November 2022

The next Capcom Cup now has an official start date. With the official Capcom Pro Tour for this year in progress, the closing event of the series is set for early in 2023. The Capcom Cup IX, as it's being called, will happen in the middle of February 2023. The previous Capcom Cup event was cancelled due to COVID-19 concerns, so it's returning after a year-long absence. This is also where Capcom plans to close the official competitive legacy of Street Fighter V.

Capcom uploaded a trailer for the Capcom Cup IX, as well.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2wx_0sDbq3g

The new trailer for the Capcom Cup IX puts special emphasis on the fact that the event will act as an official closer for Street Fighter V. The tournament will be held at the Avalon Hollywood & Bardot in Los Angeles, California.

It'll be divided into several phases, beginning with the Last-Chance Qualifiers on February 12-13, 2023. The Last-Chance Qualifiers (LCQs) are held to fill out the last spot in the 32-person bracket. The LCQs are followed by the Group Stage Elimination round, held from February 14-16, 2023. Then come the Street Fighter League World Championship 2022 competition, on February 17-18, 2023. Finally, the Capcom Cup IX World Finals happen on February 19, 2023, leaving a single winner crowned champion.

Whilst Warzone 2.0 isn't without its fair share of irritants, including wallbackers and aimbotters, even I can't help but laugh at the latest hack currently plaguing Al Mazrah: flying boats.

That's right; some players have discovered how to make boats fly, elevating them high into the air to avoid the battlefield entirely and coast to victory. Here's one in action:

It's also perhaps the one good thing I've seen come from proximity chat so far, too; rather than eliminate their enemies, the hackers are using the chat feature to invite randoms into their ship where they sail across the sky instead of the clear blue waters, like this example below (thanks, PC Gamer):

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A standalone app now permits players to build and import bases into No Man's Sky.

The "Townscaper-esque" app - well, it's more of a PC mod, really - is "simple, focussed, and made purposefully for No Man's Sky" so players can create, edit, and improve their base building with "fun ways to move, snap, and color base parts".

And it comes with the greatest of great endorsements from Hello Games' own Sean Murray (thanks, PC Gamer):

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Several videos purportedly featuring footage from the as yet unreleased Need for Speed Unbound have leaked online.

The footage - uploaded by MrCarrot1890 and Lvneth on YouTube and spotted by the fine folks at Resetera - currently consists of numerous videos that culminate in about an hour of gameplay. It predates not only the 2nd December release date but also the early access period,too, which is supposed to go live on 29th November.

Interestingly, it doesn't look like the YouTube accounts in question took the footage themselves, as two of the videos were recorded from a Twitch livestream broadcast by someone called gerrykurlsucks, and another from a content creator called Chocolove95.

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A prize lottery for the upcoming anime adaptation of NieR Automata will appear in stores in Japan from March 21, 2023. It will cost around 800 JPY (which is around $5.75) per attempt. You can play them at Lawson convenience stores. They will also be available at official Square Enix stores. [Thanks, Famitsu!]

There is a webpage dedicated to the NieR Automata prize lottery on the official Square Enix website. However, there are no pictures yet of the prizes. The list of prizes that you will be able to obtain is:

• A Prize: Art holder
• B Prize: 2B figure
• C Prize: Black box piggy bank
• D Prize: Glass cup
• E Prize: Clear folders
• F Prize: Rubber cellphone strap
• YoRHa Prize: 2B figure (No Mask Version)

More information on the prizes, as well as the pictures, will appear in the near future.

Welcome to the latest edition of the Giant Bomb Community Spotlight! I, @zombiepie, am once again honored to be your host as we look back at the best community-created works from the previous week.

The feel-good Giant Bomb Extra Life team storyline of 2022 continues! Last weekend, khetix hosted their stream and raised $1,139, hightopninja was able to raise $4,280, AND mookie1515 captured $2,600 during their belated Extra Life Stream! If you missed their charity drives, don't forget that you can still donate by clicking any of the links I provided.

For this weekend, oleetku will be streaming and hopes to raise $550, followed by fasajones who is aiming for $1,000, and jake_plays_things who has their sights set at $1,500! Again, click any of the provided links if you have even a small donation to spare.

More details about Far Cry 6's mysterious expansion, Lost Between Worlds, will drop next week.

That's according to Ubisoft's own social media posts, which revealed that on 6pm UK time on 29th November (that's 10am PT), the team will broadcast a "reveal livestream" about the upcoming expansion on its official Twitch channel.

Whilst the developer stopped short of revealing what, exactly, the new content includes, we do get a brief little teaser that includes hints about Fortnite-like crystals and portals. Here, take a peek:

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Today Aniplex released another trailer of the upcoming NieR: Automata Ver1.1a anime, alongside a new piece of artwork.

This one is rather special, as it introduces a fairly obscure character, Lily, a resistance fighter who will be more familiar to fans of the manga and the stage play.

Apparently, she’s going to have a prominent role in the upcoming anime, which is definitely interesting.

She’s voiced by Atsumi Tanezaki, whom you may know as Meteion in Final Fantasy XIV: Endwalker, Elena in Star Ocean: The Divine Force, Iori Fuyusaka in 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim, and many more roles.

Incidentally, if you’re wondering today’s fan festival event included no video game news. That should not surprise anyone, as it was intended as a celebration of the series and not a new-related event.

You can check out both Lily’s trailer below and her artwork at the bottom of the post, following those for 2B and 9S, Commander White, Pascal, and Adam & Eve.

Ever since the introduction of Pokemon Amie in Pokemon X and Y, every mainline Pokemon game allows you to get up close and personal with your Pokemon. Whether it’s grooming them in Sun and Moon or camping with them in Sword and Shield, it was easier than ever to form a legitimate emotional attachment since the games let you treat them like pets. Scarlet and Violet also has a similar mechanic with the picnics. However, washing your Pokemon in Scarlet and Violet ultimately proves to be a hollow experience.

Overwatch 2's next hero is Ramattra, an Omnic shape-shifting tank. We got to see that shape-shifting in action for the first time in a new hero trailer released earlier tonight. If you want a glimpse of his powers in action ahead of his release as part of Overwatch 2's season two on December 6th, check below.

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Martial arts roguelike Sifu takes several cues from famous movie fight scenes. Its next update is going to make it easier for people to recreate their favourite films by adding a Replay Editor, which lets you tweak camera position, focus modes and, yes, fiddle with slow motion.

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The Crucial X6 is a USB solid state drive that I keep recommending, as it offers dependable SATA SSD speeds in a convenient yet rugged form factor. It comes in sizes from 500GB to 4TB, and now that massive biggest size is discounted: just £225, down from a UK RRP of £475 for a cool £250 discount.

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Mainstream 2TB SSDs just barely breached the £100 barrier for Black Friday this year, and now the Integral V Series has firmly pushed beyond it. You can now pick up this 2TB SATA SSD for just £93, making the drive just 4.7p per gigabyte - a very reasonable asking price for a drive that's significantly faster than an old HDD you may still have in your desktop or laptop...

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The Long Dark already offered an expansive survival game, including an open survival mode and many hours of a story campaign. Still, it's getting bigger if you want it to with Tales From The Far Territory, a paid expansion pass that will deliver a year of updates beginning on December 5th. A new trailer shows a little of the new region below.

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Botany Manor has an art style that reminds me of The Witness, but instead of filling its bucolic setting with line-drawing puzzles, it's about growing plants. This sounds vastly preferable to me. Check out the gorgeous trailer below.

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Today Blizzard Entertainment revealed the first look at the gameplay of the next hero that will be added to Overwatch 2.

Ramattra is a tank and he’s also the leader of Null Sector, fighting to protect the Omnics from the threat of humanity.

He was originally created as a machine of war, but then he embraced the path of peace to promote coexistence with humans.

Unfortunately, that didn’t last. Faced with years of intolerance and violence, Ramattra returned to his old ways and decided to defend his people at all costs, even if that meant embracing violence once again.

Ramattra enjoys great support among the remaining Omnics, and he’s ready to do whatever it takes to impose his view of justice upon the world, no matter the cost.

This dual nature is represented by his two forms. The first is the Omnic Form, which fights with a staff-like weapon called Void Accelerator. Its primary fire is a ranged attack, while its secondary mode can place a barrier basically anywhere you want.

The second form is the Nemesis Form, which gains two arms and additional armor. Its primary attack is named “Pummel” and does exactly what it says on the tin, delivering a short-range piercing blow that goes through barriers. In this form, Ramattra can also set his arms in front of him to block at will, reducing incoming damage from the front.

Lastly, we also see his ability Ravenous Vortex that slows, grounds, and damages enemies, and his powerful ultimate, Annihilation.

Ramattra will join the roster of Overwatch 2 at the beginning of Season 2 on Dec. 6, 2022.

You can enjoy the trailer below.

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

We start with Cockspur, which completed the external model of the Hawker 800XP business jet and released the first screenshot of it.

Today Epic Games and Mediatonic released new costumes and goodies in the Fall Guys Store.

For those who love the Street Fighter series, costumes portraying Ryu, Akuma, and Cammy are now available for purchase.

If you want to go the extra mile, there are also Player Select packages for all three characters, including emotes, nameplates, and more.

Of course, even with the costumes, the characters will still retain the typical super-cute Fall Guys look.

The release was accompanied by a cinematic trailer, which you can watch below. Funnily, Street Fighter fans will find a few Easter Eggs, including the iconic Bonus Stage car.

Fall Guys is currently available for basically everything that has a chip inside, PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, Nintendo Switch, iOS, and Android. Season 3 is now in full swing, having brought more costumes from popular IPs including The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim and SpongeBob Squarepants.

Sundays are for taking vitamin D tablets because the sun has decided it can't be bothered to hang about. Before you ingest, let's read this week's best writing about games (and game related things).

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Street Fighter 6 has been rated in South Korea.

As spotted by the eagle-eyed folks at Resetera, the fighting game - which, as yet, does not have a firm release date beyond a very vague "2023" window - has secured a 15 age rating due to its "expression of physical damage shown in illustrations in addition to basic fighting expression".

Whilst this doesn't necessarily mean that a release is just around the corner, it does intimate that it's probably set to drop in the next six months or so… and with The Game Awards just a few days away now, many fans are speculating that we may get that all-important release date then. Watch this space, eh?

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Game of the Week goes out to all of our supporters as part of the Eurogamer Essentials newsletter. There's going to be a slight shake-up of the supporters program in the near future (don't worry - it's all good news) so stay tuned for more details, and thanks as ever for your support - it's much appreciated.

The Gungrave pairing of third-person shooters that came to PS2 in its pomp seem like the epitome of all that; an anime aesthetic brimming with edgy swagger, with a growling no-nonsense attitude to back it all up. I remember playing them back-to-back in a friend's living room one sunny Saturday afternoon in Brighton oh-so-many years ago, the curtains drawn and endless pots of green tea powering us through the action.

This was one of those clued-up, cooler friends that pushed me towards so many awesome things back then; a cult movie and anime obsessive, they introduced me to Cowboy Bebop that same summer, while pointing out the pointed similarities between Gungrave's protagonist - the imaginatively monikered 'Grave' - and Spaghetti western hero Django, with both dragging their own coffins behind them into battle (I was then sent home with a handful of Django VHS tapes so I could continue my education in my own time).

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Gran Turismo creator Kazunori Yamauchi has revealed that Sony is "considering" porting the racing series to PC.

In an interview with GTPlanet (thanks, VGC), Yamauchi was asked if he would "consider" following the recent trends set by Sony first-party titles like God of War, Horizon Zero Dawn, and Death Stranding by taking the latest instalment, Gran Turismo 7, to PC.

"Yes, I do think so," Yamauchi responded when asked if Polyphony Digital could do the same.

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The Callisto Protocol has turned to many things for inspiration, including some of horror's most terrifying movies like Alien and Event Horizon, but here's one that may come as a bit of a surprise: SpongeBob SquarePants.

No, I'm not talking about the (also horrifying) Rock Bottom episode where SpongeBob gets stuck in Glove World; it turns out that the way animated characters move have inspired the character director of The Callisto Protocol, too.

“Some creatures came from the art perspective, though, like, 'Hey, let's just do something that is very crazy looking'. And then we put that in the game and find a way of making it work," character director Glauco Longhi told GLHF, via The Sun.

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As our friends across the water settled down after their Thanksgiving celebrations, gaming seems to have been at the forefront of their minds because - would you believe it - Steam's broken its own concurrent record. Yes. Again.

Whilst the number includes players who are idle - that is, signed in but not actively playing anything - Steam's own analytics show that a new peak of 31,349,780 concurrent players was set over the weekend.

As is often the case, third-party tracker SteamDB boasts a slightly different number - a higher figure of 31,379,760 concurrent players - 9.3 of whom were actively online and gaming at the time the record was set.

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Pokemon Scarlet and Violet is an entry with a ton of new characters, due to multiple storylines, but one man stands out: Larry. He’s a person people first encounter at the Medali gym. However, while he isn’t as immediately flashy or memorable at a glance, the character development surrounding him is extraordinary. There’s so much personality there, even with as few interactions as a person gets, and it makes him one of the best characters in the game.

Editor’s Note: There will be spoilers for Pokemon Scarlet and Violet’s normal type Medali gym leader Larry below.

Firaxis' Marvel's Midnight Suns contains "something like 65,000 lines of voice dialogue".

In a "special message from Firaxis" posted to YouTube, the team outlined their favourite aspects of the upcoming tactical role playing game, and it included confirmation that there'll be a lot of cut-scenes and conversations as you foster relationships with your teammates.

"I think we ended up with something like 65,000 lines of voiced dialogue, over two hours of cinematics, and, gosh, more branching choices than you could imagine," lead engineer Will Miller said in the interview (thanks, PC Gamer).

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Big Bad Toy Store opened pre-orders for a new Ada Wong action figure based on her appearance in Resident Evil 2 Remake. Created by figure makers Nauts and Damtoys, the figure costs nearly $360 USD to reserve. It is posable, includes premium accessories, and is quite large at 1/6 scale. [Thanks, Wario64!]

The Nauts and Damtoys Ada Wong figure stands about 11.81 inches tall (about 30cm), and is designed at 1/6th scale. Part of the companies' Collectible Figure series, the figure blends the appeal of a static pose statuette with the versatility of a fully articulated action figure. The Ada Wong figure is constructed with over 30 moveable joints to allow for a wide range of poses. However, unlike less premium action figure lines, the joints are "seamless" and hidden from view. This makes the figure look more lifelike and avoid the "doll joints" issue of most action figures.

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While Valve have now released their own dock for the Steam Deck, the third-party alternatives which beat them to market are still worth considering. Chief among them is Jsaux's line of Steam Deck compatible docks. If you decide you want something with a lower price than Valve's official hardware, then you can currently find the JSAUX 6-in-1 Steam Deck dock for just $38/£40 as part of this weekend's Black Friday deals.

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Sonic Frontiers' 1.10 update is about to be deployed, seemingly starting with PlayStation consoles.

The update primarily hopes to address bugs and issues with the game, as well as provide some additional - if unspecified - quality-of-life improvements for players.

Whilst the game's English-language social media channels have yet to publicise the patch, the blue blur's Japanese counterpart has, revealing that the update is now ready for PS4 and PS5 now and will be available for other platforms "in the near future".

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There are certain games you look at and go, “Sure, that’d be a great fit on the Nintendo Switch.” When, when they are there, it might not be immediately ideal. Like yes, the nature and spirit of Wobbledogs makes a Switch port seem like it’d be fantastic. In many ways, it is! It definitely fits the tone of the console-slash-handheld. But at the same time, the remnants of the PC version’s launch scheme can sometimes make it less than ideal.

To get an idea of why an issue comes up, it’s best to understand what Wobbledogs is. Remember the old Petz games on PCs? The ones that would even allow breeding. You’d see different traits from the parents carry on to future generations. Wobbledogs is a sillier version of that. You raise dogs, feeding them food-like substances, encouraging them to pupate to reach their mature states, and then fertilizing dog eggs to pass on the traits you think are cool to develop new “dogs.” As you accomplish goals, you can eventually increase the decorations in their enclosure. You also unlock new flora effects from feeding dogs different substances and encouraging different sorts of traits. So a dog can start out with a pink body and purple head and legs, but eventually feature a tail, different color schemes, and shorter legs. Or, you know, if you play long enough number of legs, eyes, and sort of wings. (Yes, essentially a Wobbledog dog can become a being not unlike a biblical angel.)

It’s very silly.

Today, during the finals of the Nations Cup of the GT World Series 2022, Sony Interactive Entertainment unveiled the Ferrari Vision Gran Turismo for Gran Turismo 7.

The car was teased a few days ago, and today we get to see it in all its beauty. It was built in collaboration between Ferrari engineers and Polyphony Digital itself.

This is what the definition “Vision Gran Turismo” means, as they’re concept cars designed alongside real-world manufacturers and brands, but specifically for the game and not for real-life production, even if they’re made to be realistic.

While the car shares the engine architecture that powers the Ferrari 499P, it has been pushed to the extreme by delivering 1,030 CV (1,015.8 BHP) at 9,000 rpm, with an additional 240 kW (321.5 BHP) squeezed via three electric motors.

Incidentally, the 2022 Nations Cup World Champion is Coque Lopez from Spain, following a dramatic race that ended with the judges being called to decide on a controversial finale. Angel Inastroza from Chine placed second, while Takuma Miyazono ranked third.

You can watch the new car below in a video released by Sony, while another is available from Ferrari.

Childe, aka Tartaglia, is back again on a rerun banner in Genshin Impact, which might mean someone is looking for artifacts to build him up. While some characters have a lot of different options that work, he’s unique! There’s one specific set that is perfect for him. Yes, it means going through the Dragonspine questline so you can reach the Peak of Vindagnyr Domain to get it. But in the end, Heart of Depth is worth it.

Why is the Heart of Depth Artifact Set Best for Childe in Genshin Impact?

In Genshin Impact, Childe is a DPS-type of character. You want to make sure all of his Artifacts are doing things like increasing his attack, increasing his critical damage and rate, and boosting his Hydro damage. This means you want Heart of Depth.

First, because its base bonus for two items is it grants a 15% bonus to all Hydro damage dealt. If you get four, you get a 30% bonus to attack damage for both normal and standard attacks after using an Elemental Skill. Both of these pair perfectly with Foul Legacy: Raging Tide.

The celebrations for the release of Pokemon Scarlet & Violet are in full swing worldwide, but Japan usually brings this kind of thing to the next level, especially when it’s about brand collaborations.

The collaboration between the Pokemon franchise and the popular Mister Donut chain has been running for a long time (we just got Snowman Pikachu earlier this month), and this time around we get a “Pokemon Purin Doughnut.” In case the name doesn’t ring a bell, “Purin” is the Japanese name of the ultra-cute singing Pokemon Jigglypuff.

It’s a fluffy doughnut filled with whipped cream with chocolate eyes, ears, and mouth.

On top of the doughnut, there is also a promotion featuring two collectible plates. One features Pikachu and Jigglypuff, while the other has Pikachu with the three starter Pokemon of Scarlet & Violet, the grass-based Sprigatito, the fire-based Fuecoco, and the water-based Quaxly. With certain orders, you can get a plate of your choice at no additional cost.

You can check out all the products in the gallery below, keeping in mind that Mister Donut’s donuts look very nice in promotional pictures, but tend to be a tad less perfect when you actually buy them.

That being said, they will be available starting on Dec. 1 and throughout the month of December. If you’re interested in more food collaborations from Japan, you can check out the onigiri from the 7-eleven convenience stores.

The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special is currently streaming on Disney+ and features an absolutely hilarious reference to PlayStation’s beloved character Kratos. The MCU is, of course, known for its connections to Marvel Comics and other related media. However, that doesn’t mean that other pop culture references can’t make their way into the MCU, as is evidenced by the easter egg the special makes towards the God of War himself.

Warning: Slight spoilers for The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special ahead.

In the special, the Guardians of the Galaxy, Drax and Mantis, in particular, try to bring the Christmas spirit to Knowhere, with the two of them going to Hollywood in an effort to find Kevin Bacon’s location. While walking throughout the streets of Hollywood, though, the pair stop to interact with other people who are dressed up in costumes, with the two of them being mistaken for cosplayers.

The Holiday Special then showcases a montage of Drax and Mantis being asked and posing in pictures with pedestrians walking by. The reference to the iconic PlayStation character comes during a montage where one of the pedestrians who takes a picture with the duo calls Drax the “God of War” to her family when walking away.

Given Drax’s build and tattoos, the woman is clearly referencing Kratos when saying this, which means that the PlayStation franchise God of War is indeed a franchise enjoyed by people within the MCU as well as outside of it.

If you want to check out the reference for yourself, make sure to watch The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special, which is currently streaming on Disney+ for all subscribers to enjoy this festive season.

Today Blizzard Entertainment revealed more videos related to the next hero that will be added to Overwatch 2.

We get more details about Ramattra, which is a tank hero and the leader of Null Sector, following yesterday’s gameplay reveal.

The first video focuses on his design, and we learn that it has evolved pretty much since early Omnic concepts in 2017. Interestingly, his art includes a lot of triangular shapes that make him look intimidating and sinister. He also was inspired by shepherds as he is a leader of his people, while his nanite powers were designed to resemble sand.

The second video focuses on his gameplay, including Ramattra’s Omnic Form, equipped with a staff-like weapon called Void Accelerator. Its primary fire is a ranged attack, while its secondary mode can place a barrier basically anywhere you want.

The second form is the Nemesis Form, which gains two arms and additional armor to give Rammattra the typical tank silhouette. Its primary attack is named “Pummel” and does pretty much what it says on the tin, delivering a short-range piercing punch that goes through Ramattra’s barrier. In this form, he can also position his arms in front of himself to block at will, reducing incoming damage from the front.

He’s defined a “tempo” tank as his effectiveness depends on switching between his forms with just the perfect pace.

We also see his ability Ravenous Vortex which slows, grounds, and damages enemies, and his powerful ultimate, Annihilation, which creates pretty much a circle of annihilation around him while automatically switching to Nemesis form.

Ramattra will join the roster of Overwatch 2 at the beginning of Season 2 on Dec. 6, 2022.

Over a month after announcing that she was splitting from her husband following accusations of an abusive relationship, streamer Kaitlyn “Amouranth” Siragusa has taken to Twitter to reveal some news (and statistics) about how things have been going in the weeks since.

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