image and announcement tweet below.

A new generation of Pokemon games always comes with a new gimmick that changes the way Pokemon battle. In past titles, we’ve seen things like Mega Evolutions, Z-moves, Dynamax, but Pokemon Scarlet and Violet are introducing the Terastal phenomenon. But what is Terastallizing and what are all the Tera Pokemon in Pokemon Scarlet & Violet? Let’s take a look at everything we know about it.

Terastallizing in Pokemon Scarlet & Violet Explained

While some phenomena are shared through multiple generations, like Mega Evolutions, others are exclusive to the region, such as Dynamaxing in the Galar region in Pokemon Sword and Shield. The Paldea region has an exclusive phenomenon that makes pokemon shine and glimmer like gems known as Terastallizing.

In Pokemon Scarlet and Violet, Terastallizing will give your extra pokemon power by boosting their type and making their moves stronger. Pokemon can have different Tera types that allow them to change their type after terrastalizing. One example The Pokemon Company provided was that Eevee typically stays normal type, but you can find Eevee that will change to water or grass type. So be on the lookout for Pokemon with rare Tera types.

Overwatch 2 has not been having a good time. After undergoing two attacks by external parties that made it nearly impossible to play, the hero shooter came under fire for its bad cell phone policy. Then, many had issues trying to play Overwatch 2 with friends. Blizzard worked to ease these pains, axing the phone…

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Graphics cards are getting bigger, hotter and more expensive - and that first one is more of a problem than you might think. With the RTX 4090 and a whole family of oversized GPUs on the way, those tiny PCIe slots on your motherboard are taking on an incredible amount of weight, such that even mid-range cards can sag and bend over time.

The best way to prevent this is with a brace, which pushes up from the bottom of your case to the far end of the graphics card, holding it level and preventing all that force from affecting the card or the PCIe slot. You sometimes get a support brace like this free with your graphics card, but otherwise you can pick one up fairly inexpensively from a range of manufacturers.

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It's not every day that you see a top-end gaming laptop for £598 off, especially not when it's a 15-in RTX 3080 model from MSI. This GP66 Leopard is one of the fastest gaming laptops on the market, with a Core i7 processor, 16GB of RAM, 1TB NVMe SSD and a 144Hz screen - not to mention that flagship-grade graphics card.

It normally retails for a cool £1998, but today Laptops Direct has discounted it to £1399.97, making it the cheapest RTX 3080 laptop we can find right now.

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Today Spike Chunsoft reached out with a press release to share more screenshots and details about the upcoming Master Detective Archives: Rain Code.

This time around we get to see and read more about the characters, the setting, gameplay mechanics, and more.

The game takes place in Kanai Ward, a strange town where it always rains. The city is divided in different areas, each with a different atmosphere. It’s also the home of a megacorporation and while city and company have grown alongside each other, the former has been under the heel of the latter for some time.

The government has little influence on the city, so in Kanai Ward, no one can oppose the megacorporation, which creates many unsolved mysteries.

Below you can check out all the images and details from the press release.

While it may surprise many, Mario has never had an Italian accent in movies and television. Still, the idea that the Italian plumber is missing said dialect in the upcoming movie adaptation by Illumination is still a bit weird. Let’s break down why Chris Pratt doesn’t have an Italian accent in the Super Mario Bros. Movie.

When Did Mario First Speak?

Before 1996, with the release of Super Mario 64, Mario never had a voice in the games. But the first time the character ever had a voice was in the popular 1989 children’s TV series, The Super Mario Bros Super Show, starring Captain Lou Albano as Mario.

On October 4, 2022, Nexon announced that its gacha RPG Blue Archive will be split into two versions. Each version will have a different age rating, corresponding to one version having some of its artwork "censored" and the other having the artwork as it exists currently. To be more precise, they will be the "version with adjusted resources" and the "R-18 version." The R-18 version of the game will have a higher age rating. [Thanks, Automaton!]

This weekend in Japan is Nintendo Live 2022, a popular annual convention that is host to live music, stage events, video game competitions, and other activities for Nintendo fans to enjoy.

The entire weekend-long event takes place at the Tokyo Big Sight exhibition center, the largest convention center in Japan. In addition to all of the competitions and events to attend, the halls of the convention are decorated in ways to show off Nintendo’s latest and upcoming games.

One of these decorations caught our eye during the Nintendo Live 2022 livestream: a life-size statue of Link from Nintendo’s upcoming game The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, the sequel to 2017’s Breath of the Wild.

Take a look below at some of the pictures of this beautiful statue, courtesy of HMK on Twitter via the Nintendo Live 2022 livestream.

Today, during the opening segment of the annual Final Fantasy XIV 14-hour livestream, a new player milestone for the game was announced.

The game has now passed 27 million registered players. The previous update was at 25 million.

The announcement was made by producer and director Naoki Yoshida and Square Enix CEO Yosuke Matsuda.

This is pretty much a traditional announcement for this event, as an update to the total number of registered players is provided every year in the same way.

Third-party developers had a lot of news to share today about add-ons for Microsoft Flight Simulator, including aircraft and scenery.

We start with Cockspur, which released the Cessna 510 Citation Mustang.

It can be purchased on Simmarket for $24.64 plus applicable VAT.

Today Square Enix hosted the 73rd Final Fantasy XIV Letter From the Producer Live broadcast.

As usual, producer and director Naoki Yoshida and global community producer Toshio Murouchi provided details about the upcoming updates.

First of all, we learn that update 6.25 will release on Tuesday, October 18.

We also hear that some job adjustments will come in update 6.25, but more will come later in 6.28. More tweaks to actions will come in 6.3.

The popularity of PvP has increased thanks to the introduction of Crystalline Conflict, and some job changes specifically dedicated to PvP will come in 6.28.

Speaking of the Island Sanctuary, Square Enix heard that players would like to customize their islands more, but this is a big challenge. The development team is considering the implementation of a system that would let players decorate their islands with outdoor housing items, but they don’t know when they’ll manage to put that into action.

Update 6.25 will include Somehow Further Hildibrand Adventures, Weapon Enhancement Quests – Manderville Weapons, Tribal Quests – Omicrons, Variant Dungeons, and Criterion Dungeons.

We get to see screenshots of the Omicron area and “spy” glamor gear that you can earn in the new patch.

Today, during the annual Final Fantasy XIV 14-hour livestream, Square Enix announced the next Fan Festivals that will be hosted between 2023 and 2024.

This time around the fan festivals will return in person and will be hosted at the following locations and dates.

• US: Las Vegas, Nevada – Las Vegas Convention Center – July 28 – 29, 2023.
• UK: London – ExCeL London – October 21-22, 2023
• Japan: Early 2024 – More Details to come.

At the moment, the content of the celebrations has not been announced, but usually, Fan Festivals involve the major reveal beats for a new Final Fantasy XIV expansion. It would be surprising if this wasn’t the case for the upcoming festivals as well.

The announcement was accompanied by a trailer, which you can watch below.

Speaking of online events, after last time’s weird shift to January, the “All Saints’ Wake” seasonal event will return to Halloween this month. The event will begin on October 19 and more information will be shared at a later time.