January 2023

Despite the name, Sailing Era isn't one of the sailing sims that have popped up recently. It's a little hard to describe, but let's see how we get on.

You steer your wee boat around a grounded anime age-of-sail Earth, looking for shipwrecks and treasures, fighting pirates (and possibly being one, although fairly peripherally),exploring, trading, and doing the usual Elite-style open world thing. I'll be honest: I don't exactly love this one, and it's spread a little thin. But I've played it for hours longer than I expected and enjoyed it more as it went on. It's doing a lot, in its own slightly roundabout way.

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Now that the Rockstar-embarrassing, staccato-titled Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy – Definitive Edition is out on Steam, this terrible trio of remasters has bailed out of Rockstar Store exclusivity and rolled into the speeding bumper of easy Steam Deck compatibility. I’ve spent this afternoon ambling around the redone GTA III, GTA: Vice City and GTA: San Andreas, in handheld form, to confirm what you probably already know: they’re all still a bit crap.

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I’m a big fan of frogs in games. If I see a cute little green lad in a game, then I’m absolutely going to play it. This is how I started playing the free prologue demo for Die In The Dungeon, a turn-based roguelike where you place dice on a grid to slice and , er, dice your foes. It’s smart, concise, and I can’t stop playing.

Playing as your little green knight, you are given five dice each round to place on a game board. Each one represents a certain action, the basic ones being attacking and defending, but ramping up to mass healing and boosting the stats of other dice. Energy points dictate how many dice you can place on the board, with each one costing the number on its face. Placement is key, as different combinations can lead to better outcomes like, for example, how you can place an attack die in a space affected by a booster die to up its damage.

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Grand Theft Auto Online’s been around for the best part of a decade, but you can now become a taxi driver at long last. You’ll probably need to do some light robbery to afford to buy a taxi from Warstock Cache & Carry for the most authentic cab driver experience. Still, it’s relatively straightforward to start your latest, and uncharacteristically honest, money making venture. If you don’t have a taxi then you can still start taxi work jobs, and completing 10 in a row unlocks the cheaper trade price to nab a legit taxi. You can even call a cab from your iFruit phone to fast travel, if you don’t fancy driving your own.

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This past weekend, I ended an 18-month-long love affair. I managed to drag the experience out for all it was worth, but in the end, there was nothing to do but let go, and complete the fifth and final game in the Ace Attorney Turnabout Collection. And, oh, my heart, the post-game blues are real!

I was extremely late to the party when it comes to Capcom's long-running series of legal dramedy visual novels, which debuted all the way back in 2001. But I found my way here in the end, largely thanks to the aforementioned collection, which packages prettied-up versions of the original Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney Trilogy and its prequel duology The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles onto modern systems.

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Devs seem to think that Epic Games' whirlwind of pop cultural cross-pollination Fortnite is the game best positioned to deliver the vision of the metaverse to us, the Game Developers Conference have revealed. The results of the GDC’s 11th annual State Of The Industry survey were released this week. The survey checked in with more than 2,300 developers to pick their brains on contentious issues facing gaming, ranging from unionisation and harassment to, erm, blockchain.

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An adorable family of furry mammals traversing a dystopian urban environment; snapshots of joy and intimacy (playful hunts, mutual grooming, snuggling together for a nap) already infused with the melancholy of impending catastrophe; the terrible, life-altering moment when a young cub loses its footing and plunges into unknown depths, separated from the pack. Our fledgling protagonist, alone for the first time, has to fend for itself and find its way among the perilous mega-city ruins.

If you engaged at all with the indie-game sphere in 2022, chances are this introduction rings a bell. Only it’s not a description of last year’s breakaway hit and multi-award winner, BlueTwelve Studio’s Stray, but an older and much more brutal feline saga, Videocult’s grim survival action game Rain World. The thematic overlap of these games, coupled with their contrasting design philosophies, provides an excellent springboard to reassess the latter – one of the most opaque, challenging, and underappreciated titles in recent memory, just in time for the arrival of its first official DLC, Rain World: Downpour.

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Deadpool will break the fourth wall and probably your face on January 26th, when the wise-cracking, chimichanga-loving mercenary arrives as DLC for Marvel’s Midnight Suns. Judging from the new trailer showing him in action that Firaxis have released, they seem to have struck a fine balance between comic book Deadpool and his movie counterpart. You can see Midnight Suns’ take on Wade Wilson in the trailer below.

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Rockstar have brought Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy - Definitive Edition to Steam more than a year after its disastrous launch. GTA Trilogy was originally released as a Rockstar Store exclusive, and packages together GTA III (the first 3D one), GTA: Vice City (the best one), and GTA: San Andreas (the one with CJ in it). The collection’s arrival on Steam replaces the original versions of each game on the storefront, and coincides with a publisher sale that ends February 2nd.

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Endless Dungeon is set within Amplitude's Endless universe, but it's neither a 4X strategy game like Endless Space nor a turn-based tactics game like sorta-predecessor Dungeon Of The Endless. It's instead a co-op action roguelike, which takes the spaceship exploration and wave defense of Of The and makes it real-time, frantic, explosive.

It now has a release date, too: May 18th.

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I already spend a sizeable portion of my gaming time dying in roguelike platformers, and the Steam Deck has only made things worse. Now here comes DIG - Deep In Galaxies, a roguelike platformer that looks like a cross between Noita, Caveblazers and Broforce, with cosmic scale, destructible levels, double jump, a grappling hook and co-op. I'm powerless to resist.

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Blizzard's 14 year relationship with Chinese publisher NetEase will come to an end on January 23rd, at which time World Of Warcraft will go offline for millions of Chinese players. As the date approaches, NetEase have livestreamed staff dismantling a giant WoW axe statue at their offices with hammers, and called Blizzard's actions "brash, unseemly and commercially illogical."

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Riot Games have confirmed that they have laid off 46 staff. The news leaked out earlier today via esports report Jacob Wolf, who said that sources said cuts had been made across recruiting, human resources, support and esports teams. Riot then confirmed the cuts, saying that they had made "implemented strategic shifts within a few teams to sharpen our focus in a number of areas."

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Taito announced a new Final Fantasy XIV merchandise item: a lamp in the shape of a Moogle. It will be available as an arcade prize. The lamp is designed after a familiar, lovey-dovey Moogle from FFXIV, and is coming out ahead of Valentine’s Day to to commemorate the holiday. It will be available in Japan in select Taito arcades starting on January 21, 2023.

https://twitter.com/Taito_Toys/status/1616269751109693441

The particular Moogle this lamp is based on is none other than Kupka Kupp, a unique Moogle with a heart-shaped pon pon that appeared in FFXIV for the first time for Valentione’s Day 2022 event. The part of the figure that lights up is the heart shaped pon pon.

You can see some pictures of the lamp below:
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Similar to its real world equivalent, Valentione’s Day is a yearly event that usually starts around early February and can last until early March. There are no news yet as to when this year’s Valentione’s Day event will start. In the meantime, players can acquire a Deluxe Stuffed Kupka Kupp plush version from the FFXIV Online Store, as a furnishing item for the in-game housing mechanic.

Final Fantasy XIV is immediately available for the PS4, PS5, and PC. The latest Patch 6.3, titled “Gods Revel, Lands Tremble,” released on January 10, 2023, and the patch notes are available for players to read.

Now that you’ve sunk some time into Fire Emblem Engage, you might be wondering what classes are available. There’s a lot to choose from! Some characters get access to classes just for them! Also, you need to worry about proficiencies and if you reached a certain level in a prerequisite class to access some of them! Not to mention Second Seals and Master Seals are needed to switch to an equivalent level class or promote to an advanced one! To help you out when making important decisions for your army, here are lists of the different classes available.

Editor's Note: There are Fire Emblem Engage spoilers below.

What are the Fire Emblem Engage Character-Exclusive Classes?

First, there are some classes that are limited to specific characters. You can’t make ordinary units into these. As such, I’m putting them separately here, to make the distinction. As these are just for these people, you don’t need to worry about proficiency requirements to access them. The second these characters hit level 10, when applicable, they can move on up to their advanced class. Though I also really recommend maxing out at level 20 before “evolving.”

Yesterday was Fire Emblem day! Though really, with how many installments there are in the series, any day could be that day. Still, with Fire Emblem Engage here and more people likely discovering the series, we felt it would be a good time to revisit the best games in the series and recommend some of them to potential players. Hint: They are all pretty great!

Just like the bias I have towards FFX as my first Final Fantasy, I have a very strong bias for the Tellius duology. That's Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance and Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn. The characters were really fun, and even as a stupid child who couldn't read instructions (what in the world was the biorhythm mechanic all about?), I managed to clear it all through sheer grit and plenty of sacrifices. I salute all of the random characters I let die just so that my Nephenee could live. The story was kind of messy but still easy enough to follow, and they were both just a super fun experience. Like, I beat Radiant Dawn four times in the span of a year. Admittedly, I only played half of Path of Radiance because I didn't own a Gamecube, but I liked it just fine. My main gripe was the game forcing me to bring Sothe to the endgame dungeon in Radiant Dawn because he was freaking useless and outclassed by virtually everybody. So thanks, Sothe. — Stephanie

Getting Tiki in Fire Emblem Engage isn’t as easy as acquiring the Three Houses Emblem bracelet DLC. That is because you actually need to fight to acquire her. The Emblem of Rivals Bracelet is easily picked up after purchasing the Expansion Pass by going to Lookout Ridge after completing Chapter 4 and seeing the “something was found at Lookout Ridge” notification when heading to the Somniel. So, here’s a quick walkthrough on how to find Tiki and reach her during her Divine Paralogue.

First, you need to have completed the Paralogue at the Bandit’s Hideout to recruit Anna after the Paralogue: Mysterious Merchant in Fire Emblem Engage to reach the Tiki DLC. Once you do, you’ll see a new path on the map leading to some islands below Firene. When you’re on the world map, just head west from the Bandit Hideout location. You’ll automatically be taken to the Divine Paralogues DLC location for the first time. After being here once, you can fast travel to it from, say, the Somniel by choosing Travel from the menu and selecting “To Divine Paralogues.”

In Persona 4 Golden, Social Links can help you get closer to your friends, as well as power up your Personas. The higher the level is, the more bonus experience you can get when you form Personas of that Arcana. Your party members will benefit from higher Social Link levels too, since they can learn new abilities. But because of the limited time you have in Inaba, you have to plan your schedule wisely lest you end the year without maximizing your bonds.

Because some Social Links will unlock another one, or will no longer be accessible after a certain date, you will need to make sure you adjust the order you do things. It’s honestly easier to try and max out all of the Social Links on a NG+. This is because you will start the game with all of the Social Stats from before. Since weather can affect whether or not a character is available to interact with, you should keep an eye on the weekly forecast when you decide how to spend your time.

As a reminder, you will not be able to access party members’ Social Links on investigation days. You also cannot interact with the majority of them if it is raining. Here are the locations of all of the non-story-related Social Links in Persona 4 Golden:

Yosuke Hanamura (Magician):

As you wander around The Somniel in Fire Emblem Engage, you might get a chance to pick up Horse Manure, a Pretty Pebble, or a Spirit Gem. All three items fall into the "gift" category and appear at the shiny spots around the hub. Meaning when you talk to someone when they're hanging around, you can give it to them to boost their relationship points with Alear. You can't sell any of them, as they don't show up in the Convoy section when you go to a shop. So, should you be giving these items as a gift?

Honestly, yes. Horse Manure is the gag gift in Fire Emblem Engage. It won't build up a bond really. However, when you give it to someone standing around on the Somniel, you'll get to see a joke response to the gift. The only person I've found who response somewhat positively to it is Framme.

The Pretty Pebble is the next item you can give as a Fire Emblem Engage gift early on. It is fairly common and everyone "likes" it. They don't love it, mind you. But nobody will respond negatively to it and it is an easy way to build up a Support rank between characters without fighting.

Cygames used the Granblue Fantasy festival event to announce a big news item, a new fighting game called Granblue Fantasy Versus Rising. It will be a separate game from Granblue Fantasy Versus, which will receive its final update on January 24, 2023. Rising will launch sometime in 2023 on the PS4, PS5, and PC.

Check out the Granblue Fantasy Versus Rising teaser trailer below.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Ln58g217C4

The reveal trailer shows off gameplay from Granblue Fantasy Versus Rising, starting with a fight between Katalina and Gran. Rising is not quite a "full sequel" to the original Granblue Fantasy Versus. Rising will include the current 24-character roster of the original Versus at launch. It will also be able to import Versus save data, meaning players who own the game won't lose their progress switching over. Unlike the original Versus, though, Rising will have rollback netcode implemented by design, as well as support cross-platform play across PS4, PS5, and PC via Steam. According to comments by Creative Director Tetsuya Fukuhara, Cygames and Arc System Works' goals improve Granblue Versus effectively meant that they had to practically rebuild the game. This is why Rising is being treated (and sold) as a separate product.

As promised, Granblue Fantasy Festival event 2023 brought with it a playable demo of Granblue Fantasy Relink, the long-in-development action-RPG adaptation of Granblue Fantasy proper and its characters. Along with the demo came a new extended trailer from developer Cygames. The trailer, which is the first brand-new footage to appear of Relink in almost a year, showed off more of the game's story, gameplay, environments, and confirmed new playable characters. However, the trailer did not specify a release date for the game beyond its current "2023" window. During the stage presentation creative director Tetsuya Fukuhara apologized for not being able to narrow it down further.

Check out the Granblue Fantasy Relink trailer below. The trailer was uploaded in both Japanese and English dub versions.

Here's the Japanese version.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HbbDLmJUf9o

And here's the English version.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JWmQZEBC9oU

The new Granblue Fantasy Relink trailer shows the skyfarer crew of characters like Gran, Lyria, Vyrne, Katalina, Rackam, Eugen, Io, and Rosetta landing in the Zegagrande Skydom, the setting of Relink and a new area created for the game. There they'll find new threats, particularly from the Church of Avia, which claims to be heading for "Utopia". That might be another name for the Island of Stars, Estalucia, the ultimate goal of the crew's journey.

When it comes to playing Monster Hunter, the clothes make the Hunter. Rather than gaining levels or experience points, a Monster Hunter player may measure their progression both by their mastery of the different weapon styles, as well as the creation of new equipment. The stats on those equipment sets matter, but sometimes a Hunter will just want to look as good as they can. Herein comes Monster Hunter Rise layered equipment sets consisting of weapons and armor.

Introduced in Monster Hunter World, Monster Hunter Rise layered equipment is a form of "cosmetic-only" armor that allows you to change the appearance of your worn items and weapons without affecting the stats and attributes. That can be useful if you're going for a certain look, but don't want to sacrifice your optimized gear sets on the altar of fashion. Luckily, it's a fairly simple matter. The system itself is unlocked before you even go on your first hunt.

How to Unlock Monster Hunter Rise Layered Armor and Weapons Equipment Sets

Following the initial tutorial, you'll be able to talk to Senri, the Palico Mailman in Kamura Village. Speaking to him will teach you about add-on content and unlock a special "Layered Equipment Chest." That is accessible through your item box and the "Manage Equipment" submenu. From there, you can access all the layered armor sets you've unlocked so far.

As is common in recent entries, people get skills for their Fire Emblem Engage characters to make them more effective in battle. These abilities could increase their odds of surviving or help them do more damage. To help people out when planning which skills to work toward and bonds to build with Emblem Rings, here are some abilities that can be especially helpful.

Editor’s Note: There are some spoilers for Fire Emblem Engage in the following best and most helpful skills list.

Alacrity++
What does it do? If unit initiates combat with a Spd advantage of 5 or more, unit’s follow-up (if possible) occurs before foe can counterattack.
How do you get it? Complete Lyn’s Paralogue, then reach Bond Lvl 18 and spend 3,000 SP.
Note: Alacrity is available at Bond Lvl 5 for 1,000 SP and Alacrity+ is available at Bond Lvl 13 for 2,000 SP.

Canter
What does it do? Unit can move 2 spaces after certain actions.
How do you get it? Reach Bond Lvl 5 with Sigurd and spend 1,000 SP.
Note: Canter+ is available at 2,000 SP if you complete Sigurd’s Paralogue and reach Bond Lvl 13, and it lets someone move 3 spaces after acting.

Diffuse Healer
What does it do? When unit is healed by a staff, all adjacent allies also recover 50% of the HP that the unit recovered.
How do you get it? Get to level 5 in the Martial Master Advanced Class.

Draconic Hex
What does it do? If unit initiates combat, inflicts -4 to all of foe’s basic stats after combat. (Penalties shrink by 1 each turn.)
How do you get it? Reach Bond Lvl 8 with Corrin and spend 2,000 SP.

HoYoVerse took to Twitter to announce the final Honkai Star Rail closed beta test will be arriving at the station. There’s no exact dates for when it will be held yet. However, we do know when people can sign up. Starting on January 24, 2023, people will be able to register their interest in participating.

Here’s the official announcement, which showed up on the Twitter account for the game.

The Express Crew is happy to announce — the Final Closed Beta recruitment drive will be open on 2023/1/24 10:00 (UTC+8)!#HonkaiStarRail pic.twitter.com/GHfmsHmqAM

— Honkai: Star Rail (@honkaistarrail) January 20, 2023

In addition, there’s new Cognosphere artwork shared on the official account. It shows characters like the male and female versions of the avatar, Dan Heng, March 7th, Welt, Jung Yuan, Pom-Pom, and Himeko.

AnimeJapan 2023 opened up its sixth poll for which manga people would like to see have an anime adaptation. The poll will close on February 3, 2023. In total, you can choose from 92 nominated titles. [Thanks, ryokutya2089!]

You put in your vote via a Google form. The three questions ask you your gender, age, and your location. Afterwards, you get to choose one title from a total of 92. There are some manga series that are considered Hall of Famers, and you cannot vote for them. These are ones that have gotten first place in the past or have been in the top 10 at least three times.

Komi Can’t Communicate is one of these Hall of Fame titles. For those who are unaware, an anime adaptation of Komi Can’t Communicate started in 2021. Some of the manga series you can vote for include Akuyaku Reijou no Naka no Hito, Wind Breaker, and Tokyo Aliens.

You can also state your feelings as to why you want to see an anime adaptation of a particular title. Even after voting, you cannot see the results. Just because something won in the past does not always mean that an anime of it will come out. Like Komi Can’t Communicate, 10 Dance won in the past. However, there is no anime adaptation of it.

The AnimeJapan 2023 manga to anime poll is open until February 3, 2023.

Marvel’s Avengers will stop getting new content after its Update 2.8 patch, which will go live on March 31, 2023. The game will also no longer have official support after September 30, 2023. That does not mean that the game will be unavailable though. You will still be able to play in both single-player and multiplayer modes.

Winter Soldier Hero and Cloning Lab Omega-Level Threat, which appeared in Update 2.7, are the last two pieces of new content. After Update 2.8, you will no longer be able to purchase Credits. Any leftover Credits you have will turn into in-game resources. For example, if you have between 1-999 Credits, you will get 17 DNA keys, 1667 polychorons, and more.

You can check the table here to see how many resources you will get depending on your Credits:

Figure maker Threezero announced a new variant figure based on the Ultraman Suit concept is in development. Called FigZero Ultraman Suit Tiga Power Type, it's based on the Ultraman Suit Tiga, which appears Ultraman Suit Another Universe. [Thanks, Dengeki Hobby!]

Ultraman Suit Tiga Power Type is a variant of Ultraman Suit Tiga, which stars in Ultraman Suit Another Universe. A "photo novel" series published in Hobby Japan mangazine, Ultraman Suit Another Universe is a spin-off of the 2011 Ultraman manga. Another Universe features new and alternative designs for various Ultraman Suit characters, including one based on the classic Ultraman Tiga series. Like its namesake, Ultraman Suit Tiga can change "types", altering its shape, color, and equipment to suit various threats.

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Power Type maximizes the physical power output of the Tiga suit. It sports adopts a red and silver color scheme, and wears heavy gauntlets on its arms for additional striking power.

Ultraman suit Another Universe is based on the 2011 Ultraman manga, which imagines a new generation of "Ultramen" made up of individuals who don suits of powered armor to fight aliens. The manga was adapted into an animated series in 2019 that streamed on Netflix.

A Hug You series of Pokemon dolls will appear in the Pokemon Center from January 28, 2023. These plushes act as an upper back cushion, and their long arms will dangle over your shoulders. This gives off the impressing that you are sitting in your Pokemon’s lap, or that they are hugging you from behind. These are only available in the Japanese Pokemon Center store.

While the Hug You Pokemon dolls will appear in physical locations from January 28, 2023, online shoppers can get them early. They will be in the online shop from January 26, 2023. There are four variations of Pokemon that you can have embracing you. You can choose Deoxys (Defense Form), Zangoose, Bewear, and Zeraora. All of them cost 7150 JPY each, which is around $55.65.

[gallery columns="4" ids="947883,947882,947879,947881,947877,947880,947876,947878" link="file"]

Though the Pokemon Center does not offer international shipping, it does have an Amazon store. So through Amazon, it may be possible for overseas customers to purchase the Hug You Pokemon dolls. None of these Pokemon are ones new to Generation IX (Scarlet and Violet). In fact, the only Pokemon that you can get in Paldea so far is Zangoose.

The Hug You Pokemon dolls will appear online from January 26, 2023. Pokemon Scarlet and Violet, the latest entry in the Pokemon series, is available on the Nintendo Switch.

Crystal Dynamics are ending support for Marvel's Avengers, their live service superhero game. That means it won't receive any further new content, its final balance patch will be released on March 31st, and all other support and the sale of the game will cease on September 30th. Players who already own the game at that point will be able to continue playing in single- and multiplayer, for at least a while.

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Warhammer 40K: Darktide will be launching on Xbox later than expected as Fatshark Games begin work on improving the game’s performance and mechanics, with seasonal content on PC also being delayed.

The announcement was posted to Warhammer 40K: Darktide’s official Twitter account in a repentant statement from Martin Wahlund, Co-Founder of Developer Fatshark Games, explaining that the team is striving to deliver a game that can be “Played for weeks, not hours.” There’s currently no indication as to when the game will launch on Xbox Series X|S or when to expect the first rollout of seasonal content. Wahlund has stated that their focus going forward will be to improve key mechanics and performance issues, saying:

We just couldn’t continue down this path, knowing that we have not addressed many feedback areas in the game today.

Martin Wahlund via Twitter

This marks the first time that Fatshark Games has properly acknowledged the current state of Warhammer 40K: Darktide, as players were previously infuriated with the developer after a lack of communication surrounding the game’s biggest flaws. The areas that are in most dire need of attention appear to be the game’s crafting system, progression loops, and improving overall performance.

After a long road full of anticipation and delays, Forspoken has finally graced players’ screens. However, from the moment the story trailers started coming out, gamers online couldn’t help but notice that something seemed off when it came to the dialogue featured throughout the trailers. One in particular dubbed the “Let Me Get This Straight” trailer, drew widespread attention for how cringy it was and has been lampooned by those across the community in the months since.

All the same, a lot of people were hopeful that it was just poor writing for the trailers and that the actual game would be better. Well, unfortunately, Forspoken’s dialogue is still pretty dreadful.

I do want to make it clear right off the bat, though, that this is a first impression look at the first six hours of playing Forspoken. So, of course, these impressions are not from someone who has played the whole game, but it is worth making it clear that this isn’t a look at all of Forspoken’s dialogue. All of this being said, first impressions mean a lot, and the dialogue found throughout the first six hours of Forspoken certainly makes a negative one.

As most people following the game know, the story follows the character of Frey, a young woman living in New York City who mysteriously gets brought to the fantastical world of Athia and meets a magic Cuff, who becomes her companion for the game. Frey finds that Athia is under the rule of the villainous Tantas, and whether she likes it or not, she needs to take on the tyrants and help the oppressed people while simultaneously looking for a way to get herself home.

They say every family is unhappy in their own way. The problem is when that unhappiness creates a broken unit that will bring a young woman as their surrogate daughter, and menace her into a fake domestic life where she’s supposed to be happy. 

This is the trailer for Daughter, a film where there’s clearly something really wrong going on with these folks.

This thriller-horror film trailer keeps getting weirder and weirder as it goes along, telling the story of these seemingly isolated people who will do anything to get her “daughter” (Vivien Ngô) back so “The family can be whole again”. 

Kidnapping, threats, intimidation, gas masks, an apocalyptic future, a violinist mother, secrets, and more secrets are abundant. This atmospheric film could prove a thrilling, horrifying ride, full of twists and turns that might borrow a thing or two from other films of trapped women like 10 Cloverfield Lane.

Daughter earned nominations at both Frightfest and The Orlando Film Festival, winning awards for Best Picture and Best Actor for Casper Van Dien at the sun-soaked Florida festival. 

The film is written and directed by first-time feature director Corey Deshon and stars Casper Van Dien (Starship Troopers), Elyse Dinh (Passenger List), Vivien Ngô (Queen Sugar), and Ian Alexander (The OA).

Destiny 2 is once again offline due to multiple issues arising in the latest patch. In today’s patch, several changes were supposed to go live, such as Blue engrams no longer dropping after you reach the soft cap, airborne effectiveness changes, and more.

Players immediately noticed issues upon logging in today, though, such as their triumphs needing to be completed and some of their Seals/Titles being removed. One hour later, Destiny 2 was brought offline with no indication of when it would be brought back on.

This adds fuel to the ever-growing concern of whether or not the upcoming Lightfall DLC will launch successfully. If the game breaks after a simple patch, what will happen when an entire DLC, and more, is added next month? We know Bungie has big plans for the DLC, as recently announced with a re-vamp to the Armor Mod system, as well as the announcement of the next raid.

On Jan. 24, 2022, Bethesda Game Studios released an update that brought various bug fixes and improvements to one of its more recent games, Fallout 76. In addition to these general improvements, the update included implementing a system that detects and removes illegal weapon mods and attachments.

According to Bethesda, most players will not notice any changes to their weapons due to this update. This is because some modifications were being used on weapons they were not designed for, which has been corrected. In addition, the update will also impact weapons with mods removed from the game’s loot pool in previous balance adjustments, including Stalker’s Shovel and Explosive Energy Weapons.

This update released “is to ensure that all players have the same advantages as you, whether this is in Events, Daily Op’s, Scorched Earth, and more.” It is also a reminder that all players must adhere to the game’s EULA rules, regulations, and terms of service.

In addition to the illegal weapon mod removal system, the update will improve existing weapons. On top of this, assault rifles will now always be classified as rifles, explosive bullets only apply to bullets, Handy Buzz Blades will have significantly reduced VATS AP consumption, and Radium Rifles will have an increased rate of learning mods when scrapped.

For more on Fallout 76, be sure to check out all of the related articles we’ve got for the game down below.

There’s nothing better than to experience a game for the first time. That’s why a new release has started hot and taken the number one spot on Steam over always at the top Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, PUBG: Battlegrounds, or Grand Theft Auto V. The game? None other than Forspoken.

The action-role, open-world, single-player game tells the story of Frey Holland (Ella Balinska), a young woman who is transported from New York City to the fantasy world of Athia. To survive and get back home, she needs to use magical powers, learn spells, and get into fights that will give her experience points.

The world of the game, Athia, is under the cruel rule of the Tantas, who’ll do anything to kill Freya, and anyone that helps her, like Frey’s sentient bracelet Cuff (Jonathan Cake), the archivist Johedy (Keala Settle), or Auden (Monica Barbaro).

The game includes technologies like ray tracing for enhanced lightning effects and procedural generation for the creation of large-scale locations. The open-world adventure has received “mixed or average” reviews according to Metacritic, which makes it an even bigger surprise that right now is leading the Top-10 Steam list.

It’s worth noting that Forspoken has writers from both video games, cinema, and TV, including Gary Whitta (Rogue One), Amy Hennig (Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception), Allison Rymer (Shadowhunters: The Mortal Instruments), and Todd Stashwick (12 Monkeys)

You can become Frey and try to save Athia on both PS5 and Windows.

The whole MCU Blade production saga has been a bit of a mess since October of 2022. Delays and rewrites have plagued the project during a time when DC, HBO, and Netflix have been going on a cancellation spree. Fortunately, the film has been able to keep Mahershala Ali on as the lead, and thanks to some new scoops from @CanWeGetToast we may know some new details about Blade.

The scooper who recently started the rumor mill about Ghost being cut from Thunderbolts recently posted that despite rewrites, the new Blade film will still take place during the 1920s. This choice makes sense for a character like Blade who can age exceptionally slower than a human who isn’t half-vampire.

Plus, this allows Blade to be brought up to the present day of the MCU even if he was already active over 100 years ago. It also gives Blade the opportunity to lead the Midnight Sons in a potential group film, show, or special down the line with other heroes like Moon Knight, Elsa Bloodstone, Wong, Werewolf by Night, Doctor Strange, and more.

The other major rumor that @CanWeGetToast posted about recently has to do with the possibility of Kit Harrington showing up as Black Knight in Blade. According to the account, he won’t play a major role in the MCU Blade film. At best, Harrington might make an appearance as Black Knight in a cameo, but that’s about it.

If you need some Harrington in your life immediately, there’s always Eternals which is streaming right now on Disney+. Just make sure you don’t have anything planned for the day. It’s a long movie.

In celebration of the Chinese New Year, HoYoverse has collaborated with Yang Naidong, Representative Provincial Inheritor of the National Intangible Cultural Heritage Project, to create expertly crafted New Year woodblock prints of the five mystical Yakshas. These powerful beings were introduced during the Genshin Impact Story Quest for Xiao, who is the group’s only survivor after the others perished in the great Archon War.

Genshin Impact fans will hear the familiar musical composition from the game as they watch the artist’s designing procedure, featuring the melodic Liyue Harbor main theme. During this time, Yang explains the woodblock prints three-step procedure: drafting, carving, and printing.

For those unfamiliar with the five Yakshas’ of Genshin Impact, their origins began in the ancient times when sinister creatures reigned supreme in the Liyue region until Rex Lapis, God of Contracts, developed an ultimate group to destroy the demons. But unfortunately, the violence and darkness they endured corrupted them, and they ultimately turned against each other.

The Life is Strange franchise has introduced many beloved protagonists and side characters throughout its four titles, as well as bonus episodes and spin-offs. While not every character has a major role, some have been known to return further down the line in later games, such as David’s cameo in Life is Strange 2 or Steph’s role as a love interest in Life is Strange: True Colors.

Keeping this in mind, there are several characters who deserve to return with a more major role, and we’ve listed them off. Here’s eight characters that could return to lead the next Life is Strange spin-off game.

Since its inception in 2011, Minecraft has become one of gaming’s biggest successes, as players are thrown into procedurally generated worlds to craft to their hearts’ content and explore away. Nearly twelve years later, Mojang Studios’ sandbox title is showing no signs of slowing down; after last year’s The Wild update, with a future update set to introduce armor trims.

The latest feature is a part of the upcoming Minecraft’s 1.20 update set to hit the Java edition of the title sometime in 2023. As shared in an official tweet from the titular title, armor trims are a new way of adding customization to armor, allowing for some stylish looks while exploring unknown worlds.