October 2022

Minecraft’s next major update will swell the survival sandbox’s roster of player characters to nine, in an effort to make the game more diverse and improve representation. Existing default picks Steve and Alex are going to be joined by seven new characters who reflect the wider world, although Mojang wouldn’t reveal any more about them ahead of today's Minecraft Live stream. Not even their names, alas. I was going to suggest Pugh, Pugh, Barney McGrew, Cuthbert, Dibble and Grub, but then realised that leaves one short. Gandalf, maybe?

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Mojang showed more of their upcoming action strategy spin-off Minecraft Legends at Minecraft Live today, including an early look at the game’s four-player co-op. We also found out more about what your hero uses to battle against the piglin invasion, and met some of the game’s key allies. Take a look at the trailer below to get a fresh look at to expect when Legends launches in 2023.

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Halloween is coming and the bats are getting fat. Please put a Tunnock's in the young man's hat. If you haven't got a Tunnock's, a Snickers will do. If you haven't got a Snickers, then gods bless you! So what are you playing this weekend? Here's what we're clicking on!

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Developer behind Stories Untold and Observation is working with Konami and Annapurna Interactive

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Return to Silent Hill even brings back the series’ best director

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The next big Silent Hill project will be developed in Taiwan

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Konami taps Layers of Fear developer Bloober Team to revive Silent Hill 2

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An Imperial hack gets his due

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The Wild West prequel to the 2013 supernatural-cop movie is coming in November

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Opening the luxury PC gaming and home-office desks up at lower price points was always in the Kickstarter plan

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Plus, Mickey’s got extra crackers and we can finally pet our companion animals

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From Psycho Goreman to Un Chien Andalou

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I find I have next to no interest in the coming Gotham Knights, but a blocky recreation of Gotham in Minecraft? Yeah, that's cute. It's part of what's coming in the newly announced Batman DLC for Minecraft, as well as the ability to fight Batman's rogue gallery including the Penguin, Poison Ivy and The Joker.

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Today third-party developers shared news and a release for Microsoft Flight Simulator add-ons.

We start with Delta Simulations, which is continuing to improve the freeware C-17 Globemaster III. Today we get some spiffy screenshots and a small development update.

“We’ve been busy working behind the scenes on some major improvements to the aircraft! We’re very happy with the current state of the aircraft, and we have passed some crucial milestones that we will share down the line.”

If you’d like to know more, you can follow the aircraft’s development on the developer’s Discord server. A work-in-progress version can already be downloaded on Flightsim.to.

Today Microsoft released a brand new video about the recently added customization option for the Xbox Elite Wireless Controller Series 2 in the Xbox Design Lab.

The funny part is that the video is titled “Xbox Design Lab – Elite Series 2 Unboxing” but nothing is actually getting “unboxed.”

On the other hand, we get a very interesting look at the process behind the creation of the series, which happens to be a lot more involved than simply painting the parts in whatever colors and slapping them together.

If you don’t believe me, you can check out the video for yourself below.

If you want your very own custom Elite Series 2 controller, you’ll have to spend $149.99 plus $9.99 if you want to name your controller with a custom engraving.

If you’re in Europe, that translates into €139,99 plus €9,99 for the custom engraving.

Optional accessories include the back paddles for $26.99/€24,99, the alternate thumbstick and d-pad for $29.99/€27,99, and even a customizable case, charger, and cable (just the case is actually customizable, for the record) for $39.99/€36,99.

So if you get everything, you can end up spending upward to $256.95/€239,95 depending on whether you want all the bells and whistles or not.

We have gotten word today about what is next for the Laid-Back Camp (or Yuru Camp) anime. As of today, a third season of the anime that started in 2018 is confirmed to be in production. Though there isn’t any word on a possible premiere date to go along with this announcement, at least more is coming.

It’s hard to say when we might see the third season, as the first season started in January 2018, but the second wasn’t until January 2021. Assuming it follows that trend, it could likely be January 2024 when season 3 starts.

You can see the original announcement tweet below:

When it comes to comedy TV shows, some series follow the rules, while others break them. One particularly successful comedy show from the 90s decided to do its own thing, ignoring a lot of the established rules of the genre and bringing a fresh approach to sitcoms.

Malcolm in the Middle easily stood out from other shows at the time for a number of reasons. The show was not recorded in a studio for many scenes, instead opting to shoot on location. This allowed them to have a lot of variety in their writing, putting characters in interesting and fun situations regularly. While shows like Friends were largely stuck in the main characters’ homes, in Malcolm in the Middle, writers could imagine scenes occurring in all manner of places.

The show also opted to avoid the use of a laugh track, a common prompt in older sitcoms that has fallen almost entirely out of practice in the modern day. This allowed the audience to decide their own response to the show’s jokes and also showed how the producers trusted in both the writers and the cast to carry the day.

Today Fatshark released another trailer of the grimdark future version of Warhammer Vermintide, Warhammer 40,000: Darktide.

This one is particularly grimdark, as it features the Ogryn: Skullbreaker, really big, really strong, really brutal, and absolutely dumb as a log.

Yet, Ogryns are among the few abhuman subspecies that humanity decided was useful enough not to be purged, and if you’re familiar with the Warhammer 40,000 universe, you likely know what purging entails.

Of course, being named “Skullbreaker,” you can guess that this specific class is very adept with crude melee weapons.

You can check out the trailer for yourself below.

Warhammer 40,000: Darktide will launch on PC and Xbox Series X|S on November 30, 2022. It was supposed to be already out, but it was recently delayed.

If you’d like to see more, you can enjoy a previous trailer from Gamescom and another from Summer Game Fest, showing more gameplay and features.

Today, during the Hakuryo University aNCHOR Academia Web Student Assembly 2022 event aired from Japan, Muv-Luv publisher Anchor announced “Muv-Luv Monthly.”

It’ll be a publication that will certainly entice dedicated fans of the series, promising news on upcoming games, beautiful art, and details about characters, mecha, and the Muv-Luv Alternative world, including its history.

It’s worth mentioning that “Muv-Luv Monthly” is a working title so it could change before publication.

Below you can see a few sample images shared during the livestream by Muv-Luv creator Kouki Yoshimune himself.

Today Muv-Luv publisher aNCHOR is hosting its Hakuryo University aNCHOR Academia Web Student Assembly 2022 event, and we got news about the mobile game Immortals: Muv-Luv Alternative.

The news was presented by NextNinja CEO Masayuki Yamagishi. In case you missed it, NextNinja has a lot of experience with mobile games and will co-publish Immortals.

NextNinja is currently working on several changes to improve the quality of the game.

The main philosophy behind the changes aims to make things easier to read and cherish the characters, which are very important to the Muv-Luv franchise and its fans.

There will be improvements to battle, user interface, and systems, on top of a new scenario.

Changes will be made to the visual novel-like part, including the addition of different facial expressions, additional voices, larger character illustrations, and tweaks to text size.

The aim is to make the characters feel more lively. Below you can see two images showing before and after the change.

Today Bandai Namco Entertainment released a new gameplay trailer of its upcoming One Piece JRPG One Piece Odyssey.

Following the reveal of the fact that part of the game is set on a revival of Alabasta born from our heroes’ memories, this time around we get to see the gameplay of that section.

We get to see exploration, dialogue with NPCs, cutscenes, and even combat.

You can check out the trailer below. There certainly is a lot to see.

One Piece Odyssey will launch for PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, and PC on January 13, 2023.

If you’d like to see more of the game, you can check out the original announcement,  bunch of details and screenshots, and the latest gameplay.

If you’re unfamiliar with One Piece, the original manga by Eiichiro Oda debuted all the way back in 1997 on Shueiusha’s popular magazine Weekly Shounen Jump and it’s still ongoing, having recently passed its 100th volume.

Whether or not you read manga, you are probably familiar with One-Punch Man. On top of that, as its third season just kicked off, you’ve probably heard of Mob Psycho 100. The creator of both, ONE, has a new manga on the way. Here’s what we know about when the manga Versus by ONE will be coming out as well as a possible English translation release window.

Versus Manga Release Date

ONE’s new battle manga Versus, with art by Azuma Kyoutarou, will be debuting through Shounen Sirius on Nov. 26, 2022.

In the Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 Campaign, you’ll embark on a quest that requires you to answer a series of questions. However, if players select the wrong conversation options, they’ll immediately be killed by their captors. So, to avoid this occurrence, we’ll give you all the answers in Modern Warfare 2’s El Sin Nombre mission.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 El Sin Nombre Answers

The El Sin Nombre infiltration in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 is the eleventh mission of the Campaign, where Soap, Alejandro, Ghost, and Graves develop a plan to take over the home of a Las Almas cartel lieutenant. During this task, Soap will be interrogated by Valeria, an enemy who does not tolerate liars and will shoot the character if you don’t tell her the truth.

Here are all the answers to the El Sin Nombre mission:

1. It was Mexican Special Forces.
2. American PMCs. Shadow Company.
3. Phillip Graves.
4. Missiles.

Since these answers were previously discussed in other missions, you can get a good idea of what to select when Valeria interrogates you. But, players must quickly pick a conversation option because these instances will be timed with a green meter, as shown here:

Video games can be so bittersweet; you’re impatient to beat them but miss them when you do. Call of Duty is no exception, even with PvP options. The best approach is to make the most of the missions in the campaign and make it one of your favorites. Here’s everything you need to know on how many missions there are in Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2.

How Many Missions Can I Play?

The new Call of Duty has 17 missions to complete, and you probably won’t need more than a free hour to complete any of them. The story is intriguing and more practice with the best guns won’t hurt, plus, you get to travel the world on these missions. There’s sure to be some humor and drama between Captain Price and his team.

Modern Warfare 2 2022 Mission List

Here are the names of all the missions to pique your curiosity:

• Strike 
• Kill or Capture 
• Wetwork 
• Tradecraft 
• Borderline 
• Cartel Protection 
• Close Air 
• Hardpoint 
• Recon By Fire 
• Violence And Timing 
• El Sin Nombre 
• Dark Water 
• Alone 
• Prison Break 
• Hindsight 
• Ghost Team 
• Countdown 

The Spanish mission name means “the nameless one,” how mysterious. Prison break sounds fun too, but maybe not as fun if you’re a guard.

Today third-party developers shared interesting news and releases of Microsoft Flight Simulator add-ons.

We start with CJ Simulations, which launched its much-anticipated Eurofighter Typhoon.

It’s now available for €29.95 at Just Flight. The version for the official marketplace is also complete and is being tested by Microsoft, so it should come to Xbox soon.

On top of that, we also get some news from CJ Simulations’ partner DC Designs, which has completed the Harrier. The aircraft is also being tested by Microsoft’s team for release on the official marketplace.

There’s been a new metric revealed to show just how crazy people are going for the new Chainsaw Man anime. Just 10 days ago the opening was uploaded to the Chainsaw Man studio MAPPA’s YouTube for all to see. In the last 10 days, that opening has managed to rack up a truly astonishing 22.6 million views and counting. At this pace, it might see 25 million not too long from now.

We fell in love with the opening when we first covered it, and still stick by our stance that it gives viewers going in fresh an entirely false expectation for where the series will lead (read the manga!).

On top of that, we loved all the sneaky film references peppered all throughout the opening as well. Considering the 22 million views later, it seems like everyone agrees. We also covered a terrific fan-made English cover of the opening song Kick Back by Kenshi Yonezu.

You can see the terrific opening below. Judging by the number of views, we are going to go on on a limb and guess it won’t be your first time.

The most important equipment items available throughout Cyberpunk 2077 are those that affect your Cyberware. As with all other items available throughout the game, these are also directly affected by rarity. The better rarity, the more benefit you can get out of them. Due to that, this guide should help lead you to every legendary Cyberware part in Cyberpunk 2077.

Where to Find All Cyberpunk 2077 Cyberware Parts

These legendary cyberware parts aren’t something you can look off the regular enemy in Cyberpunk 2077. Instead, they must be found by visiting the assortment of Ripperdocs all over Night City.

The release of Gotham Knights may have rekindled your appreciation for Batgirl, and Kotobukiya is ready to provide a new figure.

The Japanese manufacturer made a new figure from its “Bishoujo” series available for pre-order and you can find it on AmiAmi for 15,700 yen, which translates into approximately $106 at the current exchange rate.

If you’re not familiar with the Bishoujo line, it features popular female characters reinterpreted by the pencil of famous illustrator and character designer Shunya Yamashita. Most of the figures portray western heroines designed in Japanese manga/anime style.

Batgirl will release in May 2023 and her prototype is sculpted by ke Komaka in 1/7 scale, resulting in a 230mm tall figure.

You can check out what she looks like below.

Just a few days before the finale, House of the Dragon’s last episode has leaked online. The news shocked many fans, who have taken to Twitter to help warn their fellow Westerosi lovers to avoid social media in order to avoid treacherous spoilers.

One of the more anticipated games for 2022 has to be The Callisto Protocol. Created by Striking Distance Games, the third-person survival horror game has a lot of hype to live up to as it’s being directed by Glen Schofield, who’s best known as one of the creators of the original Dead Space.

While gamers will have to wait another month and a half to get The Callisto Protocol, the good news is that the game has officially gone gold.

After the release of Cyberpunk: Edgerunners, it’s not surprising that Sandevistan rose to popularity amongst old and new fans of the game. Having the ability to slow down time is extremely useful in a fast pace action RPG such as Cyberpunk 2077. Whether you’re becoming the ultimate cyber ninja in Night City or decimating your enemies in the blink of an eye, the Sandevistan is guaranteed to give you the edge you need on the streets of NC. But to become the best Edgerunner in NC, you’ll need to know How to Get a Sandevistan Heatsink in Cyberpunk 2077 along with what it does for your V.

What Is The Sandevistan Heatsink & Where to Find It

The Sandevistan Heatsink is a modification used in conjunction with the Sandevistan Operating Systems. The Heatsink essentially reduces the cooldown of your V’s Sandevistan. Depending on the rarity, you reduce the cooldown of your Sandevistan by 2.0/2.5/3.0/3.5/4.0 seconds, respectively.

You can find an uncommon variant from the Ripperdoc in Kabuki slums for $225. To purchase this variant, your V will need 14 Street Cred. Alternatively, you can also purchase the crafting specs from a Ripperdoc in Arroyo for $1125

Crafting Tiers For The Sandevistan Heatsink

There are 5 possible tiers you can craft for The Sandevistan Heatsink. Common, Uncommon, Rare, Epic, and Legendary.

We have gotten further confirmation of a premiere date for everyone’s favorite bully-focused anime Don’t Toy With Me, Miss Nagatoro. While it’s still a little bit away, fans certainly don’t have too long to wait. Here’s when the second season of Don’t Toy With Me, Miss Nagatoro will be coming out as well as what we know about a dub release date.

Don’t Toy With Me, Miss Nagatoro 2nd Attack Premiere Date

As we said, there isn’t too long of a wait left, as season 2 of Don’t Toy With Me, Miss Nagatoro will begin in January 2023. We don’t have a more specific date in January, but we will update this when we do.

In the meantime, there’s plenty to hold you over. When we first got news of a release date, Crunchyroll also released the “Senpai”-filled trailer you can find above.

Ghostbusters: Spirits Unleashed Impressions Read More »

Do you like the way your Steam client looks? It's a question that many of us never even think to ask. But in a tech-obsessed world that lets us customize everything from your phone's background to your colorful internet browser, it seems fair to consider.

Yet the process of customizing your Steam client is far from intuitive--in fact, if it weren't for a few intrepid hackers and niche Discords, it would hardly exist at all in 2022. These tools require time, patience, and a bit of research to use correctly. And given Valve's outsized presence in the PC gaming community--and how basic of a feature this is--it feels like it should be a lot easier.

"There's just no support for it anymore," says Jonius7, the developer of Old Glory, a popular Steam skinning tool. "It makes you wonder what Valve thinks about all of it."

Ostensibly, Steam has supported custom themes (or "skins") for more than a decade now. All you have to do is download the skin and create a new folder titled "skins" in your main Steam directory. Then drop the skin's files into it, select it under Steam's "interface" menu, restart, and presto: You've got a new look.

Although this may seem simple enough, the truth is that many of the popular skins for Steam, such as Metro and Air, have been mostly broken for several years now. Specifically, they only overhaul the outer edge of the Steam client itself--though many of these skins originally replaced the entire Steam client, that functionality was removed by Valve piece-by-piece.

Fortnite is back into costume with Fortnitemares 2022, and that means candy can be found all around the map like it is every year. You'll want to locate Fortnite candy for a number of reasons--most often to simply enjoy their buffs to speed, jumping, and more--but also some Fortnitemares quests will demand you find candy at times, too. This year, one such quest asks you to apply the Zero Point Pretzel effect to yourself three times. Here's how to do that easily, as well as where to find candy generally.

Fortnite Zero Point Pretzel effect

Zero Point Pretzels act just like Zero Point fish by giving you a few seconds of a dash technique, making you harder to hit when under fire, while adding a bit of speed to your looper, too. Simply eating a pretzel will give you this ability for about 30 seconds, but they don't stack, so if you're trying to complete the challenge to apply the effect three times, you should wait for each effect to wear off before applying it again.

The easiest way to find Zero Point Pretzels specifically is to buy them from Chrome Punk, a new pumpkin-headed NPC who showed up alongside the Fortnitemares update. We've got all NPCs mapped and listed in our NPC locations guide for your convenience. You can find Chrome Punk at the Flutter Barn near the center of the map. He sells Zero Point Pretzels, so bring some gold and you'll be all set.

If someone beats you to it and buys out his supply, you'll need to find candy buckets instead. For that, keep on reading.

Way back in Fortnite Chapter 2, Season 6, there was a ghost NPC named Willow you could speak to who roamed the forests of Weeping Woods at night. Now, for Fortnitemares 2022, Willow is back, but she's not in any kind of talking mood. These days, she's more about attacking players on sight, because she's a new boss NPC you can fight.

Like before, Willow lives in the woods--specifically the woods to the west of the Reality Tree, which is the current battle royale map's closest equivalent to the old Weeping Woods location. And instead of roaming around like she used to, these days she's settled down in a house where you'll be able to find her at any time of day.

Where to find the new Willow boss NPC

Nowadays Willow lives in a big log cabin close to the edge of the map.

When you first approach, you'll notice a few things. First, it's one of the Fortnitemares spots where it gets dark and spooky-looking no matter the time of day, alongside Grim Gables, the Reality Tree and the Evil Dead cabin.

The only thing easier in Minecraft than punching a tree is getting lost. You found the coolest river, the richest cave… but you can't remember where your house is. At the beginning, you just have to be careful, but as the game progresses your options for making sure you know where you are in your Minecraft world multiply. Here's what you need to know about navigation and finding your way around in Minecraft.

The Basics: Paths, Directions, and Signs

The kids in fairy tales did it, and you can, too. Instead of leaving a trail of breadcrumbs, though, you can do something better. Put those torches in your inventory to work by using them to mark your path as you explore. However, it can be hard sometimes to see where a group of torches is pointing. To help that, get out your shovel and use its alternate function on the ground. With nothing more than a shovel, you can make a good-looking and highly functional path.

Minecraft doesn't have cardinal directions like North and South in the game canonically, but the sun and moon always rise in one direction and set in the other, so you can decipher where North, South, East and West are. Keep those in mind as you build and explore.

And if all else fails, signs are easy to make in huge numbers. Putting down informative signs that make use of the various "arrow" characters (^, V, <, and >) can be enough to get you anywhere.

Make a Compass

But you shouldn't have to be doing a bunch of work or paying careful attention to find your way home. There are easier options once you start to collect more materials.

Overwatch 2 has finally launched, turning the hero shooter into a free-to-play title. This change also adds new heroes, new maps, and a new mode, Push. This also means that Overwatch has officially switched to a 5v5 instead of a 6v6, dropping one of the tanks on each team. This means that the balance and meta of the game have changed drastically, putting more emphasis on individual performance, meaning high-skill characters like Hanzo are thriving in the right hands. You can see how all heroes, including this one, stack up in our Overwatch 2 tank tier list, DPS tier list, and support tier list. Where did your favorite land?

Hanzo overview

Hanzo is a sniper damage hero, armed with the Storm Bow, which can take down non-tank heroes in a single headshot. Much like Widowmaker, Hanzo is best utilized sitting in the back line or getting to vantage points where he can shoot enemies from a distance. His Storm Arrows ability lets him shoot five arrows rapidly for less damage, great for dealing with an enemy that gets in your face. His Sonic Arrow can reveal enemy locations and his ultimate ability can destroy enemies in its path.

Hanzo abilities

Storm Bow: Hold to charge then release to fire arrows further.

Storm Arrows: The next 5 arrows fire instantly at reduced damage.

Sonic Arrow: Reveals enemies for a short time upon impact.

Lunge: Double jump.

Steam Deck can now show you the make and model of the component parts in your device.

To access this new feature, you'll have to opt in to client beta services via the Steam Update Channel in settings. You can then access the component lookup view by clicking Settings, then System, then the Model/Serial Numbers button under the Hardware header. In this view, you can see the model and manufacture of the components in your Steam Deck without opening it up. The idea is to provide clarity as to what parts are in your specific Steam Deck as well as providing helpful information for Steam Deck owners who are looking to repair or replace components via iFixit.

The component list shows the parts that made up your specific Steam Deck when it was manufactured. That means if you replaced any parts or upgrading anything, the view will not reflect those changes.

Alongside this announcement on the Steam Deck blog, Valve announced that it has introduced an engineered foam solution to reduce fan noise. This solution is being applied to both models of fans currently used in the Steam Deck. In September, Valve opened Steam Deck repair centers and removed reservations, so you no longer have to wait if you want to order a Steam Deck.

Overwatch 2's first match double XP weekend event kicked off on October 21 at 11 AM PT / 2 PM ET. It's the first of three double XP weekends Blizzard is holding in order to make up for Overwatch 2's rocky launch.

Here's the full schedule of double XP events. They all start at 11 AM PT / 2 PM ET and end at the same time.

• October 21-24
• October 28-31
• November 24-28

Note that players will only get double XP from matches during this event, and not from daily and weekly challenges.

With the new battle pass system in Overwatch 2, earning double XP means players can level their battle passes faster. For new Overwatch 2 players who do not have Kiriko yet, she can be obtained for free by reaching Tier 55 in the battle pass or by purchasing the premium battle pass outright.