March 2023

It’s Wrestlemania week, and one would think that the last sport to get into the spirit would be golf. However, PGA Tour 2K23 defies expectations by announcing that 16-time World Champion and Hollywood star John Cena is joining the roster as a playable golfer.

On April 7, the invisible leader of the Cenation joins the game’s roster of celebrity athletes alongside Michael Jordan and Steph Curry. Given his well-documented freakish strength, Cena excels at hitting long drives and rocks a vaguely familiar red, white, and blue ensemble. Cena is set to compete at Wrestlemania 39 this weekend, challenging Austin Theory for the United States Championship. If he comes up short on Saturday, he can always bounce back and win the Masters instead. Or continue improving his K/D ratio in Fortnite. Cena is nothing if not versatile. 

PGA Tour 2K23 is available now for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC. Xbox players can try the game for free on the weekend of April 6-9, while Steam players can play until April 10.

There's a new Genshin Impact project proposed on the Lego Idea official website, and this one would suggest a set based on Liyue Harbor. This is the city in the Liyue region, which has been a part of the game since launch. It's designed by BrickBob_Studpants and Ruibai. It has 1,530 as of 12pm ET on March 30, 2023. [Thanks, Dr_Sev on Reddit!]

The proposed Genshin Impact Liyue Harbor Lego Ideas set is designed to resemble hallmarks from the city. There’s the dock, a major trade ship, stalls, the wharf tower, and the crane-shaped water statues. As suggested, the set would have 2,467 pieces. The possible custom minifigs would include the playable characters Beidou, Xiangling, Xiao, Xingqiu, and Zhongli.

Here's a closer look at the prototype concepts.
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Bandai Namco added four new Tales of soundtracks to various streaming sites. You’ll be able to listen to the OSTs for Tales of Rebirth, Tales of the Tempest, Tales of Legendia, and Tales of Innocence. Streaming services where you can listen to the tracks, along with the ones of other Tales games, include Apple Music, Spotify, and YouTube Music. [Thanks, Famitsu!]

Motoi Sakuraba was the composer for the Tales of Rebirth and Tales of the Tempest soundtracks. Shinji Tamura helped him with Tales of Rebirth. Sakuraba has had a long history of working on the Tales series, composing for the majority of the mainline titles. He worked on the very first entry, Tales of Phantasia, and was also the composer for the 2021 release Tales of Arise. Outside of Tales, you can hear Sakuraba’s music in Golden Sun, One Piece Odyssey, and Valkyrie Elysium.

The official Square Enix Music Twitter account shared a new Theatrhythm Final Bar Line music playlist designed to match the game’s tracklist. The company announced it will update it to ensure it attempts to keep up to date with songs in the game. The curated list is available on Apple Music, Deezer, Spotify, and YouTube. However, it seems the Spotify one may be region-locked.

The official Pokemon Unite Twitter account announced that Lapras will be the next Pokemon to join the roster. Lapras will become available in the game on April 13, 2023. No other information about its moves or battle type were given, but the official Pokemon Unite Youtube channel usually puts out a video detailing a new Pokemon's moves shortly before they become available in game..

Lapras is an ice and water type from the original Pokemon generation. It also appeared several times in the original anime, where Ash and friends travelled between various islands by riding on its back. In the original Pokemon Red and Blue, it was available as a gift during events in Saffron City. In the more recent Sword and Shield it had a gigantamax form.

New characters have been added to Pokemon Unite at a rapid pace, with the previous addition being the Dragon-type Pokemon Goodra. As a defender type, Goodra specialized in survivability with moves that heal itself and slow enemies. This year also saw Zacian and Comfey join the list of playable Pokemon, with Dragapult and Urshifu joining in December 2022.

Mask of the Rose, the "marvellous romance with a hint of murder" visual novel from Sunless Sea and Sunless Skies developer Failbetter Games, has been delayed a little longer and is now eyeing up an 8th June release on PC and Switch.

Mask of the Rose, if you're unfamiliar, takes place in 1862, shortly after the city of Fallen London (an alternate-universe version of Victorian London) is stolen by bats and carried to a vast underground cavern system deep beneath the Earth's surface.

Here, in Mask of the Rose, players will need to pop on their investigatory hats as they attempt to solve the mystery of Fallen London's first post-plunge murder and clear their housemate Archie's name - a task that'll see them exploring "cosy, mysterious and magnificent" locations, donning outfits, doing odd jobs to earn money and resources, and replaying the mystery to uncover "deeper and deeper" secrets.

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Warzone 2.0 hasn’t been a universal hit with fans of Call of Duty. Various gameplay and UI changes and frustrations over a slow and sometimes confusing battle pass structure have pushed many players, including pros and popular streamers, off the game, with many migrating to other games or to Warzone: Caldera, where…

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In preparation for the release of as the new Guilty Gear Strive Bedman? DLC character, Arc System Works published a new Starter Guide video. This first look at the character’s moveset showcases a whole new play style compared to its previous iteration. Bedman? and a new battle stage are set to release on April 6, 2023.

Check out the Guilty Gear Strive Bedman? Starter Guide video below.

https://youtu.be/d4PXpsqQrSA

As you can see in the video, Bedman?’s main highlight is the “error 6E” state which activates after some special moves. This feature allows for an additional attack after a certain amount of time and changes according to the move which activated it. Overall, the movelist is focused on putting pressure on the opponent by connecting combos with each of “error 6E” follow-up attacks.

Bedman first appeared on Guilty Gear Xrd -Sign- as a main antagonist. However, this new iteration is composed of the original Bedman’s sister, Delilah, and his apparently possessed bedframe as a single character. Furthermore, to signify this bizarre turn of events the “?” was added to the name and the moveset completely changed for a more mechanically-malfunctioning approach.

A Neon Genesis Evangelion escape room heavily featuring Kaworu Nagisa will appear in Japan from April 28, 2023. You’ll be able to experience it at the Tokyo Mystery Circus theme park, and it’ll use the actual city of Shinjuku as the “room” in which you solve puzzles in. The title of the Evangelion escape room will be “The Mysterious Spy and Legendary Host.” [Thanks, Famitsu!]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BEiRM40F-vk&t=1s

This escape room event is part of the Evangelion Kabukicho Impact that Tokyu Kabukicho Tower is hosting. You’ll take on the role of a newbie detective at Seven Detective Agency. At Ryoji’s request, you’ll be searching for a mysterious box that’s being transported through illegal means. Kaworu will not be a detective but rather, a legendary host, who you will run into as part of your investigation.

Nippon Ichi Software revealed information about the characters and systems in Xicatrice. Xicatrice will be an RPG in which you play as a teacher who lives a normal school life. However, during emergencies you will become the leader of a special group of students who will undergo dangerous missions. [Thanks, 4Gamer!]

As a teacher, you will have to take care of your students’ physical conditions, as well as teach them their lessons. In these lessons, you’ll be able to help them develop skills to use in battle. The battle system will be a turn-based one in which you pick from your students’ suggestions. Only the student you chose will move that turn, but there are some passive skills that allow non-chosen students to attack.

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There will also be a skill build element. Each skill is part of a major and learning a skill requires your students to meet certain conditions. For example, in order to learn Resurrection, you’ll need to be part of the Healing Arts major, have 44 Concentration, and 53 Logic. Though you can give your students any skills you want from the 300 in the game, they have their own strengths and weaknesses.

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Square Enix’s Paranormasight was a fairly obscure title prior to its release. But its unique story and aesthetic have been quite well-received among its fans. We had the opportunity to interview Takaya Ishiyama, who was the writer and director for Paranormasight. He’s also worked on Final Fantasy XII: Revenant Wing, Blood of Bahamut, and Schoolgirl Strikers in the past.

Stephanie Liu: When did Paranormasight development start, and did you experience any issues due to the pandemic?

Takaya Ishiyama: I can't provide the details of the development period, but at that time, Square Enix had already adopted a work from home system, so development went smoothly with no particular impact from the pandemic. Working from home is truly wonderful.

When structuring the story with its multiple endings and controllable characters, what difficulties did you run into?

Ishiyama: We had an ending for the story, but the most difficult part was rearranging the story like a puzzle, trying to figure out the order in which the events and information should unfold for all the characters' issues to be resolved, while providing a different experience depending on how the player chooses between multiple chapters, and bringing the story to a conclusion!

Not many video game series reach the 40-year mark, but that's the anniversary Nobunaga's Ambition celebrates this year. The historical grand strategy series is celebrating with the announcement of a new western release, Nobunaga's Ambition: Awakening, which will launch this July. You'll find the first trailer below.

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"This was a difficult decision because of all the effort we and our partners put toward making this event happen, but we had to do what's right for the industry and what's right for E3," said Kyle Marsden-Kish, Reedpop's Global VP of Gaming.

"We appreciate and understand that interested companies wouldn't have playable demos ready and that resourcing challenges made being at E3 this summer an obstacle they couldn't overcome. For those who did commit to E3 2023, we're sorry we can't put on the showcase you deserve and that you've come to expect from ReedPop's event experiences."

A press release containing the statement concludes by noting ReedPop and the ESA will continue to work together on future E3 events.

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Pokémon Go maker Niantic has announced a set of changes to Remote Raid gameplay, in a bid to rebalance a lockdown-era feature it says has grown to overly dominate the app's economy and game balance.

Beginning next Thursday, 6th April, players will be limited to a cap of five Remote Raids per day (though this cap may change and increase for certain events). The cost of Remote Raid passes will also increase from 100 to 195 coins, or from 300 to 525 for a pack of three (though with a possibility to receive one free as part of the game's weekly rewards). To counteract some of this, a discounted three-pack of in-person raid passes will be added to the game's shop, while the endgame XL Candy resource will be made more abundant from in-person raids.

These are changes designed to nudge players away from Remote Raids, and seem likely to spark a strong reaction from some of Pokémon Go's many fans - in particular, those who previously campaigned against the disappearance of the app's many lockdown-era bonuses which made the game easier to play. Again, these changes seem to place the reality of how some fans want to play Pokémon Go in opposition to the vision set out by its creator Niantic. So, why was Niantic so sure these changes were necessary? And if this is the stick, where exactly is the carrot?

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Shadows of Doubt, the wildly ambitious and long-in-development procedural detective noir from developer Cole Jefferies, is launching into Steam early access on 24th April.

Shadows of Doubt, which Jefferies first started discussing all the way back in April 2018, is a first-person, open-world detective sim - complete with the prerequisite snooping and stealth - set in a procedurally-generated noirish sci-fi city.

That procedural generation, which also incorporates elements of hand-crafted design, governs everything from the city's streets and fully explorable buildings to the citizens milling around the world as determined by their personal schedules.

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Update 06/22/2023 4:20 p.m. ET: As spotted by ResetEra, on Wednesday, June 21, 2023, the Los Angeles City Tourism Board of Commissioners held its regularly scheduled meeting and announced updates on tourism-related business and the like. Not usually the kind of thing that gets reported on Kotaku, sure. But in the…

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I look out the train. A bright red cap stares back at me. I step out of the train. A bus departs the curb, plumbers splashed across its metal body. I open my laptop. Seth Rogen isn’t singing the Donkey Kong rap, because that would be unbecoming, but he’s still feeding the beast.

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The blockbuster industries of pop music and gaming have been collaborating for almost as long as games have existed—at least since 1983, when Journey got their very own Midway arcade cabinet. Those kinds of branded crossovers have only grown with time, especially in online games like Fortnite, which has transformed…

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Suddenly, my boat crashes. When I wake up, wet on a wooden dock in a town I don’t know, the lighthouse above doesn’t look like it’s pointing toward salvation. But I’m playing the disquieting new fishing sim Dredge, and I eventually learn that feeling out of my depth—subject to the changing waters’ depths—is the point.

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E3 2023 has been canceled, IGN reports. The news comes after major publishers pulled out of the event in recent weeks.

IGN reported on Tuesday that major publishers had either declined to attend or had little to no idea if the event would even take place due to an alleged lack of communication with organizer ReedPop and the ESA. Today, IGN received an email sent within the ESA explaining that the show "simply did not garner the sustained interest necessary to execute it in a way that would showcase the size, strength, and impact of our industry."

The official E3 Twitter account has now publicly confirmed the cancellation in a brief statement posted below. 

However, IGN received a press release stating that ReedPop and the ESA will continue to work together on “future E3 events”. Whether that means they will try again next year or come up with something completely new under the E3 branding remains to be seen. 

There are some updates to the different anime series that will be joining Crunchyroll in Spring 2023. Three shows will join the service. However, another one that had been confirmed won't appear. In Another World with My Smartphone 2, Kizuna no Allele, and OPUS.COLORs will be available to stream. However, it seems Cardfight!! Vanguard will+Dress will not be back with season 2.

The Cardfight!! Vanguard will+Dress announcement came up first. On March 27, 2023, Crunchyroll actually confirmed it wouldn't be one of the Spring 2023 anime series to return. It previously noted it would be a returning series earlier in March 2023 alongside other announcements.

As for the newly confirmed shows, here’s when you can expect to see them join Crunchyroll. The second season of In Another World with My Smartphone is the only one with a dub confirmed.

Niantic announced it will alter the Remote Raid options in Pokemon GO through price increases on the passes needed to participate in them and limitations on how many can be performed in a day. Starting on April 6, 2023, people can only take part in five Remote Raids per day. The price of a single Remote Raid Pass will almost double, and the price of the three-pack will also go up. It claimed that this move is to fight the fact that this option came to "dominate the experience of playing Pokémon GO in a way we never intended

Right now, a single Remote Raid Pass in Pokemon GO costs 100 PokeCoins. If you get a three-pack, that is 300. After April 6, 2023, a single pass will be 195 PokeCoins. People will get a slight discount if they purchase a three pack, as it will be 525 instead of 600. They will appear as Research Breakthroughs after that date, however. As a reminder, you can earn up to 50 coins per day for placing Pokemon in Gyms. (You get said coins once they return.)

As for the limitation, it is capped at five times per day for ordinary use. Niantic did say that could "change and increase for special events."

Niantic did note that while the price is going up and they are being limited, they will not be removed. It said in the announcement:

Lotte will start a new campaign focusing on Mother’s Day with Spy x Family from April 4, 2023. As a reminder, Mother’s Day this year will take place on May 14, 2023. There are five different key visuals all focusing on Yor Forger, who is the mother of the Forger family. [Thanks, Denfaminicogamer!]

The slogan of the campaign, which focuses on the Ghana brand of chocolates, is “Moms sometimes want to be spoiled, too.” Ghana’s site for the campaign has several pictures of Yor before introducing its  various chocolates.

You can check out the five different key visuals for the Spy x Family Mother’s Day campaign here:
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Some other phrases in the ads include “Moms can work hard for everyone’s smiles” and “When mom looks happy, everyone looks happy.”

Lotte has also held a poll for mothers in preparation for this campaign, asking them about their true feelings. Over 60% of the participating mothers have replied that they’ve wanted their families to spoil them or treat them kindly. Half of the mothers who do not hear words of gratitude in their daily lives want to hear their family thank them. Lotte held the poll from March 8-9, 2023 and around 284 women took part in it.

The Entertainment Software Association canceled E3 2023, after announcing in September 2022 that the event would return and have a physical presence. IGN heard from two sources that it will not go through as planned this year. Apparently, members received an email notifying them of the ESA's decision on March 30, 2023. The official website does not yet reflect this. However, in the time since, the official Twitter account confirmed it. [Thanks, IGN!]

This comes after multiple companies noted they'd be pulling out of E3 2023 if it hadn't been canceled. In January 2023, Microsoft, Nintendo, and Sony all noted they wouldn't be attending the convention. On March 27, 2023, Ubisoft told VGC that it would not participate. IGN also reported on March 28, 2023 that both Sega and Tencent confirmed they would not be in attendance. This would also remove Atlus from the occasion.

E3 2023 has been cancelled. The Entertainment Software Association announced the news to its members earlier today and confirmed it publicly shortly thereafter. The ESA's email said that the event "simply did not garner the sustained interest necessary to execute it in a way that would showcase the size, strength, and impact of our industry."

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Foxhole finished its early access journey last year as an expansive massively multiplayer World War 2 shooter that looks and functions like an RTS in which every soldier is an individual player. Now developers Siege Camp (formerly Clapfoot) have announced Anvil Empires, which seems similar in every way except its now thousands-strong armies are forging arrows and sieging castles in medieval warfare.

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Each month, subscribers to Amazon's Prime service get a new batch of games to keep. April's collection includes a bumper crop of fifteen games, released in waves every Thursday, including Terraformers, Metal Slug 4, and BJ Blazkowicz sad eyes in Wolfenstein: The New Order.

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CD Projekt has shared little more information on its decision to 're-evaluate' the development of its The Witcher spin-off Project Sirus, saying it's sometimes "better to cut costs early".

Project Sirius was first outlined last October as part of CD Projekt's ambitious studio roadmap, which included a Cyberpunk 2077 sequel, a new IP, the next Witcher trilogy, a remake of the first Witcher game, and Project Sirius, a part-solo, part-multiplayer experience being developed by The Flame and the Flood studio Molasses Flood.

Last week, however, CD Projekt announced its intention to write-off funds allotted to Project Sirius, saying it had re-evaluated the "scope and commercial potential of the original concept" and was now "formulating a new framework" better "aligned with the [company's] strategy".

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E3 is dead. Again. Probably for good this time, given the circumstances. A lot of people have a lot of feelings—a weird thing for regular folks to have, since this was an industry trade show—but one thing we should be remembering through all the tributes and dunks is that E3 didn’t mismanage its way into oblivion. Its…

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As you may have heard, Florida governor Ron DeSantis has been culture-war feuding with one of Florida’s more famous corporate tenants, The Walt Disney Company. Earlier this year, DeSantis directed the state to take over control of the special district where Disney World is located. As such, Republicans appointed a new…

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The Idolmaster: Cinderella Girls shut down on March 30, 2023, but Bandai Namco will help players keep memories of the game alive with merchandise. As thanks for eleven years of support, Bandai Namco decided to create the  The Idolmaster: Cinderella Girls Complete Book. The title is a work in progress.

The book will contain all of the illustrations and text that were in The Idolmaster: Cinderella Girls. It’s basically the whole game in book format, but minus the gameplay. Bandai Namco is still developing it, so it’s unclear how many pages it will have and the price. More information on all of those details, along with the release window, will come out some time in the future via the official Cinderella Girls Twitter account.

The Idolmaster: Cinderella Girls debuted in November 2011 as the first mobile title in the The Idolmaster franchise. At its conclusion, it had over 190 idols and 90 of them had voices. Though not the same game, the rhythm game spin-off of Cinderella Girls, Starlight Stage, is still available on mobile devices in Japan.

Bandai Namco will release a book to commemorate The Idolmaster: Cinderella Girls. It will announce more details on the project some time in the future.

At the beginning of March 2023, Voms Project announced that Amano Pikamee, one of their three original livers, will graduate as a a href="https://www.siliconera.com/best-vtuber-software-for-youtube-and-streaming/">VTuber. But before her graduation, Pikamee will be doing one final livestream on March 31, 2023 at 5am PT/8am ET/3pm CET/10pm JST. After that video airs, all her YouTube channel videos and any previous livestreams will be deleted.

The announcement came from Amano Pikamee’s Twitter account, which will remain available, but no longer active, after her graduation. In addition, the announcement was accompanied by one final piece of artwork depicting Pikamee, drawn by artist hews (@hews__ on Twitter.) You can see the announcement for her final livestream in the tweet below.

https://twitter.com/amanopikamee/status/1641453585732096002

The announcement also included a link to her livestream, which will start at 5am PT/8am ET/3pm CET/10pm JST. You can check out Pikamee’s stream once she goes live here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UOW_SkyA9A8

On March 30, 2023, she also held another stream. That was an almost two-hour long VR Chat.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rzhGZJ7uR0s&ab_channel=%E5%A4%A9%E9%87%8E%E3%83%94%E3%82%AB%E3%83%9F%E3%82%A3.Pikamee

Truff, a company specializing in hot sauce, mayonnaise, oil, and salt featuring truffles, announced a collection of The Super Mario Bros Movie hot sauces. The set consists of three items, each one’s label inspired by a character from the games and movie. It will cost $69.99 when it launches on April 5, 2023.

While this Truff The Super Mario Bros Movie Collectible Pack is a limited set, it will feature existing hot sauces from the company with new designs. People will get six ounce bottles of its Original Hot Sauce, Hotter Hot Sauce, and White Hot Sauce. Mario is on the Hotter Hot Sauce bottle. Peach is on the one for the White Hot Sauce. Toad is on the remaining one. All three are packed in a special box.

The Truff Original Hot Sauce and White Hot Sauce both come in at 2,500-3,000 on the Scoville Scale. The Hotter Hot Sauce is a 5,000-7,000 SHU one. All three feature red chili peppers and agave nectar. The Original Hot Sauce and Hotter Hot Sauce both include black truffles, while the White Hot Sauce uses white truffle instead. The Hotter Hot Sauce is more intense due to it also including red habanero powder.

The Twitter account for Sword Art Online: Last Recollection shared some new art of how Lisbeth and Silica will appear in the game. The two of them have logged into Super Accounts, which granted them access to goddess powers. Reki Kawahara (Accel World) came up with the concepts and abec (Sword Art Online) drew them. There's also a new Sword Art Online: Last Recollection story trailer.

Lisbeth, or Fire God Ignia, can freely create flames from any object or space she chooses. Her divine weapon is the hammer Ardent Heart, but normally she uses a single-handed staff. As for Silica, she’s logged into the account of Wind God Aeria. She can control the weather, as well as directly attack her enemies with wind. Her uses a dagger, as well as the short sword Fierce Scourge.

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You can also check out the story trailer for Sword Art Online: Last Recollection here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vWjQLz_vzd0

The trailer shows both the story and the gameplay. You can see the moves that Kirito and his friends can pull off either by themselves or through cooperating with each other. The game adapts the War of Underworld arc from the Sword Art Online game, though there will be original characters and events to the game.

Sword Art Online: Last Recollection will come out on October 6, 2023 for the PS4, PS5, Xbox Series X, Xbox One, and Windows PC via Steam.