February 2023

They haven’t vanished forever

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The companies cited a “labor shortage”

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How to take down the three Team Go Rocket leaders this month

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Amnesia and Soma studio Frictional Games has announced that Amnesia: The Bunker, the latest game in the survival horror series, will receive a short delay alongside an official release date for later this year.

The game was revealed last December in a trailer for PC and consoles with a launch window of March 2023. Frictional Games announced today that Amnesia: The Bunker will be delayed by about two months with a new release date of May 16, 2023.

The developers said the delay was due to “a slew of illnesses” over the winter that had affected overall development, and had meant enough for the small studio to push back the game’s release by a few weeks.

Amnesia: The Bunker takes place during World War I following French soldier Henri Clement who has been left behind by his battalion and gets trapped in an abandoned military bunker with some kind of creature stalking him from the shadows.

Not every video game fad can last forever, that’s just the truth of this industry. What is blowing up one day can just as quickly turn, and fans of some huge game (Among Us) will immediately shift to another similar game (Goose Goose Duck) because it offers something new. After years of dominating the gaming industry, it seems that is exactly what is happening to the Battle Royale genre.

The battle royale concept of a last-man-standing deathmatch isn’t anything new, but it hadn’t really translated into video games until the Hunger Games films hit. Popular mods started popping up in Minecraft following the weapon pile in the center formula. A modder who went by the handle PlayerUnknown later created his own mod for the zombie survival game DayZ that incorporated early battle royale aspects by changing the Minecraft model to having loot scattered around the map.

This mod later led to the creation of the full game PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds (PUBG), which exploded like an atomic bomb in the gaming world when it was released in 2017. This success inspired Epic Games to take Fortnite (at that time, only a PvE survival game) and add on a free-to-play battle royale mode that racked up 125 million players in less than a year and eclipsed PUBG entirely due to being free. Other publishers and developers saw this happen and immediately wanted in on the action, starting the Battle Royale boom.

Last month, Frictional Games announced that their hit horror series would return with Amnesia: The Bunker, taking their signature scares back to the first World War. We now know that the game is releasing on May 16th for PC and consoles.

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I'm running out of pictures to use when I write about Jigsaw Puzzle Dreams because I've only completed two puzzles in it. I've been doing the third one for about a year, because it's, I think, six thousand pieces. I say "i think" because it's been long enough that I can't remember if I told the game to generate it as five or six thousand. But it's a lot of thousand.

I really like jigsaws (I am in the middle of doing a real life one that is a big copy of the London Underground map) but, even though I have one of those special mats to do puzzles on so you can fold them away, they're quite inconvenient. At the same time, though, there are very few digi-jigsaws that capture the kind of tactile experience of sifting and sorting through pieces. Jigsaw Puzzle Dreams really does, though.

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Arkane’s co-op, vampire huntin’ shooter is only a couple of months away, but there's some eyebrow-raising news in Redfall land. On top of being a vampire-filled hellscape, Redfall will also require an always-online connection, even when playing the game in single-player without buddies. This comes courtesy of a Bethesda FAQ page that states a “persistent connection is required” for co-op and single-player, and that a Bethesda.net account is also necessary to play the game. Many co-op and multiplayer games have required a persistent connection as of late, but it’s disappointing in Redfall’s case since the game is playable alone.

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Revisiting Minecraft to discuss whether it deserved the GOTY award back in 2010 is a hard task, in the same way that discussing the importance of sliced bread is hard. It’s so significant that, when ranking the significance of other similar things, we all forget it until someone goes “wait wot about Minecraft” and then everyone unleashes a collective “oooo yeahhh”, guaranteeing it the top spot. To echo AliceB’s sentiments upon revisiting Portal, it’s fuckin’ Minecraft.

In fact, I think I could take her Portal revisited intro, replace every instance of “Portal” with “Minecraft”, and call it a day. It’s Minecraft! Of course it was game of the year. It was arguably the game of the decade, an absolute all timer. I won’t spend many words explaining why it is good, because those words would be redundant fodder, like the bloke fighting a soaring dragon by poking the ground under his feet with a sword. I’ll give it a fair go so that Alice can’t say I didn’t try, and swiftly move on to reading all of your (hopefully) lovely comments about why you also like Minecraft. If everyone brings one thing, we can have a show-and-tell.

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As someone who considers Uniqlo an extravagance, the HTC Vive XR Elite might just be the most expensive thing I’ll ever wear. Revealed at CES 2023 and set for launch in March, this is the first Vive VR headset in years with real PC gaming credentials, while borrowing from the more compact design of the mobile VR-minded Vive Flow VR glasses. I recently went to try them out over here in London, with an uneasy thought in my mind: even with a lighter design than the Vive Cosmos series, how could this possibly be worth £1299 / $1099?

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For Hayden and I's Ultimate Audio Bang podcast, we thought we'd do something a little differently this year. Instead of focusing on one theme and yapping on about it for a very long time, we're now splitting the pod into two segments: the first half on the hip and happening, the second on an FPS genre or subgenre that we're unfamiliar with. Our first port of call? theHunter: Call Of The Wild.

In our first sessions with the game, we both concluded that A) deer are incredibly athletic; and B) we're the most impatient people, perhaps ever. More than that, though, we hadn't realised how important it was to fixate on your prey. Not like, track them down. But like, track them down, you know?

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A Bloomberg report from yesterday has revealed new details on the state of the Halo franchise and the turmoil at developer 343 Industries. This news comes after 95 employees lost their jobs, following mass layoffs across Microsoft. The layoffs affected long-time 343 devs, as well as contractors who only had a few days' notice. Halo Infinite has been trying to find its footing after a rocky first year, but this report doesn’t inspire much hope from fans, at least for the series’ short-term future. The report delves into the studio’s switch to a different engine, an upcoming battle royale game, and most importantly, the lack of any single-player content in development.

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Jett: The Far Shore was, like the jagged colossi that roamed its lavender skies, an odd beast. When it emerged on the Epic Game Store in the autumn of 2021, you could see the conflict roiling in its belly - between the linear science fiction short story on the surface, and the freeroaming “Metroid snowboarding game” fighting to get out from underneath it.

“Once the story finished, I hoped an endgame would open up and allow me to play freely in its world,” I wrote in our Jett review. “That I’d have more opportunities to watch great Ghoke, the red sun, rise in real time, and to ponder the Far Shore’s fascinating mysteries at length. Instead, I could only replay previous chapters. If only Jett had embraced a rhythm as organic as its inspired ecosystem.”

When the Jett team read that review, they didn’t disagree. “You put your finger on it more accurately than anybody else, which was, ‘It really feels like this is building up to some sort of systemic-focused, open world endgame,’” says Superbrothers founder Craig Adams. “And internally we were like, ‘Yeah, it is.’” What they knew, and I didn’t, was that The Far Shore was just the first part of a two-campaign story. That journey has now been completed with the launch of Given Time, a bonus 12-hour adventure that coincides with Jett’s long-awaited Steam release.

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I loved Obsidian’s medieval mystery Pentiment when it released last November, and part of my admiration was for its incredible art style. It was like the dev team had nicked a bunch of 16th-century manuscripts, scanned the delicate pages, and then fully animated them to life.

Pentiment was clearly made by a team who had a deep love for the time period, and the same can be said for Inkulinati, a 2D turn-based strategy game that also uses illuminated medieval drawings. But Yaza Games have taken a bit of a different direction with Inkulinati's vibe by adding a whole heap of cheeky humour. You wouldn't think it would suit the stuffy nature of religious manuscripts, but actually those monks were pretty cheeky blokes, and Inkulinati's humour is done in a way that stays completely loyal to the source material, fart jokes and all.

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Freelancer mode is a rare amalgamation of challenge and approachability

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Inside a successful charity stream collaboration

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Making good on its December 2022 statement, Cover taken action against slander and defamation directed at its Hololive VTubers. The Hololive parent company stated that it took measures to handle 146 cases between January and December 2022. It also promised to continue to take action to ensure the safety of its talents.

Per Cover's announcement, the company sent cease and desist notices to offenders, as well as filed requests for disclosure of information. A request for disclosure has already been approved in response to death threats, as it was ruled that the talents' personal rights had been violated.

Disclosure requests have also been filed against online bulletin boards for "particularly malicious postings." Cover noted that three requests had been approved, while three more are pending court proceedings. Three other disclosure requests are pending court proceedings for similar postings on social media sites.

Cover worked with Anycolor, Nijisanji's parent company, to contact and negotiate with aggregator website administrators. Specifically, the two companies reached out to sites that posted content "resulting in defamation or a loss of confidence in our talents/Virtual Livers." A settlement was agreed upon that forbid acts of or aiding rights infringement and defamation against VTubers from both groups.

Aksys is known for certain sorts of titles. It can always be depended upon for otome games, especially on the Switch. It also handles some RPGs, like first-person dungeon-crawlers with turn-based battles. But the third group is the family-friendly fare. Moco Moco Friends or Pretty Princess Party are good examples. Now, it’s continuing that trend with Cuddly Forest Friends, which mashes up something of a pet simulation with a minigame collection. It’s adorable, to be sure, but also doesn’t try too hard to reach people outside of its core audience.

There’s only the vaguest hint of a story surrounding Cuddly Forest Friends. The animals of the forest happen upon a letter with a seed. They plant it. Their happiness will help make it grow, resulting in a joyful surprise. Which means you meet their needs, fulfill their requests, and play games with them to work toward that goal.

Sony announced the PlayStation Plus Games for February 2023. On February 7, 2023, people will get access to four titles, rather than the usual three. This month, subscribers can claim and play Destiny 2: Beyond Light (PS4, PS5), Evil Dead: The Game (PS4, PS5), Mafia: The Definitive Edition (PS4), and OlliOlliWorld (PS4, PS5).

Destiny 2: Beyond Light is an expansion for the shooter. It normally costs $29.99. It launched back in November 2020. The base Destiny 2 game is free.

Evil Dead: The Game is an asymmetric multiplayer game based on the Evil Dead series. It launched back in May 2022. It is normally $39.99.

Mafia: The Definitive Edition is the remake of the 2002 open-world game set in the 1930s. It launched back in September 2020. It is normally $39.99.

OlliOlliWorld is a skateboarding and platformer indie game. It first debuted in February 2022. Someone would normally need to pay $29.99 for it.

As a reminder, this PlayStation Plus update also brought with it some news about the PS5 PlayStation Plus Collection of PS4 games. In May 2023, that promotion will end.

Cyberpunk visual novel Tokyo Necro will get an officially licensed international release. Localization firm JAST USA is producing it, and pre-orders have opened on various PC game storefronts. It is set to release in early 2023. [Thanks, Kars!]

JAST USA also created an English version of the Tokyo Necro opening sequence, which you can check out below.

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

Tokyo Necro was developed by Nitro Plus (aka Nitro Origin), the developers of Saya no Uta and Full Metal Daemon Muramasa and co-developer of Steins;Gate. The game was developed for the studio's 15th anniversary and released in Japan in 2016. The story takes place in a near-future Tokyo that's been turned into a snowy wasteland. The reanimated dead threaten the living amongst the ruins. Those who protect the living are the armed and cybernetically enhanced "Living Dead Stalkers", super-soldiers that execute undead and the necromancers that control them. So'un Nagaoka and Ethica Kibanohara are veteran operators working for the Karasuzumi Living Dead Stalker office. One day they encounter a strange girl named Iria Hogyo, who was for unknown reasons become taret of a mysterious and powerful group of necromancers.

Every month for over a year now, Square Enix has been sharing Final Fantasy VII calendar images for people to use on mobile devices and PCs. Now that a new month kicked off, that triggered the release of another one. However, to commemorate the game’s 25th anniversary, there isn’t just one option. For February 2023, people can choose between FFVII and FFVII Remake calendar images starring Cloud.

First, here is how the classic version of the FFVII February 2023 Cloud calendar looks. It features him in front of the Mako Reactor with the Buster Sword on his back.
[gallery columns="2" size="full" ids="949244,949245" link="file"]

Next, here are the FFVII Remake versions of that features Cloud in that same position.
[gallery columns="2" size="full" ids="949246,949247" link="file"]

Both of the calendars call out February 7th. That is Aerith Gainsborough's birthday.

While these calendar releases tend to only involve the remake, others can come up. For example, the December 2022 one was Crisis Core: FFVII Reunion themed. That one starred Cloud, Zack, and Sephiroth.

How to get yourself a spiffy new outfit

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From romances and road trips to Bollywood epics

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How to beat Team Go Rocket’s boss, Giovanni

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Dumb and Dumber? This is Dark and Darker

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Bringing you the good stuff, month by month

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A report says a secret single-player Titanfall 2 follow-up has been axed, alongside the planned mobile game

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As promised, Capcom revealed a Monster Hunter Rise Sunbreak Title Update 4 release date during the February 1, 2023 showcase. Also, as in the past, people won't need to wait too long for this free content update. It will be available for both the Switch and PC on February 7, 2023.

This update brings with it new monsters and challenges, like Velkhana and Risen Crimson Glow Valstrax. For example, we have a new elder dragon and powered up monster to fight. There are also multiple quality of life adjustments. We know there will be Hunter loadouts. There was also the following announcement about Anomaly Research quest levels to add lower ones.

Hey everyone! Here is some more information regarding Free Title Update 4. We will adjust the quest level conditions of the Anomaly Research requests so that lower quest levels will be drawn more often.

- Suzuki, #Sunbreak Director pic.twitter.com/5hkDDNbZt1

— Monster Hunter (@monsterhunter) January 25, 2023

The trailer for the update also appeared:

Nintendo announced the release of a new Fire Emblem Engage soundtrack single, which includes the opening and ending theme songs from the game. The album will release on March 15, 2023 in Japan, and it costs 2,500 yen (roughly $19.) The single comes in a CD + Blu-ray package, and it includes special content. The Fire Emblem Engage Special Vocal Edition album is available now to pre-order on select Japanese retailers.

https://twitter.com/fireemblemjp/status/1620619590014500864

The Fire Emblem Engage Special Vocal Edition soundtrack comes packaged in a tri-fold case, and it will include a Blu-ray disc with a special edit of both the opening and ending movie from the game. Additionally, the single comes with a collection of 26 clear illustration sheets that include the protagonist Alear and the rest of the Emblem characters.

The album will only include the Japanese versions of the opening and ending themes from the game. The opening theme is titled “Emblem Engage,” and is performed by artist Ryo. Meanwhile, the English version of the opening is performed by vocalist Barry Bach. The ending theme is called “Fiery Bonds” and artist Rainy performs the song. In the English version, Katharine Eames performs the song.

Fire Emblem Engage is immediately available on the Nintendo Switch.

If there’s one thing Riot Games is exceptional at, it’s bringing the hype for Valorant’s major esports events. 2023 marks the inaugural shift to franchising for Valorant’s competitive year, with 30 teams battling for the title of champion.

The first international event is merely two weeks away from kicking off the year, as 32 teams have been invited to São Paulo, Brazil to battle in the rigorous LOCK//IN event. Starting Feb. 8, Riot Games is giving its community the keys to supporting the teams participating, with a new in-game capsule boasting a new melee, spray and player cards.

It’s been a rough start to 2023 for Apex Legends, as Respawn Entertainment and EA’s answer to the battle royale craze has fallen on hard times. Over the course of 24 hours, EA shared that the battle royale underperformed last quarter, and the dynamic duo announced the cancellation of Apex Legends Mobile not even a year after its launch.

The cancellation streak doesn’t end there, however. A recent report by industry veteran Jason Schreier has pointed to EA canning the single-player title set in the same universe as the battle royale and Titanfall, after speaking to three people familiar with the situation. As part of the cancellation, the developers working on that project will work on other projects or, unfortunately, laid off.

Season 20 of Destiny 2 is right around the corner, marking the beginning of the next chapter in Bungie’s powerhouse title: Lightfall. The next expansion will be one of Bungie’s biggest to date, as Guardians will travel to Neomuna and dabble in the Darkness in preparation for the arrival of The Witness and the Shadow Legion.

Speaking of preparation, Season 19 has seen Bungie prepare the player base for what comes next. The past few months have been full of communication regarding the changes to the game’s economy and much more. Bungie isn’t done yet, as the developer shares an insight into what’s changing with much of the weapon tuning focusing on Heavy Weapons in PvE, some Kinetic weapons, and adding subclass verbs to several Exotic Weapons.