November 2022

A tiny bridge makes so much sense as a late-game Vampire Survivors challenge stage. The game's arguably at its most captivating when the hordes start clogging up your death machinery, squeezing you into tighter and tighter corridors as you pray for a power-up or multi-item chest. It's pleasantly squirmy, but will the bridge added in yesterday's appropriately titled "The Tiny One" update be too squirmy?

The update also added a couple new achievements, and an item that lets you banish a weapon or power-up of your choosing across all of your runs. Come see.

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Sometimes, my friends, the Internet pulls something out of the ether that truly stumps even the most knowledgeable and informed among us. Case in point: today’s rumblings that Grasshopper Manufacture, the devs behind the No More Heroes series, are working on a AAA game in the Aliens universe. This caught Grasshopper Manufacture's founder and CEO Goichi Suda, aka Suda51, so much by surprise that he wordlessly tweeted his utter bemusement at the rumour. I’m taking that as a no for the Alien game, then.

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I’ve been recommending the WD Blue SN570 to anyone who’ll listen for over a year, and now it’s not just one of the best gaming SSDs you can buy, but the star of several of the best Black Friday SSD deals. Multiple capacities of this cheap but deceptively speedy solid state drive are on sale today, with savings of up to 44%.

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For those who have ever wanted to dive into the world of Zemuria, you can. NISA announced The Legend of Heroes: Trails into Reverie will feature VR support for two scenarios. This will only be available for the PC version of the game. PlayStation players will not be able to play the game in VR. This is due to logistical difficulties in implementing it.

You will be able to play the “Beachside Vay-Cay” scenario and the “SSS Summer Splash” DLC with or without VR. These are both beach events. This means that the characters will be walking around in their swimsuits.

The Beachside Vay-Cay will be available as part of the game. However, players will have to buy the SSS Summer Splash scenario as a separate DLC. Beachside Vay-Cay will feature minigames that you can play with your party members. The SSS Summer Splash DLC is the same (complete with the same minigames). However, you will only get to interact with SSS characters.

The Legend of Heroes: Trails into Reverie will be the latest localized entry in the long-running The Legend of Heroes saga. It will conclude both the Crossbell and Erebonia stories, as well as feature characters from both series. The game originally came out in Japan in 2020.

Yes, we’re still doing this. Once again, we have another gift guide for people taking advantage of Black Friday and Cyber Monday 2022 sales ahead of the holiday season, and this one is for the PS4 and PS5. We have some game suggestions, as well as a few novelties you could consider.

First, the bundle this year is the PS5 God of War: Ragnarok bundle. A number of stores pledged to have them in stock. Best Buy, GameStop, Target, and Walmart are among them. That will be at least $559 for a standard one and $459 for a digital version.

As a reminder to everyone interested in Animal Crossing: New Horizons, there's a Black Friday sale on it in the real-world and in it at the Nook's Cranny store in-game. People looking to buy it can get it for 50% off at certain retailers. Meanwhile, the Nooklings discounted their merchandise in-game until November 30, 2022.

With the Nooklings' Black Friday sale, it is referred to as Nook Friday in Animal Crossing: New Horizons. When you visit the store, everything will be 30% off. This starts every year in-game the day after Thanksgiving. (That's also a yearly special event involving the NPC Franklin.)

​God of War Ragnarök is a world full of scowling gods and monsters butting heads as they each work toward their best interests. The nine realms are dark and dangerous, but through all of that shines a beam of unexpected light, and I am not talking about Brok, the dwarf who seems incapable of finishing a sentence without including some kind of vulgarity before meeting the period at the end. I am talking about Ratatoskr, the eyepatch-wearing squirrel who watches over Yggdrasil, the world tree that holds the realms in place.

Ratatoskr technically appeared in God of War (2018), but he was less of a character and more of an ability. Atreus could summon the translucent blue squirrel to bring health items and sometimes hacksilver. In God of War Ragnarök, Ratatoskr is a physical, non-translucent character with dialogue, requests, and an introductory cutscene. He is also, arguably, the most unexpected character in the game.

Vampire Survivors, 2022's break-out game—nay—genre, released its complete 1.0 edition just over a month ago, near the end of October. But if you were worried that meant developer poncle was done, put your worry back in its worry-case, close the lid, clip the clasps, and update your edition to the freshly released 1.10…

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Today 2K Games and Firaxis Games released a brand new trailer dedicated to the tactical RPG Marvel’s Midnight Suns.

The video focuses on combat, showing the many ways you have to wreak havoc and destruction on the enemies of the Midnight Suns.

Specifically, we get to see the unique card-based system and the many overlapping gameplay mechanics. One interesting aspect of Marvel’s Midnight Suns combat is how throwing around enemies makes them interact with the environment and each other, which isn’t something super-common in tactical games.

You can check it out below.

Marvel’s Midnight Suns releases on PS5, Xbox Series X, and PC on Dec. 2. On the other hand, the release date for PS4, Nintendo Switch, and Xbox One versions has been further delayed and will be shared at a later date. 

It’s getting to the time in winter when we reflect on the year, and pick our Bestest Best games that we’ve played over the past twelve months (okay eleven months, but December is always kinda quiet). We recently had this chat in the RPS hive-mind, and going through each month and making note of my favourite releases completely shocked me with how many fantastic mystery games have come out this year. It’s honestly awesome.

I’m a huge fan of mysteries in games, with some of my all-time favouites being Kentucky Route Zero, The Return Of The Obra Dinn, and Disco Elysium. I just like getting wrapped up in a good story that will kick my brain into gear. Strange murders, devious disappearances, and just general strange happenings - I love all of it.

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Half-Life Alyx: Levitation is the most compelling reason to dust off my VR goggles I've seen since Half-Life: Alyx. Out today after two years of development, the ambitious mod promises 3-4 hours of barrel-chucking, window-breaking, train-dodging, combine-blasting fun.

Perhaps the full package will pale in comparison to Valve's polish, but the bit in this trailer where the player scurries down a train while contorting around manhacks looks oh-so appetisingly transportative. I think it's time I dug out my lighthouses.

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Playing Nidhogg is like playing a dozen frantic games of rock-paper-scissors back to back. Like all the best couch co-op games, it's very easy to get to grips with the controls: you have a sword, and you can raise it or lower it across three different heights to try and get around your opponent's guard. There are other things you can do, like ducking, and jumping, and throwing your sword. But so many fights come down to a tense little close-range shuffle where each player stands just out of range of the other's blade, moving their sword higher and lower in a seconds-long game of chicken.

Oh look, now I'm holding rock! Can you switch to paper fast enough? Nope, now I'm holding scissors! Oh, and now it's paper! Now rock again! Now paper! What will you do?... Oh. You can just jump over me and keep running. Fair enough, I suppose.

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A few weeks ago, I got the chance to visit Supermassive HQ for a hands-on with The Devil In Me, the fourth game in — and season one finale of — The Dark Pictures Anthology. While I was there, I also had the chance to interview three of the series leads: Tom Heaton, creative director on both The Devil In Me and Man Of Medan; Will Doyle, creative director across the whole Dark Pictures Anthology and director of last year's entry House Of Ashes; and Dan McDonald, the studio director for the anthology.

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Black Friday generally doesn’t involve as many CPU deals as it does, say, SSD deals or gaming keyboard deals – probably because there just aren’t that many CPUs. Nevertheless, a few choice discounts have emerged for an unlikely group of chips: Intel’s 13th Gen Raptor Lake processors. These only released late in October, so it’s a welcome surprise to them on the Black Friday chopping block so soon.

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Survival games! Oh, the many disparaging remarks I could make if only I had time in between punching rocks and eating an entire deer. It's not often that I recommend one here, and jokes aside, it'd be unfair and untrue to say it's because there aren't enough good ones. It's more that I don't have much room for new ones.

Lilith Odyssey is, if we must, a survival game and a roguelike (oh, the many dispara-[yeah alright, alright. Jesus. - ed.]), but that is reductive. This is a strange and somewhat contradictory game I feel uneasy comparing directly to anything, except possibly the wonderful Taxinaut (which is now on Steam, incidentally). Lilith Odyssey is very much what I'd call a vibes-based game.

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During my journey into the depths of TikTok's dabloon craze, I’ve joined a cult who worship the high priestess Dabloonis, have sailed across the high seas on a pirate ship called The Dabloonian, and accidentally taken part in a dabloon heist that's now made me a wanted fugitive by the dabloon police. It's been a strange couple of hours.

Dabloontok is TikTok’s newest trend, and is probably best described as a chaotic player-generated RPG where users collect an imaginary currency called "dabloons" cashed out by awkwardly photoshopped black cats (usually) in fantasy settings. These cats will either gift you dabloons, steal your dabloons, or tell you what you can do with your dabloons. It's as simple as that, and so far there more than 520 million views on the dabloons hashtag. It’s kinda wild.

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The transformative power of ray tracing has proven itself across many different games but perhaps the most impressive upgrades come from revisiting older, classic PC titles, and a recent mod for the original Quake delivers frankly astonishing results. This is less a mod and more a full-on RT remaster for one of PC's finest games, arriving courtesy of Sultim Tsyrendashiev, the maker of path-traced renditions of Serious Sam and Doom, and who's currently working on RT Half-Life. Tsyrendashiev has taken the Vulkan port of Quake by id Software's Axel Gneiting and delivered something very, very special.

But first up, how do you get your hands on the modified game? Simply download the necessary files from the VKQuake-RT github page and merge them with the version of Quake you own per the instructions on the page. It's all relatively straightforward, but I do recommend making one small change to the instructions. DLSS and FSR2 are supported - and both deliver great results overall, by the way - but the recommended DLSS 2.4.0 should be swapped out for the earlier DLSS 2.2.6. Doing this eliminates blurring issues that kick in with the more recent rendition of Nvidia's machine-learning upscaling technology.

As we take part in this festive time of year, Siliconera staff gets together to reminisce about the new 2022 video game releases we're most thankful for. We're ready to share some of our favorites, and we'd love to know which new games you've appreciated playing so far too.

I Was a Teenage Exocolonist is a game that had been on my radar prior to launch, but I probably would have never actually played it if it wasn't for Siliconera. It's one that has become a personal favourite, between its worldbuilding and its art style. Though some of the writing is a bit too on the nose, it is a fun game with an insane amount of replay value. Posting about it online has also helped me to reconnect with some old mutuals since they were fans of it as well. It's a comfy and idealistic game to play when you just want to have a good time. I'm very excited to see what future patches will bring. — Stephanie

As part of our exclusive Street Fighter 6 cover story, we're showing off high-level developer matches captured by Capcom's Fighting Team. These matches feature some of the company's best players competing in head-to-head battles with Ken, Ryu, Luke, and Jamie. Are you taking notes yet? I am.

If you enjoy this video, be sure to watch the rest of our exclusive Street Fighter 6 videos. Subscribe to the Game Informer YouTube channel if you're new here.

What if spiders had lightsabers is an impeccable premise for a game, and Spiderheck delivers on that premise with aplomb. It's an arena fighting game geared towards couch co-op and couch competition, but there's online play and single-player modes too. Yesterday's "THE TRIALS OF JAZEPS" update added new difficulty levels to wave survival, as well as custom trials you can send to your friends.

It also chucks in some new maps with portals, because the only thing better than a lightsaber-wielding spider is a lightsaber wielding spider suddenly emerging from a portal.

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With the possible exception of Gwent, mini-games inside open world RPGs tend to suck. They're often poor imitations of much deeper and exciting board and card games you can play in the real world, offered as an unwanted break from the monsters I've come to stick a sword through. Will Genshin Impact's upcoming Genius Invokation TCG buck that trend?

Probably not, no, but we'll know for sure when the Version 3.3 update lands on December 7th. There's also a new quest that takes place after the game's main storyline, a couple new playable characters, and a Breakout mini-game. Ah. I do actually quite like Breakout.

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Back when our guide to the best Black Friday gaming mouse deals was but a wee list of early offers, I’d check every few days whether the Logitech G Pro Wireless had a compelling sale going for it. Every time, nada, at least in the UK. Only now, during Black Friday proper, has its price dropped – and damned far too, with Amazon chopping £70 off the RRP to bring our top wireless gaming mouse pick down to just £50.

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Following yet another delay for its exceedingly long-in-the-works Dead Island 2, publisher Deep Silver has announced the zombie shooter sequel will be getting its first proper airing in quite some time on Tuesday, 6th December.

Dead Island 2 was, somewhat unbelievably, initially unveiled all the way back in 2014, promising more of the kind of co-operative zombie shooting action that had made developer Techland's enjoyable 2011 original a bit of a hit.

Since then, though, development has been turbulent, with the sequel missing its initially announcement 2015 release date and losing its original developer - Spec Ops: The Line studio Yager - that same year. Eight months later, British developer Sumo Digital was revealed to have taken over the project, but another studio switch was still to come when Homefront: The Revolution maker Dambuster Studios took the reins in 2019.

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I’ve been excited about developer Flying Wild Hog’s Evil West since its reveal at The Game Awards in 2020. So much about it immediately captured my attention. Despite Red Dead Redemption’s best efforts, I’ve always felt there’s a shortage of wild wests in video games, although some games use a western’s formula to tell a story set elsewhere. Evil West’s premise also feels reminiscent of something you’d see in the PlayStation 2 era: cowboys who protect mere mortals from the secret horrors of the world, such as vampires and other creatures. My mind can’t help but see Darkwatch, a game I played repeatedly as a child, when I see Evil West. 

Even more generally, that era was great for third-person action westerns – Gun, Red Dead Revolver, the aforementioned Darkwatch, and Call of Juarez (although Techland released this during the next generation, its 2006 release year is close enough to the PS2 that it feels at home here). All of this is to say that playing Evil West makes me feel like a child again in the best way.

This week's episode of All Things Nintendo is all about getting into the giving mood. That's right: With this episode of the show landing on Black Friday, Brian invites Game Informer production director Margaret Andrews to give a ton of ideas for crossing off the Nintendo fan on your holiday shopping list.

If you'd like to follow the people from this episode on Twitter, hit the following links: Brian Shea (@brianpshea), Margaret Andrews (@sopheava) 

The All Things Nintendo podcast is a weekly show where we can celebrate, discuss, and break down all the latest games, news, and announcements from the industry's most recognizable name. Each week, Brian is joined by different guests to talk about what's happening in the world of Nintendo. Along the way, they'll share personal stories, uncover hidden gems in the eShop, and even look back on the classics we all grew up with. A new episode hits every Friday!

Be sure to subscribe to All Things Nintendo on your favorite podcast platform. The show is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and Google Podcasts.

Marvel Entertainment released a new trailer for the upcoming free update coming next week to Marvel’s Avengers.

The trailer focuses on the new playable character that will join the Avengers with the update, former Captain America’s sidekick James Buchanan “Bucky” Barnes, also known as The Winter Soldier.

There is a lot to see in the trailer, showcasing how Marvel’s ultimate anti-hero fights. Of course, he mixes up the power of his iconic bionic arm with firearms and knives, so he’s a powerful damage dealer capable to hold his own both in melee and at medium range.

He can punch and kick his way into any fray, or pick off enemies at a distance with his assault rifle. If you need to clear a room, he can even call in air support which will bombard the enemies.

Speaking of the rifle, it has different modes, including a grenade launcher. If you need to go somewhere fast, Bucky can use a grappling hook and wall-run.

We also get to see some of the Winter Soldier’s cosmetic costumes, including his old suit as Captain America’s sidekick, a gulag uniform, a space suit, and many more.

You can check out the trailer below while we wait for the release of the update, which is coming on Nov. 29.

Here's an exciting 'AI can do that now' moment: Meta's latest AI, Cicero, can beat human players at classic negotiation and betrayal game Diplomacy. While playing online at webDiplomacy.net, it's achieved "more than double the average score of human players", ranking "in the top 10 percent of participants who played more than one game". It can figure out who needs persuading to do what, then engage with those players using impressive and effective natural language.

I won't do a 'taking over the world' joke. I won't.

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Today third-party developers shared news about add-ons for Microsoft Flight Simulator, including both aircraft and scenery.

We start with DC Designs, which is working on the decals, rivets, and panel lines of its e F-4 Phantom.

The developer will implement the correct mid-air refueling methods for each version, with the upper-mid-fuselage re-fuelling door for the USAF and the nose-mounted probe for US Navy and Royal Air Force.

The F4E variant won’t have the leading-edge slats included in the later variants, as it was in the real world, and DC Designs is planning to simulate the departure stalls the aircraft was known for.

You can see a few screenshots below.

The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special has plenty of tiny nods and easter eggs hinting at the future of the Guardians team. However, one little throwaway line at the beginning answers a lingering question from several movies ago in the MCU. As it turns out, Thanos didn’t actually kill The Collector (played by Benicio del Toro) in Infinity War when he stormed Knowhere.

This is evident by the fact that, at the very start of the Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special, Nebula says, “ever since buying Knowhere from The Collector, we don’t have time for trivialities like Christmas.” While he is only mentioned by name and doesn’t appear in the special, it is solid proof that he lived and sold the home of his collection to the Ravagers.

Speaking of, it seems that the Ravagers repurposed some of his collection as well. Cosmo, the telekinetic dog, was previously seen in a cage belonging to the Collector in the first Guardians of the Galaxy movie. But now the dog is free and can be seen helping the Guardians with rebuilding while being completely adorable.

This time, the dog also has a voice, so Cosmo will likely be a full-fledged member of the Guardians of the Galaxy going forward. In other fun moments of the Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special, viewers were treated to a very brief and surprising cameo.

The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special is now available to stream for any Disney+ subscriber. If you’re worried about runtime, this MCU entry is under an hour long.

Upcoming anime Revenger was first revealed to be coming from co-producers Nitroplus and Shochiku back in September, but the identity of the series creator was kept a secret. That trend continued until today, with a brand new trailer finally spilling the beans. As it just so happens, the Revenger series comes from Gen Urobuchi, creator of the Psycho-Pass series.

As a bonus, we also know the premiere date that viewers will finally get a chance to enjoy the Revenger anime for themselves.

Revenger will premiere on Jan. 5 through the AT-X network in Japan. Crunchyroll has announced they will handle streaming for the Revenger anime. However, it won’t be a simulcast situation, and streaming will come sometime after the initial Japanese premiere. For those who want more information, Crunchyroll summarizes the plot of Revenger as follows:

A little while back, during one of the UK's many mid-pandemic lockdowns, I turned to the most unremarkable of comforts: watching playthroughs of old Pokémon games on YouTube. These were, however, playthroughs with a twist. Like speedrunning attempts or non-lethal clears of stealth games, they involved more challenging, entirely self-imposed rules. In the world of Pokémon, this particular variety is called a Nuzlocke, a kind of bond-strengthening challenge mode where knocked-out Pokémon are considered 'dead' and must be released or permanently locked away, where you can only catch the first Pokémon you find in each area, where having your whole party be defeated means a complete game over and where, crucially, each precious new addition to your team must be given a nickname. But this was just the beginning.

In addition to Nuzlocke rules, some particularly die-hard Pokémon fans like to use 'hardcore' versions, where you have to stick to certain level caps, like never going above the highest level Pokémon of the next Gym Leader, and where most items are banned, with only those held and triggered in-battle by your own Pokémon allowed. Beyond that: one further stage of excessive challenge. Some fans have created mods for older Pokémon games to increase their difficulty. Most notorious of all is Emerald Kaizo, a total reworking of that legendary 2004 game that turns every short-wearing, barely-out-of-preschool trainer into a competitive-tier opponent. Think top stats, higher levels, tournament-quality movesets and a totally reworked, systematic AI, tuned to maximum efficiency and aggression.

Reader dear, it's almost here, the most wonderful time of the year, the day we've all been waiting for: Cyber Monday. I am planning to once again celebrate cyberpunk, hackers, internauts, and all things cyber by mulling Jolt Cola and singing Front Line Assembly carols around a burning barrel of AOL free trial CDs. Plus I'll have some special Cyber Monday posts for y'all to read with your nearest and dearest. But first, what are you playing this weekend? Here's what we're clicking on!

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It looks like Epic Games will once again be running its festive freebie giveaway over the Christmas period.

Confirmation came via Dealabs leaker billbil-kun who - as well as confirming that Star Wars: Squadrons is currently free to add to your Epic Games Store library from now until next Thursday, 1st December - dropped a hint that the Epic Games Store will once again be running its "Advent Calendar" event.

"Do you know if we'll have an advent calendar again in December? (1 set per day)", asked a curious poster, to which billbil-kun replied: "Yes, somewhere between December 15, 2022 and January 10, 2023," (thanks, VGC).

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Guildford.Games Ltd is a new not-for-profit initiative introduced to "showcase the local industry, form long lasting connections between studios, and bring the concentrated, creative talent within Guildford to the attention of the world".

Guildford - which the organisation describes as the "Hollywood of video games" - is home to over 3000 "highly-skilled programmers" and 60 individual game studios, including EA, Media Molecule, and Supermassive Games.

"After three successful years of holding the G.G Festival and Awards, hosting in person events, airing interviews with developers to an online audience of two million viewers the Guildford.Games committee have elected to make it official," the organisation explained in a statement.

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To celebrate five The Game Awards nominations - including one for best music - Asobo Studio and Focus Entertainment have released a new symphony performance of the music from A Plague Tale: Requiem.

Acknowledging that "part of the success" of the sequel "undeniably goes to the game’s remarkable score", the team held an "exceptional concert for the occasion of the game’s release" which is now available on YouTube.

"A Plague Tale: Requiem, the spectacular, grounded medieval adventure within a violent fantasy world, has been nominated in no less than five categories for The Game Awards 2022, including the coveted Game of the Year award!" the team explains. "We're thrilled by this exciting chance, which confirms the overwhelmingly positive reception of the game.

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EA has rolled out a "critical update" to The Sims 4 on PC and consoles following an increase in Nazi propaganda and anti-Semitic content.

"We are aware of and have seen some select instances of wholly unacceptable content that has been uploaded to The Sims 4 Gallery," EA said in a brief statement included in the game's patch notes.

"Our team has reviewed, and made critical updates to, the profanity filter to help prevent this from happening again in the future," the team explained.

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Gungrave G.O.R.E. just released, and it's a resurrection of sorts for a relatively obscure series that last appeared in a notable way on the PlayStation 2. It preserves much of the gameplay that marked the originals out as a distinctive fusion of shooter and character action game, bringing it forward into the present day with a new, updated look. But it wasn't always that way for developer Iggymob's take on Beyond the Grave's violent adventures. Just ahead of the game's release, Siliconera had a chance to ask General Director Kay Kim about the game, its origins, inspirations, and what they've been doing since 2017, when the game was first announced.

Josh Tolentino: What was the biggest inspiration for you when designing a new look for Grave?

Kay Kim: From the game, the previous Gungrave franchise was the most inspiring source, and from movies, the film Equilibrium was the most inspiring. The Gunkata action by Christian Bale is still amazing to watch.

Jenni Lada: What sorts of challenges did you face when working on Gungrave G.O.R.E?